A friend of mine recently asked a few Cru directors what they usually speak on at their first Weekly Meeting.
Love his heart for sharing/stealing resources. Seriously. No reason to reinvent the wheel.
Here are some of their responses (there’s a lot of wisdom):
Tim Norman (Cru National Director – Red River Region):
I typically did something that said, “Jesus is a pretty big deal. Cru is a group of people trying to figure out how He can shape our lives and dreams.” Looks like I generally spoke from Colossians 1, John 1, or Mark 1.
I generally tried to accomplish 3 things in my first few talks.
- Don’t keep people too long. These were the talks that I tried to be closer to 20-22 minutes.
- Let people know a little of “this is what we are about.” Sometimes, I started with the idea that many talk how how to survive as a Christian in college. Well, in this community you could thrive–not just survive.
- Shared the gospel. I was always blown away at how many people come to school contemplating a change. I remember my last fall at Northwestern that 2 of the guys that came to the first AIA meeting met with me a few days later and trusted Christ.
Shawn McGrath (National Director of Leadership Development – Red River Region)
I usually kept that talk as one of my shorter ones (20-25 mins) too, but here are a few things I wanted to make sure to do:
- build trust with them by sharing my own story of struggle and life-change
- show them we value the Word (usually taught from John 4 woman, John 20 Thomas)
- give vision for where we are headed as a movement (evangelism and discipleship, growth)
- share the Gospel
- incorporate life-change stories from student leaders in the crowd- have them share if possible
Chris Newport (University of Texas Cru Director):
One passage I’ve used is John 4 and the woman at the well…talking about the thirst of the soul and how we are always looking at ways to satisfy this thirst, with this woman looking to men to fill that need in her life. Easy to address issues related to coming to college and trying to fit in, and showing how Jesus is what we are really looking for. Click to download it.
This fall I think I’m going to use Genesis 1 and talk about how we are made in God’s image, and that just as He is in community among the trinity, we were made for community. That part of reflecting Him is to be in close community and that we can’t experience the life were created for apart from community. Easy tie in to getting involved in Cru. Click to download it.
My response:
I usually bring in great speakers/pastors for the first few Cru’s. It frees me up to focus on helping our staff/leaders follow up freshmen instead of working on a talk for 12 hours/week.