Tim Casteel

Thoughts on Leadership and College Ministry

College Ministry

The Leadership Pledge

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Continuing a series of posts on putting together a Spring Gameplan. Click to read Post #1 on our Timeline for the Spring and #2 on a couple of shifts we made to better raise up a reaching freshmen team.

 

One of the most effective things we did last Spring was something we dubbed the Leadership Pledge.

Hopefully it’s helpful, if only for the thorough description of how to set up a good 5 Things Discussion (at the bottom of the post).

 

Here’s how the Leadership Pledge worked:

  • We had a speaker from the Travelling Team speak at our first Cru of the spring on how God has used college students to change the world.
  • After the talk I stood up and gave a short 3 minute challenge to the effect of:
    • Hudson talked about young people who have been used greatly by God
    • They put their yes on the table
    • This semester you have things pulling for your time and attention
    • Will you allow God to use you in the lives of students around you?
    • Would you be willing to be used by God here at the U of A?
    • Hudson asked the question, “will you be used by God?
    • If you’re willing to say yes to that, please sign your name
    • That you would lead on this campus for God
    • If you sign your name, one of our staff or student leaders will meet with you one on one to help you figure out how you can lead for God on this campus
      • If you have a vision for how God can use you here, we’d love to hear it and help you use your passions for God
      • Or if this is a new idea and you’re still trying to figure out how God is going to use you in your next 2, 3 or 4 years on campus, we’d love to come alongside you and help you figure out your next step.
    • Don’t check it if you don’t want to talk to a staff!
  • We passed out VERY simple cards and gave students a minute in silence to sign if they wanted to.

 

What we did for follow up:

  • We trained staff and key student leaders in how to use the 5 Things — what to say to start the conversation (after small talk), what parts to emphasize, what questions to skip, etc (for more on that, I included detailed notes at the bottom of the post)
  • We made a Google Doc with all who signed the Pledge and let trained student leaders and staff assign themselves to follow up with students
  • We set up 1on1 appointments with every student who signed. Ideally, we take a student we’re discipling to do the appointment with us (Because we want to connect these students to other key leaders. So it will be 2 on 1)
  • The Goal of the appointment — Give them vision for living missionally using the 5 Things pamphlet and find out where they’re at in regard to that
  • Actions Steps  —
  • If you discern that they’re not ready to lead (spiritually, socially, maturity, etc) – Strongly encourage them to get in a Community Group where they can grow (help them find a group that works for them)
  • If they could be a Key Leader:
    • Job 1: Get a 2nd appt with them
    • Job 2: Use your discernment as to the next step.  You’re options (in order of priority):
      • Get them on Leadership Retreat (say, “I’ll bring you next week”)
      • Invite them to Leadership Hour (say, “I’ll bring you next week”)
      • Invite them to M29 Evangelism-Track

 

A couple notes:

  • We intentionally didn’t put Cru anywhere on the Pledge card nor did we push Cru when we met one-on-one. We really hope to be able to help students connect with God’s mission, not ours.
  • The 5 Things is really good at setting up all that Cru offers.
    • For example, it clearly communicates the need for equipping. “So you want to be equipped? We just happen to do a weekly equipping time on Tuesday nights you should check out!”
    • It keeps a Kingdom focus and then we offer Cru as a solution to helping students make an impact for the Kingdom, which is exactly our role. Getting “plugged into Cru” is not the end, but a means to an end- equipping and mobilizing laborers for God’s glory.

 

Here’s what we did to equip our staff and student leaders to lead a 5 Things Discussion (I think this is pretty helpful):

  • The 5 Things is a pamphlet designed to help students figure out what it would look like for them to have an impact for God on campus and for the rest of their life
  • Click to view the trainer’s guide on Facilitating 5 Things Discussions
  • Don’t have an appointment until you read thru the trainer’s guide and are comfortable going thru it
  • The best way to open the conversation (included in the guide):
    • “I’d like to go over 5 key principles that when applied to your life help you figure out what it would look like for them to have an impact for God on campus. And not only that but I believe these 5 things lay the foundation for knowing and serving God for a lifetime.”
    • Before you get into The 5 Things, talk about Surrender (there’s a how-to on that in the Guide). I would use the verse — “you are not your own – you have been bought with a price” I Cor. 19-20 and ask some of the questions from the guide
    • Before you get into the first Thing — Kingdom Vision, I would steal some of the content from the Discipleship Challenge and ask:
      • Before we get into our vision for our lives, what do you think is God’s vision for our lives as believers?
      • His final words on earth are found in Matt 28:18-20 — let’s look at that
      • That is God’s will for all Christians that they would spend their life making disciples of all nations
      • So any plan we have for our lives needs to fit into this greater plan

Shifts in Focus in the Spring

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part 2 of 3 in a series on Spring Ministry – click here to read posts 1 & 3. 

Yesterday I shared our Spring Timeline — our game plan for the entire spring semester.

The conviction behind it is this: The spring is the time to get your “reaching-freshmen-team” together and everything you do in the spring should contribute to assembling this team of leaders.

So last year we took a hard look at our spring and thought through what we needed to drop and what needed to add so that when August rolled around we would have a huge team of equipped students who want to invest themselves in reaching the freshmen class. Increasing our leadership base both in quantity and quality.

So here’s some changes we made in terms of:

 

Quantity

We stopped passing out FSK’s in the first week of the spring. I may get kicked off Cru staff for saying that. FSK’s are a Cru staple- a laundry bag filled with a Bible, a book, and some other swag- that we pass out in order to do spiritual interest surveys and generate new contacts.

  • But Staff and student leaders have limited time. And we decided that we could either invest our first 3 weeks of the spring in following up FSK contacts OR spend our first 3 weeks surfacing the next generation of leaders. It’s definitely a tradeoff.
  • But we have a semester worth of new people who attend our weekly meeting. Instead of running around crazy trying to turn over new rocks, why not invest heavily in those who are already in our ministry.
  • I’ll share tomorrow one of the primary things that helped us surface that next generation of leaders — the Leadership Pledge.

 

Quality

In thinking through what new CG leaders have to be good at, we arrived at this:

  • Primarily they need to be good at doing follow ups and initiating with freshmen. They need to be gospel pursuers. And we’d love for them to be adept at this before the craziness of the first weeks of the fall
    • So during the second half of the spring, we committed to taking every new Community Group leader (who will be leading a study in the fall) out to share their faith at least once (preferably twice).
  • Second, they need to know how to lead a study
    • We required all new Community Group Leaders to take a 5 week course- “How to Lead a Bible Study”
  • Third, they need to be good leaders
    • We implemented an application to lead and a one page leader expectation sheet
    • Staff interviewed every applicant one-on-one and had hard conversations with those who may not be quite ready to lead a study
The result?
Last spring was we doubled the number of Community Group leaders compared to the year before (without sacrificing quality) which has resulted in a lot more freshmen’s lives being changed this fall!

 

What do you think about staff focusing on raising up laborers the first 3 weeks of spring instead of a more outreach focus?



photo courtesy of ihtatho

Spring Timeline

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part 1 of 3 in a series on Spring Ministry – click here to read the follow up posts 2 & 3. 

We just wrapped up planning for Spring 2012 and one of my favorite things we did is lay out a timeline for the spring. I know many campuses lay out a detailed timeline for the first four weeks of the fall.

In many ways I think the spring is more important to get a timeline down than the fall.

When it comes to the fall, it’s all about manpower. If it’s just your staff team and 4 student leaders pursuing freshmen, you have a long road ahead of you. But if you line up 60 students in the spring who will focus on reaching freshmen, the fall will be good.

So the spring is the time to get your “reaching-freshmen-team” together. And to build consensus that we MUST reach freshmen.

And all this happens largely by raising up as many Community Group Leaders as possible.

So everything you do in the spring should contribute to assembling this team of leaders (tomorrow I’ll share some of the changes we made to be more focused on this with our spring).

So here’s our playbook for the spring. Not all of it will make sense or be helpful. But I’m hoping it helps give you ideas and you can take what we’re doing and improve on it.

I’d love to see what your timeline looks like for your campus — share it in the comments below or send it to me.

Also — if you want more details on any of this please either comment or email me: Tim dot Casteel at uscm.org

Here are our key dates for the spring:

  • Jan 16 — MLK day — Staff planning all day
  • Jan 17 — First Cru & M29 [our weekly leadership and equipping time]
    • At M29: Vision for Reaching Freshmen and planning for the spring
    • At Cru: Talk on “Challenge to Reach the Campus”
      • Leadership Pledge — interested students sign a card saying “I want to be used by God at the University of Arkansas”
  • Jan 18-Feb 1 — Staff and student leaders make it their top priority to follow up on one-on-one with Leadership Pledge students — using the 5 Things
  • Jan 24 — Start M29 equipping levels (how can these levels contribute to reaching freshmen?)
    • Leadership Development
    • How to share your faith
  • Jan 27 — Leadership Retreat (how can this contribute to reaching freshmen?)
  • Month of February — staff are meeting with students to challenge them to lead Bible studies for the fall
  • Feb 2 – At staff meeting, Staff team brainstorms potential Community Group leaders for the fall
  • Feb 21 —
    • Cru Talk on leading Community Groups at Cru
    • At M29 — Vision for the importance of Community Groups
      • Student leaders recommend students they would think would be good to lead community groups in the fall
      • Students can start applying to lead a community group for the fall
  • March 1 — Community Group leader Application Deadline
  • March 6 — Start second set of M29 levels
    • 5 week training at M29 on how to lead a Bible study (mandatory for all CG applicants)
  • March 19-23      Spring Break
  • April 1 — *** Have Community Group Leaders for the Fall nailed down ***
  • April 2, 3, & 5
    • Staff Planning for the Fall from 9-noon
      • Where we take care of “early planning for the fall” – stuff that needs to be planned before May so students can be aligned before they leave
  • April 17 & 24
    • Planning with our student leaders for the fall (we do this in place of M29 the last 2 weeks in the Spring)
      • Crucial for getting student ownership
      • Students plan and volunteer to lead things for the Fall (Student Joe — in charge of dorm #1 cookout; who’s on Joe’s team to help him make that happen?)
  • April 22 — Men’s/Women’s dinner for new Community Group leaders (for vision and to connect)
  • May 1 — Legacy Dinner (end of year party to send out graduating seniors and honor CG leaders)
  • May 4 — Dead Day
  • Staff Planning for Fall (5 days) à Thursday May 3, Mon-Thurs, May 7-10

photo courtesy of  midmophil

Money to Fund the Mission

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Mark Driscoll tweeted this weekend about a video in which he describes THE game changer in the history of Mars Hill.

A single thing that took them from 40 people to 800. A turning point that made the difference between their church shutting down and being the global influence that it is today through the Acts29 Network and Mark Driscoll’s teaching.

It wasn’t hiring a key staff. Putting on a big outreach. Giving a great sermon. Getting a new website. Him yelling at a bunch of men (that was a different video).

It was money.

A gift from a generous couple — a $200,000 gift that was 100x greater than any gift they’d ever received.

As ministry leaders we spend countless hours thinking through how to reach more people with the gospel. We plan ways to raise up new leaders. Get excited about new books/ideas that could be gamechangers. Dream of new websites that will singlehandedly reach the campus with the gospel. But we rarely think of money.

We just finished a week of planning and money didn’t come up once. I like to think that we can just suck it up and make do with what we have. I rarely, if ever, think “if we had all the money we needed, what would be the most effective way to reach this campus?”

 

Bill Hybels in his book Courageous Leadership calls the lead pastor (and in my case Campus Director) the CRR (Chief Resource Raiser).

He recalls when he first realized the necessity of money to fund the mission: “my romance with the notion of building an Acts 2 church had blinded me to the harsh realities of funding one.”

He goes on to say:

Theologian RC Sproul once asked me how much ministry I thought I could do for a hundred bucks. I assumed he was hoping for some deep theological response, but before I could think of one he answered the question himself, “You can do about a hundred dollars worth.” He was simply making the point that a fruitful ministry requires resources.

Be as theological as you want to be, but the church will never reach her full redemptive potential until a river of financial resources starts flowing in her direction. And like it or not, it is the leader’s job to create that river and to manage it wisely.

 

I just wonder what would change if our ministries and staff were abundantly funded. Imagine what God could do.

 

photo courtesy of Sprengben

 

Mid Year Evals

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As we head into the final weeks of the fall semester in college ministry, it’s a great time to step back and evaluate.

I wanted to share a few resources that have been helpful for our team as we seek to figure out, as Stephen Covey says, if we have set our ladder against the right wall.

 

 

 

 

There are three evals that we do every December with our team:

  • Evaluating the Quality of Your Discipleship
  • Ministry Evaluation
  • Personal Evaluation

I’ll link to the Ministry and Personal Eval tomorrow.

Today, here’s an overview and link to the Discipleship Eval.

Evaluating the Quality of Your Discipleship

(click here to download the Word document) 

I believe this eval was developed by Roger Hershey. This tool is invaluable in evaluating two very important things:

Are we (staff and student leaders) doing the

1) Right Things with

2) The Right People?

 

Our staff and student leaders sit down and do the first part of the eval with every student they disciple (addresses the Right Things) – the student they are discipling is evaluating them:

How would you evaluate me in the three areas of discipleship:

1. Feeding them the Word          1 2 3 4 5

2. Building a relationship with them          1 2 3 4 5

3. Training them in ministry          1 2 3 4 5

What is the best thing we did or you experienced in our discipleship together this semester?

What do you wish we could change or what could I do better?

 

The second part of the eval is for each of our staff to do on their own as they evaluate whether they are investing in the Right People.

1. Which of your disciples is presently multiplying ?

2. At the end of the year, how many potential multipliers will you be replacing yourself with?

3. Of those who are not multiplying, what are the barriers?

Lack of desire, no vision or heart for multiplication

Lack of Biblical conviction about discipleship

Just too young spiritually (need time to grow)

Unable to emotionally or socially

Does not want to (opposed to multiplication)

Lack of Lordship with their time, a relationship, etc. (unwilling to die to self)

Legitimately can’t because of time (work…)

Called to another ministry

Lack of walk with the Lord

 [As a team we talked through which of these are “deal breakers” – I’ll leave that up to you and your team to decide that!]

4. What can you do to help them overcome the barriers?

5. Are there any changes you need to make in your multiplication chain?

Students who are not following through on a commitment they made

Students who do not want to multiply or do not want to be a part of the movement

 

What Evals do you use on your team? Would love for us all to share the wealth!

 

image courtesy of kanelstrand