Why I Wrote GROWING A STUDENT MOVEMENT

From start to finish with each school year, there are discernable patterns that occur as the school year progresses. Campuses have different personalities (see Matt Herman’s
“Me Pioneer, No Way,”) and students differ often determined by the personality, expectations, and location of the campus. Understanding and adapting to the rhythms in campus ministry will ensure a flow in the work of ministry, and maximize how time and energy and resources are allocated for the entire year.

Assimilation

The fall of the year is a period of assimilation during which we will reach many new students through back-to-school events and welcome week. In fact, the one week before the fall term begins as students return to campus and move in, and the following couple of weeks of school are the most important ministry weeks of the year for connecting with new, transfer and returning students. This is the best time to introduce your group to the campus at every venue given to student organizations, by sponsoring social events, starting your weekly worship gathering, recruiting for small groups, and announcing your retreat. All this gets underway and occurs before Thanksgiving break.

By the first Fall break, you need to be advertising your regional SALT conference and get as many students to attend as possible. SALT provides students a larger picture of XA with students from other campuses and states, and equips students for effective ministry on campus.

Like the Fall, the start of Spring semester or Winter quarter is another opportunity for connecting with new students and transfer students. Don’t miss this opportunity. This is another vital assimilation time.

Consolidation

You are still meeting new students after the holiday break, but now with discipleship groups well underway and strengthened you can plug students into existing small groups and start new small groups, and begin leadership classes. This is a time of consolidation and solidifying the ministry. Becoming a biblical “community” of collegiate believers on campus becomes visible. When we gather as students, we put on display what it means to be people of God. We worship God, pray together, rejoice with one another’s company, teach and study the Word of God, and tell others about Jesus Christ.

Mobilization

The Spring semester or quarter is the time for mobilization. Campus outreach, Spring Break campus-to-campus ministry evangelistic teams, and missions and social concern projects come into focus. Multiple opportunities to get students engaged are at hand. Discipleship groups and leadership training continue. Plans will get underway for the next school year. New student leadership are selected during this time. Graduating students will be commissioned and encouraged to join the national alumni association.

In every phase, assimilation, consolidation and mobilization, precise advanced planning and prayer are essential.

Why Not Here?

Like most campus ministers, I have read and studied many books on discipleship, being a disciple and a disciple-maker (see Resource) that flow out of the passages in Matthew 28.19 “Go and make disciples” and 2 Timothy 2:2 “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Disciple-making is at the heart of Chi Alpha’s ministry, and the byproduct is transformation and multiplication with increasing numbers of students coming to faith and maturity as Christ-followers. Groups that understand what it means to be a disciple and disciple-maker, whether they lead a weekly discipleship training course or conduct discipleship small groups, recognize discipleship is counter-cultural and requires priority and time investment, commitment, and sacrifice.  

I came across an insightful blog by Ken Schakleford where he asks, “Can Disciple Making Movements Happen in Our Western Christian Culture?” His concern is that, here in America, Christianity seems to be sliding into cultural ineffectiveness and irrelevance. “We have church buildings in almost every neighborhood and yet there seems to be little transformative impact on the communities around them.” He states, “what we read in the Acts is happening now, in real-time, in some very unexpected places around the world.” [True disciple-making is occurring among Chi Alpha groups nationwide too.] 

Schakleford does a great job of laying out seven principles that are common among viable disciple-making movements around the world. I am motivated to share his blog even though in Chi Alpha we have a working knowledge of discipleship and are committed to disciple-making. His blog captures what it means to follow Christ in a way that I have not seen elaborated and explains why applying these principles leads to similar results among discipling movements globally.

Disciple-making Movements Globally Share Seven Common Principles.

1. Time and Money- 

Discipleship takes time, real sacrifice. With our hyper-busy schedules, we must give up significant items to be a disciple-maker.

• Prayer and fasting-

Prayer and fasting are essential—a normal part of our sacred rhythms; fasting drives us into even more intense times of prayer and worship; we must alter our life and lifestyle around it; connecting us to the spirit of Christ.

• Valuing obedience over just knowledge-

Understanding subjects like taking up their cross, the cost of discipleship, and the commands of Jesus to make disciples and proclaim the kingdom of God is crucial. Disciples get into God’s word regularly and purposely. They are hungry for truth because they are active in sharing the truth. Their Bible study, usually done communally, takes all newly discovered knowledge and immediately expects practical obedience to be born out of that understanding. God’s Spirit teaches them what they need to be doing from what they are learning. We must change how we approach scripture and Bible study. 

• Valuing community and relationships over individualism-

Discipleship is done through deep relationships and relationships are messy and, again, they take time. We will have to overcome our individualistic tendencies. Small (life, discipleship, core, family) groups are good, but they need to be purposeful and go much deeper than we might be comfortable with.

• Valuing transparency and accountability over privacy-

Accountability is only as effective as our transparency is. Living your life as an open book makes you vulnerable, and vulnerability is difficult. We live in a culture that values privacy and security on an extreme level. This allows us to keep our weaknesses and sin in the dark, which is the realm of our enemy. God has designed faith communities to hold things up into the light, where He brings forgiveness, healing, and growth to them.

• Humility and supernatural faith-

The mission Christ has given us cannot be done in the strength of our own knowledge and abilities.—Jesus sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God, heal the sick including cleansing the lepers; deliver the demon-possessed, raise the dead, discern who God is working on and disciple them; and be vigilant and alert because the enemy is targeting them (we are lambs among wolves). These expectations far exceeded their natural abilities. The great co-mission handed down to us is just as impossible in our own strength and wisdom. We must view it as a supernatural work of God and humbly depend on His Spirit.

7. Perseverance and sacrifice-

Disciple-making is not glamorous. It is challenging on a gut-wrenching level. Perseverance is key. We too often want quick and clean microwavable solutions. A movement does not start in a day or a few weeks or even months. (exponential growth takes time). Following Jesus is costly. We must entrust our jobs, school, reputations, ability to provide for our family, our freedom, our lives. The life of a disciple-making disciple is not safe or secure from a worldly perspective, but it is good, rich and purposeful, passion-filled, and worth the cost.

This is a condensed version of the full blog. https://discipleship.org/blog/disciple-making-movements-why-not-here/