Tag Archive - COLLEGE

Helping Your College Student Get Spiritually Connected on Campus

January 7, 2010 in Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 28 Comments

One of the questions that comes up a lot in my work with parents of high school and college students is:

“How do I help get my kid connected in a college ministry?”

or

“What are some ways that I can encourage my kid to get involved in a ministry when they are away at college?”

I love college ministry. I was involved as a leader on campus during my own college years, and after college I spent 3 years on a university as an academic advisor, college recruiter and campus Bible study leader. I also spent 7 years as the college pastor at Bel Air Pres, doing campus work at USC, UCLA and LMU. And in that time I learned that many parents know, and students know, that their faith will be challenged at a new level during their college years, and they desire to see their faith grow, and remain spiritually connected and active during this time. I think there are definitely some things that a parent can do to help prepare their kid spiritually for that transition from high school to college, and I think there are some ways to encourage kids to thrive in that transition space as well. Whether it’s parents, a youth worker, friend, etc., many people play a role in helping kids make that transition successfully.

I’ve been looking at Fuller Youth Institute’s College Transition Project and they have been doing some amazing research and providing some much needed resources in this area. The Ivy Jungle also has been providing some resources and stats in this area. And one of the resources that I have enjoyed looking at is the work of my friend Benson Hines at Exploring College Ministry who has been gathering a ton of information and resources during his many road trips to college ministries across the country.

One of the stats that I’ve heard (and that I’m currently looking for the resource), is that if a kid doesn’t get connected to a college ministry/community within the first few weeks of school, there is a very high percentage that they won’t get plugged in until sometime in their junior year. So you can see why the first few weeks of college when everyone is making friends, trying to get connected, and build a community is so crucial.

I’m teaching a class to parents on January 31 at HPPC on this very topic, so let me ask you:

If you went to college and were involved in a college ministry during any of that time…what was helpful, and not helpful in helping get you connected to them?

What can a parent do? Or what did your parents do to help you get spiritually connected in college?

What can youth workers do better to help a kid make that transition?

What would you tell an incoming freshmen about the importance of finding a church/campus church community early on?

I would love some feedback, and I will post later on this topic, as well as adding some of my own thoughts on how to encourage your kids during that transition.

Emerging Into Our Identity

March 5, 2009 in Marriage-Family, Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 9 Comments

windingroadEmerging Adulthood
I have always seemed to work with a lot of people in the midst of that life transition from college to young adult, or to what is often referred to as emerging adulthood.  So because of the extension of adolescence, and the pushing of adulthood and it’s responsibilities to later years (late 20′s to early and mid-30′s) people often find themselves wrestling with questions that have often been resolved, or at least grappled with in early developmental stages.

In my work as a college admission recruiter, college pastor and marriage and family therapist, I often work with people who come to me with questions that they can’t quite formulate themselves, but that touch at the core of who they are, and are very existential in nature in many ways.

They are questions of identity, or “Who am I”, “What am I to do”, “What do I believe.”

Fundamental Questions
Over the last 6 months my supervisor has helped me formulate some questions that touch at the heart of clients that I work with that are going through this life transition.

So I often tell my client that they are asking 3 very basic, very fundamental questions:

  1. Who am I?
  2. What am I to do with myself?
  3. How am I to be loved?

Questions that we have been asking for thousands of years, and in reality, each of the questions are components of one another, and sometimes one must be answered for the other to be answered as well.

Continue Reading…

My 9 Posts for Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry (and ministry in general)

August 26, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 8–Ministry Collaboration Using Wikis

August 9, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 6 Comments

What is a wiki? Well, if you don’t know, let’s look at what the most famous wiki, Wikipedia, has to say.

A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language.[1][2] Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The collaborative encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is one of the best-known wikis.[2] Wikis are used in business to provide intranets and Knowledge Management systems. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work”.[3]

“Wiki” (/wiːkiː/) is originally a Hawaiian word for “fast”. It has been suggested that “wiki” means “What I Know Is”.[citation needed] However, this is a backronym. “Wiki Wiki” is a reduplication of the same word.

Seem simple enough? If not, here is one more great visual explanation:

It’s part of the Plain English Series:

Wikis in Plain English

If they are not already, wikis are the wave of the future in many settings because of their collaborative ability. While most organiziations (i.e. businesses, churches, etc.) are still only using email, many others have embraced the power of the wiki and are really harnessing it’s power in creative ways.

As I’m still fairly new to wikis (I have 2 that I have created, 1 that I’m a part of, and I joined Wikipedia as a user–though still too nervous to create content yet, or correct).

But let me give you just one example of where I didn’t use it, and how I wish I did and why.

Continue Reading…

POST: Re-Structuring and Moving Collective Muse

July 22, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

We define the four-step POST process for creating strategies–people, objectives, strategy, and technology–and reveal why starting with the technologies is a mistake.

That is the advice I wish I would have read 6 months ago as I was thinking about creating the college ministry network Collective Muse.

I came across it in the must read book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

In it they have developed the acronym POST which stands for the following:

P=People
O=Objectives
S=Strategy
T=Technology

When creating strategies for social media this is the process they recommend. Most of us think about the technology first, rather than thinking about the people who may use it. At least I do that. Hopefully not any more though.

But to create a community one was must think about the people first, and what objectives and strategies will help you accomplish your goal. Will your people create content, or do they prefer to respond? Do they respond, or do they just like to read? Lots of things to think about. I just thought about technology because I love college ministry and wanted to gather college leaders from around the country…not taking into consideration if it was/is the right tool for them, and whether or not there is something already available for them.

With that in mind I also realized through reading this book that fostering online community takes time, of which I don’t have tons of with two jobs, a family and lots of interests.

So I have decided to move Collective Muse to a Christian site that is built around gathering people around their passions…ROOV. What is ROOV? ROOV is:

Roov.com is an online community that connects like-minded individuals around shared experiences and passions within their church and cities.

You can now find Collective Muse on ROOV by going to ROOV and searching for Collective Muse, or clicking on this link when you are logged in.

I hope by moving Collective Muse to ROOV several things can be accomplished:

  1. I don’t have to be responsible for maintaining a whole network (coding, providing content, fixing bugs, etc.)


  2. The network doesn’t revolve around me, but is decentralized on an already existing site. I will still have to work part of this out though as I created Collective Muse on ROOV. But for now, I suggest people just add Collective Muse as a friend and we begin to gather around our passions related to college ministry.


  3. You will find lots of people interested in college ministry who never would have joined Collective Muse, and you will find other things you are passionate about.


  4. We are joining a new and exciting network (ROOV) which is devoted to gathering Christians around their passions, and moving them towards action. So it’s a good base to start with.


  5. By being a part of ROOV, hopefully it will be more than a group that people simply join because they are interested, but that our interests and passions drive us towards actions, and opportunities to gather.


Last, I know that there are many groups that you can join, and that by doing so takes time that you sometimes don’t have. So I apologize for moving Collective Muse off a Ning, a site which you spent time joining, but I appreciate your interest, and I know that in the long run that making this move is much smarter than staying on a site that is not very active.

Sometimes we so much want to create something new, but often there are already tools and sites that exist. And so sometimes it’s better to join those that are already doing a great work. ROOV is doing a great work and has a lot of potential. So those of us who love college ministry I hope we can gather around Collective Muse on ROOV as well as others who are passionate about this topic.

And hopefully, the more I do this, the better I get at it, and the less mistakes I make.

25 Twitter Tips for College Students

July 14, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 1 Comment

About a month ago I wrote a post Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 5–How Twitter Can Catalyze Your Ministry.

I was really only focusing on one way college students (ministry) can use Twitter.

How about 25 ways?

Howard Rheingold had a link on his Twitter about the article 25 Twitter Tips for College Students.

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 7–Flickr, YouTube and Other Forms of Sharing and Streaming

July 8, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 3 Comments

This is actually the form of social media and online sharing that I am the least familiar with. I have only had a Flickr account for about 6 months, and I just upgraded to Flickr Pro. How many videos have I uploaded to YouTube? Only a couple. So this is new territory, but a territory nonetheless that I think ministries need to explore more often.

Let me start with a couple of reasons for why you should use these tools:

  1. People like watching videos and looking at photos. Period. In my opinion, they are often more likely to do this then read a post or follow a debate on a forum page.


  2. I think ministries need to start creating more of their own content. Why? One, because how many churches use stock photos of people on their websites that don’t even attend church. I usually hear, “Hey, I’ve never seen them at our church.” Or my favorite, “Our church is not that ethnically diverse.” That’s usually the typical Bible study photo that has a representative of every tribe, tongue and nation represented, and is nowhere close to the actual makeup of the church. Two, video and photos give great insight into people’s lives.


  3. Shooting, editing, creating and uploading video and photo content has never been easier.


  4. These tools are so easy to use that anyone in the community can create content and participate. You don’t have to leave it in the hands of professionals or video/photo department people. This does two things. One, allows for community participation. Two, reflects more the reality of a community, than stuff being created by one department. And when communities participate, the content doesn’t have the constant professional look to it, but looks more reality which is nice. Not that professional is bad at all…but raw footage from the community is great also.



What Would This Look Like?

For example in the college ministry that I used to pastor, The Quest, here is what I think would have been helpful if I had done it. Obviously Facebook is one place where people share photo and video content with each other, but who is going to go look at each profile?

So I think what would be helpful is to have a “central hub” webpage, as I discussed in The Purpose of Your Website. And on this page you would embed the code from Flickr, YouTube, etc. that would automatically stream the content from your community to the page so that everyone could see it. You wouldn’t need to go look at multiple locations, but go to this one home page and share video and photos. This can be done by creating accounts that everyone can upload to.

Then you can develop some creative team to use those photos and videos that are uploaded to the site and post them at various sites in your community, like Facebook, a blog, etc. So you have one site where all the content is uploaded to, and a team that sifts through the material and places it in different ministry locations online.

Some Good Tools

Like I mentioned at the top. I’m a rookie to this, so please chime in with some suggestions. But here is some tools that I have found helpful and have used.

  1. Flickr: Great photo management site. You can get quite a bit of space and ability with a free account. But a Pro account is fairly cheap and gives you lots to work with. I mainly migrated to Flickr based on what I have read in various books on this topic and by the many praises from other such as Wess Daniels and Terry Storch. Flickr is great for photo management, but also you can upload video as well. They have a 90 second limit for video which I think is great. It really helps when determining what you want to shoot and share. I use Flickr video for my blog intro., but I don’t use it for a longer retreat video, etc.


  2. Vimeo: I love this video site. I have migrated from YouTube over to this site. I like the look of the site better. I like that my videos upload faster, etc. Check it out. You can create communities around your videos and create your own channels.


  3. YouTube: This is obviously the standard. Some people love it and it’s fun to go to their YouTube channels to see what they have done.


These are the only three I’m sharing.

So what photo/video management/sharing sites do you use and like?

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry

DISCLAIMERS: 1)There are better technical people out there concerning the web. 2) Do as I suggest, not as I do. I’m trying to keep up myself, and our college website reflects almost nothing of what I talk about. That’s how fast things change. 3) There are a lot of college ministries out there, and there are a lot of online tools to use, but it doesn’t seem like many are thinking through how to best utilize the new media and Web 2.0 (and yikes, Web 3.0) in their groups. 4) Knowing that things change overnight in technology, I hope to somehow impart to you some of the things I have been learning and wrestling with in these areas. You don’t need to be an expert in this area, just know enough to think critically about the issue. 5) If you have feedback, suggestions, criticisms, please comment. This is by no means all encompassing.

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 6–Using Social Network Platforms as Your Central Hub

July 1, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 5 Comments

Social Networks have been one of the greatest things to happen to college ministry. There are many reasons why I have found them to be so helpful, but let’s begin with a video primer, because I know some of you, though familiar with social networks, may wonder their exact purpose or how they function. For that I turn to the awesome video series Social Networking in Plain English by Common Craft

I believe that it’s important to have your college ministry in a social network, and that that network should act as your central hub. There are several reasons for that as I want to discuss further with you.
Continue Reading…

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 5–How Twitter Can Catalyze Your Ministry

June 16, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 11 Comments

Despite some of the bad press recently regarding Twitter, I still must say that I absolutely love it. Sure there are days when things take way too long to load, or they don’t load at all. But despite all that, Twitter is still the first site that I log onto when I get on the internet in the morning. What other site is going to instantly bring me up to date with what everyone in my network (friends, family, co-workers, etc) is doing?

For a great step by step primer on Twitter, check out Matt Singley’s post.

Check out Twitter in Plain English series below:

Those are some great resources on Twitter. And in fact, lots of people are writing about Twitter so it’s not hard to find online some effective ways to use it. So what I want to focus on in this post is just a few ways how you can effectively use Twitter in your ministry…or as I say above, how it can catalyze your ministry.

Three Reasons to Use Twitter in Your Ministry Continue Reading…

Thanks Bel Air for a Great 7 Years…

June 13, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 8 Comments

It was about six months ago when I announced my resignation to the staff and students at Bel Air Presbyterian Church and The Quest, and now the day has finally arrived. I’m sitting at my desk for the last time as the college director and it’s a bittersweet feeling. I’m super excited about the next step in the journey for my family and I, but I am also leaving behind a lot of great friendships, and a work place that was as much family as it was co-workers.

So I just want to thank all the students and staff who have really made an impact on my life the last seven years. The students I came across where as much an influence in my life as I was in theirs, and I’m thankful for that.

My family and I are preparing for a move to Dallas, TX (hopefully by mid-summer; I know, bad time to leave the beaches and head to TX), and we are excited about the new opportunities that await us. It’s definitely a new adventure for us, and we are particularly happy about moving closer to family, as well as living in a more affordable city that will helpfully allow us to keep our priorities organized, work schedules, etc. in a manner that keeps family first.

As some of you know I will be working full-time at the Pastoral Counseling Education Center in Dallas, pursuing my state licensure for Marriage and Family Therapy, which is something I have been wanting to do for a while. I love the intersection of marriage, family, theology, pastoral counseling, etc, and this should be a good place to do that.

I will also be working at a church part-time in Dallas, working in the area of social media and ministry, which is something I am super, super excited about. I will fill you in on more details about this later as my job description gets cemented.

And last, I hope to continue to connect with a lot of ministry tech people out there which I have already been doing, because I’m passionate about the blend of new social technology in the Church. And Dallas seems to be a great place to do this.

Please keep us in your prayers during this time. And I hope that before we leave town we can get together and hang out.
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