I was recently looking over some notes from a talk given by my friend Brian McCollister, a national director with Cru and a guru on how to build a college ministry.
He asserts that, in college ministry, the two most important days of the year are:
- The first day of school
- The first day of fall retreat
The First Day of School
Really, it’s whatever day you do your big push to do as many spiritual interest surveys as possible. So for us, it’s actually the second and third day of school. On that Tuesday and Wednesday we do around 4,000 spiritual interest surveys (in exchange for a a free Chick-fil-A sandwich card). Why Tuesday and Wednesday? Because our first Cru meeting of the year is on Tuesday and all of our freshmen Bible studies (in every dorm) are on Wednesday. All 4,000 students who fill out a survey get a brochure (about Cru), a flier (with first week events on it), and a personal invitation from a student.
The First Day of Fall Retreat
“The second most important day of the year is the first day of our Fall Retreat. Why is it so important? Because it is then that you find out how well you have done in the first six weeks. If there are a lot of enthusiastic freshmen and a lot of tired but eager upperclassmen, then you have done well. You can enjoy the weekend! And you have just greatly increased the number of potential laborers in the Harvest. You have great momentum and can focus great energy on reaching lost students on your campus.”
What do you think? What are your most important days of the year?
And, more importantly, are you investing your resources (time/money/leaders) in a way that reflects their importance?
image courtesy of Dafne Cholet