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FoTRP – Selection part 2

September 15, 2010 in Evangelism, Ministry, Movement Building with 1 Comment

(part 4 of a week long series on “Focus on the Right People” and multiplication)

“What really counts in the ultimate perpetuation of our work is the faithfulness with which our converts go out and make leaders out for their converts, not simply more followers”

Robert Coleman



This week we’re discussing “Focus on the Right People”.  Today, some practical tips I’ve gleaned from one of the best in the business: Roger Hershey.

Many of you know Roger Hershey as one of the greatest spiritual multipliers in Campus Crusade’s history.

A few of his thoughts (that he taught at our Local Leaders conference last fall):

Campus Directors – one of your most important roles is to monitor multiplication

2 key components of monitoring multiplication with your staff – help them learn how to:

  1. Work with the right people (read more about the Right People in this great article by Tim Henderson on CruPressGreen; written to students so it’s a great resource to have student leaders read)
  2. Do the right things with disciples (another great article by Tim Henderson at CruPressGreen on the 3 components of good discipleship)

Movements don’t grow when staff or student leaders work with people who aren’t aligned to our mission and don’t want to multiply.

One very practical way to monitor multiplication with your staff/students:

  • Give each staff a blank multiplication chart (see below to view/download) at the beginning of the year and review it with him/her throughout the year (almost on a weekly basis)
  • Evaluate which disciples are multiplying and which ones are not and ask why they aren’t – what are the barriers and how can you help them?



    • One more resource on this topic: The definitive book on Selection in ministry is The Masterplan of Evangelism – we’ve often read Chapter 1 (that addresses Selection) as a staff team.

    For those who’ve never read it – it’s a look at how Jesus did evangelism.  A must read for anyone in ministry (and it’s short!).

    Download a great study guide on the Masterplan of Evangelism here.  And buy the book for cheap from CruPress.



    Roger’s Blank Multiplication Chart:

    Download (PDF, 41.65KB)




    photo courtesy of Steve took it via flickr

    FoTRP – Is Selection Unloving?

    September 15, 2010 in Evangelism, Ministry, Movement Building with 12 Comments

    (part 3 of a week long series on “Focusing on the Right People” and multiplication)

    “One must decide where he wants his ministry to count – in the momentary applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of his life in a few chosen men who will carry on his work after he has gone.”

    Robert Coleman

    This week we’re discussing “Focusing on the Right People”.  It’s what many refer to as Selection.  Anytime you talk about this (especially with students – as a student I argued with the staff for hours with staff against the idea!), you get the same pushback: Selection is unloving; didn’t Jesus love everyone equally regardless of who they were?

    By no means do I hope to comprehensively cover this.  But just wanted to share a few thoughts (today and tomorrow) that have been helpful for our team as we think thru this.

    My friend Chris Newport directs the Cru movement at the finest university in the world – Texas Tech.

    Here are Newp’s thoughts on thinking thru who we invest in (and even more importantly, helping our staff, students spend time with the right people) :

    1) II Timothy 2:2 – We are exhorted Biblically to invest in those who are “able to teach others”. As an organization, this is central to our calling and mission.

    • What qualifications do you think someone needs to have to be “able to teach” others?
      What are disqualifiers?
    • At the very least this tells me that some are not “able”, which means I have to make difficult decisions

    2) It’s loving to think about the whole

    • Loving everyone means selection
    • What does it mean to love every student?
    • Loving lost people means spending time with multipliers
    • A helpful analogy from Newp’s Summer Project in Yugoslavia:
      • Their goal was to change a country, to reach millions of people.
      • So they only spent significant time with students who met two qualifications – 1) Spoke English 2) from Belgrade (this is where we had a team who could follow-up)
      • They had no one to hand them to for development and discipleship (no established church) except in Belgrade
      • What the country needed was multiplying disciples not isolated Believers
      • It’s loving toward Igor to spend time with him despite his lack of English, but what about the other millions? The loving thing to do is to focus on those who can help reach the multitudes.
    • From Masterplan of Evangelism:
      “…though [Jesus] did what He did to help the multitudes, He had to devote Himself primarily to a few men, rather than the masses, in order that the masses could at last be saved. . . “Everything that is done with the few is for the salvation of the multitudes.”

    3) Key Question: How do I discern if I should continue to spend time with a student who probably will not become a multiplier?

    • Here is my guideline: Does my spending time with this individual cause me to compromise my calling to make multiplying disciples?
    • If my time with Johnny keeps me from reaching the campus, I am not being faithful with my time
    • Recognize I have limited time – I can’t just spend time with Johnny just b/c he shows up

    One adjustment: Ultimately the goal is not to reach the campus, it’s to reach the world. Some people may not multiply their lives in the context of our campus ministry, but have the potential to be very influential once they graduate. I’m mostly thinking about the guy/girl who figures it out late in their college career.

    This is a difficult and challenging  issue. We can’t just write people off b/c they’re not leaders, but filling our schedules with people who are not “able to teach others” is also not an option. I have to trust that by reaching multipliers, I will eventually reach more people, which means all types of people.


    photo courtesy of SigmaEye via Flickr

    Focus on the right people – Do ministry thru others

    September 14, 2010 in Leadership, Ministry, Movement Building with 13 Comments

    (part 2 of a week long series on focusing on the right people and multiplication)

    “The people you spend the majority of your time with can and will determine whether you are an effective or ineffective leader.”

    Dave Kraft – “Leaders who Last”


    I think one of the biggest misconceptions of those going into full time ministry is that they are going to spend most of their time on the front lines.

    This is what I did my first 5 years on staff. Sure I discipled guys, but my main focus was reaching my target area/dorm.   On my own.  5 years of starting over and gaining no ground.

    Ephesians 4:12 is a great summary of our job as full time ministers:
    “To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”

    In college ministry, I think Staff’s #1 job is to empower students to have a ministry.

    • We believe that students sharing with other students will be the key to reaching our campus.
    • So staff are successful not if they have a thriving personal ministry but if they are pouring into students who are in turn pouring into others (Discipleship/Multiplication)
    • So we focus pretty much every week with staff on “who are you meeting with?”:



    Reminds me of #6 on this this mind-blowingly-good list on leadership from the blog whatsbestnext.com:

    THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY INEFFECTIVE LEADERS
     1. They spend too much time managing and not enough time leading.
    2. They spend too much time counseling the hurting people and not enough time developing the people with potential.
    3. They spend too much time putting out fires and not enough time lighting fires.
    4. They spend too much time doing and not enough time planning.
    5. They spend too much time teaching the crowd and not enough time training the core.
    6. They spend too much time doing it themselves and not enough time doing it through others.
    7. They make too many decisions based on organizational politics and too few decisions based on biblical principles.

    From Dave Kraft’s Leaders Who Last

    Kraft adds:
    Notice in particular numbers 2, 5, and 6, which have to do with the kinds of people you spend time with. I say it again: the people you spend the majority of your time with can and will determine whether you are an effective or ineffective leader.
    The fact is that many people in leadership roles gravitate toward hurting, draining, time-=consuming people because they have a need to be needed. They want to help people, to be there for people. If a leader has strong mercy gifts, leading becomes more difficult. Simply put, if you need people, you can’t lead people. There is an inability or lack of desire to make the tough calls, speak the truth, or do the hard things. Motivated by a fear of disappointing people, this inability will seriously hamper and work against your ability to lead.


    Tomorrow: Thoughts on how focusing on the few is not unloving to the many.


    photo courtesy of andorpro via flickr

    Focus on the Right People- Simplify

    September 13, 2010 in Ministry, Movement Building with 4 Comments

    (part 1 of a week long series)

    “A busy schedule is not overwhelming to me but over-complexity is. Simplify stuff as much as possible at staff meeting”

    Brian McCollister (Cru director at Ohio)



    Our ministry is moving into week 4. For us, that means shifting from 100% focus on reaching new freshmen to sorting thru the hundreds/thousands of contacts and deciding who to invest in.

    During this season of college ministry, we’re flooded with students and last week I felt Iike our team hit a wall – they were ready to throw in the towel (I alluded to it in my last post).

    The cause?

    • Not lack of fruit/success – this is the best fall we’ve ever had. God is moving and they’re getting to be a part of it.
    • But lack of focus. Feeling overwhelmed with the sheer number of students to track with in their areas of campus; and not sure how they should be spending their time.

    We break our campus into 3 areas (stole the idea from NC State Cru) and have Student Staff (stole that from Oklahoma Cru) lead those areas (2 per area).
    It’s impossible for the Student Staff who is the Area Director to even know the names of all the students coming to Bible Studies in their area, much less know how to invest in them spiritually.

    So this week we sought to clarify/simplify their job (with a heavy emphasis on the third):

    • Set direction for your area
    • Keep tabs on everything in your area
    • Pour into your leaders (who lead Bible studies in your area) and make sure they are doing the right things with the right people

    You don’t have to reach everyone in your area.  You just need to pour into the 12 students who are leadings studies in your area and make sure they’re investing their time wisely.

    Same goes for our staff.  Success for them this week means starting to meet weekly with the right people.

    More on that tomorrow.

    photo courtesy of PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE via Flickr

    Our Vision

    July 20, 2010 in Movement Building, Sharing with 0 Comments


    Our vision for our college campus (and I’m sure many Crusade ministries use this) is that:

    “Everyone would know someone who passionately follows Jesus”



    That vision pretty much summarizes everything we do.

    Everyone = Scope – every student on campus (meaning we need to think of the campus as a waffle – see previous post)

    Would Know = The gospel travels along the road of relationships (we rarely do “randoms” – almost exclusively for training purposes).

    Someone = Our Means of reaching scope = College students (students reaching students; success for us is not staff having a thriving personal ministry but staff equipping students to do ministry)

    Who passionately follow Jesus = What must be true of our students involved in our ministry – gospel infused/motivated



    But there’s one element missing from that vision. It’s not enough that Joe Freshman meets a passionate follower of Christ.  His likely response, “that’s cool for him, it’s just not for me.”

    The missing element?  Equipping. We have to have a way to effectively (and efficiently) equip our students.

    Our Vision hinges on whether our students are not only passionately pursuing Jesus but can articulate their faith to their non-Christian friends (and, I’d add, be able to mobilize their Christian friends to start doing the same).

    Maybe we need a new, more comprehensive vision?


    What vision statement do you use?
    What do you do to systematically equip your students to multiply their lives (and know how to share their faith)?

    The Gospel Propels us Outward

    July 16, 2010 in Movement Building with 3 Comments

    I used the Gospel-Centered Life Bible study this year with my Senior guys Bible Study and it’s phenomenal.  Almost zero prep.  Incredible heart-probing, Christ centered content.

    I just skimmed thru it again this morning during my QT and came across great material to use with students re: being missional. I plan on using this for our student Leadership Retreat to kick off the year.


    It’s from Ch. 7 – The Gospel Propels us Outward.

    “If the gospel is renewing you internally, it will also be propelling you externally.”

    There’s a Bible passage to work thru (Gal 5:13-15), an article and great discussion questions to think thru at the end like:

    1. Identify a missional opportunity in your life in which you are not motivated to do what you “should” do. Here are some categories to jump-start your thinking: showing hospitality to neighbors; actively praying for and engaging with co-workers; sharing the gospel with a family member; serving someone in poverty; giving generously;
    2. What heart issues hinder you from rightly motivated action in this situation?
    3. Repentance: What sin do you see in yourself that you need to repent of?   Faith: What specific gospel promises or truths are you not really believing?

    Here’s a link where you can purchase it from World Harvest Mission (it’s written by a couple of former Cru staff – Bob Thune and Will Walker).  You download the file from them – it’s $7 for one copy, $40 for the license to print 20 studies.

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