This is part of a series on Learning from the Top Sending Campuses in Cru.
See the intro for a full list of all the campuses profiled (and links to each).
Quick facts on UC Davis Cru:
- # on staff team — 16 on campus this year
- Avg Cru meeting size = 60-80
- Movement size = 80-100
- How many in Community Groups = 45 freshmen; 100 total in CGs
Sending Stats last year:
- STINT — 9
- Intern — 6
- Staff — 5
In 2014 they have 9 interns
As I mentioned in the previous post:Â Of the top 25 sending campuses in Cru, the average movement size is 362 students! Clearly, most of these top sending movements are very large.
But a few campuses among the Top Sending Campuses in Cru really intrigued me. There are a few Cru movements that send a LOT of laborers from smaller movements.
One of those campuses is UC Davis.
Francis Floth has been on staff for 15 years and has been the MTL (Missional Team Leader) at UC Davis for 2 years.
My main question for Francis was —
What do you think contributes to UC Davis sending such a large percentage (50-60%) of your seniors?
- At UC Davis — it’s in the culture
- UC Davis — you have to be pretty smart/academic to get in. But not so academic like UCLA, that there’s too much pressure (and no time for social)
- Sharp students but they aren’t crazy busy
- Most go to the same church — that’s very missions based and Cru-friendly
- They take their academics very seriously and that carries over to them taking their walk with God seriously — tend to have pretty serious/intentional students
- It’s becoming a little more fun with our freshmen class we got last year
- Most of the freshmen class had a chance to share their faith last year
- I learned how to do it in college, why would I not want to live that out interning/post college
- There’s been a lot of Davis alumni who have come on staff
- Almost high pressure (I should do it — to be a good Cru person)
- Trying to change that to where it’s more of a response than a requirement
- There’s so much emphasis on going overseas (including Summer Missions) — from leadership before us
- We had a really solid freshmen class — some of them are already mentioning interning
- It’s not like they get to their senior year and start thinking “I want to intern”
- A lot of them are thinking about it from freshmen/sophomore year
- Our region does some things really well:
- We have a Crossroads conference (like a SENT conference) every year
- Maybe too much — would be better to do every other year
- Roger Hershey talks about eternal perspective
- It’s challenging without being pressureful
- Sets the tone for sending
- They have a lunch breakout session for those considering interning
- We have a Crossroads conference (like a SENT conference) every year
- Summer Missions are huge wins — Ocean City especially that Bob Fuhs has led
- We sit down and challenge individual seniors 1 on 1
- Those that I see potential in and have a good walk with God
- “I’d love to work with you”
- We want to work with people that we really enjoy
- What I do:
- I’ve seen your ministry these last couple years — seen you grow
- I would love to work with you!
- Do you have any questions?
- That’s it
- Just a 5 minute conversation
- Even if interns have a hard year, it’s not like people are “man, it was a bad year — don’t do it”
- A lot of students, when they rub shoulders with interns, they really like them (they’re close relationally)
- The interns naturally recruit — “you should think about doing this too!”
- Students really look up to staff
- 2 years ago — there was just an MTL and 4 interns. 3 of those were still in school — PTFS(part time field staff)
- all 4 went on STINT to South Africa the next year
- South Africa partnership starts their STINT in January
- When we got here (two years ago) there was a really big junior class — senior class was checking out
- Probably 20-25 seniors loosely involved — 8 of them decided to intern
- 10-15 seniors actually involved
- Q: What creates that culture? Where 50-60% intern?
- To them it just makes sense — “why would I not at least give a year of my life to explore doing ministry full time”
- “I want to get really good ministry experience before I go into the work world”
- It’s become the norm
- How do you get there?
- You need a couple really key students to buy in
- We’re trying to start that with greeks- getting a few people to move into the greek houses to have a ministry
- Challenge the right students to really consider it and pray about it
- If they have a great experience as well, everyone sees that and they think “they’re having a great year and really growing as interns”