An Excerpt from The Fuel and the Flame
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All students are different. They come to college with a pre-formed package of gifts, personality, family plusses and minuses, goals and interests. They also have different stages of social and emotional maturity. If a person comes to Christ and has a strong self esteem because of their social and emotional maturity, they can grow in Christ rapidly and are able to reach out to others almost immediately. Those that come to Christ that aren’t as strong socially or emotionally normally have a harder time really taking off spiritually and may find it difficult to get beyond their own struggles or feelings of inadequacy to reach out during their college days. These three categories are very broad ways of looking at how students might be broken into groups based on their social and emotional maturity. Obviously not everyone fits neatly into one of these descriptions.
A. The Influencers
These are “mainstream” students who usually choose their university based upon the reputation of it’s “campus life”, thus giving them a chance to identify and socialize with others they consider “equals.” Like High School, they immediately start building a web of friendships from day one, even seeking out involvement in student government, Greek chapters, athletics or clubs. They don’t necessarily have a cause they’re pursuing, but simply want to be in the middle of whatever is going on at that campus. Their desire to be accepted and to influence guides their decisions of time and involvement. Because they naturally are able to bond with and attract others, recruiting or influencing one of these individuals could allow you to potentially affect a large number of other students. For instance, when you hold a study break (i.e. food and a talk as an intro into a Bible study) for a group of students in a particular dorm wing, it won’t take ten minutes to see which student(s) are the ringleaders.
B. The Interested
These are “midstream” students who, although they were never a “big fish” in High School, are now trying to find a place to plug in. They have strengths to offer, want to get involved and make friends, they just don’t have as much confidence or experience as the influencers yet. They usually will gravitate toward one of the official or unofficial groups attached to one or more of the influencers. Even though they may not have as much natural leadership, they can be trained to lead and influence others if someone takes the time to befriend and believe in them.
C. The Isolated
These are “out of the stream” students who are tucked away in a cove away from the influential and interested. They might go to a major institution because of a certain degree program, but many will choose a lesser known or smaller college because it’s not as intimidating. A high percentage want to stick close to home and enroll in a nearby school because they’re really just kind of “checking out college” to see if it’s for them. They may come from a dysfunctional home where a foundation of love and nurture wasn’t established and consequently struggle with forming multiple friendships. Not desiring to socialize in large groups, they are still willing to be influenced, but may be turned off by the popular or outgoing leader type. They can end up being lonely, but curious students, who will simply be observers until someone pulls them into “campus life.” As they mature spiritually, they can progress socially and emotionally too, gradually beginning to reach out beyond themselves to relate to and minister to others.
Why Do You Work with the Students You Do?
A lot of campus ministries may sub-consciously gravitate towards the interested and isolated students because they appear less intimidating and are usually looking for a spiritual/social refuge while at college. As needy as these students are, they many times do not represent the heart of the campus, the movers and shakers who ultimately decide which direction a campus is going. I would encourage you not to minister out of default (i.e. just work with whatever students that happen to cross your path) but to purposely choose the students that you believe God wants you to reach in order to have maximum impact on your campus.
Over the years I have done some informal surveying of church and para-church ministries on a variety of college campuses. As I quiz them about the numbers that are involved with their ministries along with the kinds of students that are coming, I’ve learned that a maximum of only 2½ to 5% of any given student population are involved in campus ministries and that most groups have few, if any, “influencers” participating. It turns out that although there may be anywhere from three to fifty different ministries on a particular campus, many times they are all focused on the same groups of primarily interested or isolated students. As a result, it is difficult to get influencers to come or stay at the meetings of many of the ministries because they want to associate with others like themselves.
Rick Warren, pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Church, says that first time visitors make a decision as to whether they will come back to a church in the first ten minutes of being there! When a newcomer walks in the doors, they look around the group and make an almost immediate value judgment as to whether “these are my kind of people” or not. Birds of a feather really do flock together and it’s human nature to want to associate with those that we are drawn to or perceive are most like us. Warren, and his mega congregation at Saddleback Valley Community Church in Southern California, have gone so far as to identify the characteristics, values and lifestyle of the “people group” they are going after. He chose to build his leadership core around influencers, even including example pictures of what “Saddleback Sam” and “Saddleback Sally” look like! Now, I don’t know if you want to put up “Wanted Posters” around campus with photographs of the kinds of students you are looking for, but it is good to know which group you’re targeting!
You must decide which campus groups the Lord wants you to focus on. What I described is just one strategy that I’ve observed having a powerful effect over the last 25 years. Still, obedience to Christ is the key, not copying other’s “successful” strategies.