Hello loved ones! So I decided to head to Monclova, Mexico on a mission trip with my church back in San Angelo. I will not have internet access until I return on Saturday, so I will resume posting next week! I could totally use your prayers while in Mexico, so be praying for our travels, health, and ministry to our long-time friends at the orphanage there. Have a happy New Year, y’all!

Ok, so I was a week late in posting this… let’s just say that I had a wonderful break from everything…even blogging.
So in the last post, I brought everyone up to speed on my diverse December. I also mentioned the concept of the hybrid student- the student that is raised in the local church and is therefore acquainted with the away students, but goes to a local community college or university and is therefore aquainted with the home students as well. There is probably a better way to define this type of student, and there is probably a better term for it, but this will suffice for now. (If you know of any better definitions or terms, let me know!) Ok, so these hybrid students deserve a little extra attention and let me tell you why.

1. These students experience crazy transition at the beginning and end of every Christmas and summer…just like us church-based college ministers! This can definitely be stressful for some.

2. They may be struggling with various inner battles such as not being able to attend an out-of-town university, living with parents, living in their hometown…still, etc.

3. These students are the “tie that binds” the home and away students so to speak. They link your two ministries and this makes them critical to the unity of your ministry.

4. They get to see you, the college minister, and the college ministry the longest. They have unique perspective and can provide you with constructive criticism.

5. They know the away students and can advise you on the best ways to minister to them. They also may even keep in contact with the away students better, thus providing you with updates on how they are doing.

There are definitely more reasons that hybrid students deserve more focus, but these five are big. Can you think of any others? Leave a comment!

So the month of Decemeber can be an interesting time for church-based college ministries. Here is what my past few weeks have looked like:

For the home students, we had our last Thursday night large-group gathering of the year Dec. 3rd and then had a late-night pancake study break/farewell party during finals a week later. They have now finished up their finals and are back safely at their home towns.

During the past week or so, the away students have returned home and yesterday night, we had a welcome home/worship gathering for them. We called it “Reunite” as we wanted our returning students to reunite with each other and perhaps even “reunite” with God. It was a sweet time indeed, but what made it really nice was that two of the students organized most of it.

The hybrid students (what I would call students that are sort of away students as they were raised in the church with the away students but they go to community college or a university in their hometown so they are sort of home students too) of course, got to do all of this!

Sunday mornings (our church has bible fellowship groups which are essentially Sunday school classes that meet in between the two worship services) are especially interesting during this time of year. We inevitably have some away students trickle in before the majority of our home students trickle out for the break. Both groups are quite different from each other, so this transition time is always interesting especially since our home group is just as large as our away group which can make a few early birds or stragglers a little uncomfortable. (We are still working on getting the two groups more acquainted with each other…which I think is important and do-able!) And of course, there are the hybrid students.

The weekend before last, I was asked to be Joseph in my church’s Christmas play. I jump at opportunities like these so that I can stay as involved and connected with my church as possible. It also doesn’t hurt for the entire church to see the (bearded) face of the college ministry guy up there!

So that was my past few weeks in a nut shell! Add that with my other job and all my seminary papers and finals and it made for a really busy time, but it is SO, SO WORTH IT!

Well, today I just wanted to post a missionary-style/ update blog. I also wanted to introduce the concept of the hybrid student. In tomorrow’s post, I want to explore the concept of the hybrid student more and even highlight the importance and blessing of this type of  student.

What about your past few weeks? How have they looked?

Prayer Requests:
1. That all of the students would have a wonderful and relaxing Christmas break, but would not take a break in their relationship with God!

2. That I would be renewed and refreshed during the break and ready to go at it again for next semester.

3. We would get another couple to become involved in the college ministry.

4. We would continue to get direction for next semester.

I had the privilege of sitting down with 20 or so college ministers last week. It was SO sweet! This was right in the middle of my last week of class for the semester. I had so many papers, books, and finals to complete. I had been pullin’ all-nighters like they were going out of style! I wonder how many of the ministers were as sleep deprived as I was. My guess was that I was not alone. In fact, I think at one point we raised our hands to determine how many of us were seminary students and I think close to half of us were…maybe I’m wrong. I also know that a lot of them had families and some of us did not. Here is what I am getting at: we college ministers get busy!!! I mean REAL busy! Some of us are juggling seminary, another job to pay for seminary, family, AND college ministry (which is always full time, regardless of what your title or pay is). All of this can start to wear on a human! I mean, we are all totally super-heroes for ministering to college students (I’m a little biased), but we are STILL humans, and humans need rest. Our field is MUCH to important and there are WAY too few of us to be getting burned out! We NEED to be intentional about refreshing ourselves and pulling away from time to time.

Now, what I am about to recommend is just for us single (without families) college ministers. And this may not be for everybody, as we are all different, but this at least the minimum that I would recommend.

1. To start, I would suggest taking some time off during the day. Watch some Hulu, or go hit up some disc golf!

2. I would argue that we single college ministers should at least shoot for taking off one day out of the week. This seems like a given, but a lot of us don’t have Sundays off!

3. I would also argue that we should at least take a week off every semester, and maybe a few weeks in the summer (unless your campus in on the quarter system… then maybe take a week off every quarter). If you are a campus-based minister, your summers can be busy too, but if you have more opportunity for rest, then take it! Go backpacking or something!

4. For college ministry lifers (those that are called to devote their life to this), I would even recommend taking an entire year off. Go hit the Appalachian trail! (I like to backpack if you didn’t notice!) Now I know the sabbatical year seems a little wild, but don’t dismiss the idea. It could be critical someday!

As always, circumstances and seasons change. You may need to take off way more. And all of this is out the window with a family! I don’t think there is any hard and fast rule for this, but be a good student of YOURSELF! If you feel like you may need a break, then take it. If you feel your flame for college ministry start to waver a little from exhaustion, then by all means, rest! This whole subject deserves further study.

I’m writing all of this as a fairly young, single church-based college minister. I haven’t been in this for very long, so my outlook on all of this might change. But I know this much: sometimes the best thing we can do for our students and our ministry is to take a break. So be intentional about taking some time off. Be a good student of yourself! Allow God to fan your flame for college ministry higher, and don’t be afraid to take some time to refresh.

Any thoughts?

So I don’t want to blog without a purpose. I mean, it is always fun to just journal and that sort, but given how underdeveloped our field (college ministry) is, I really want to be intentional with my blogging and almost every other online front I have (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.).

With my blogging, I want to contribute to our field. There is so much unexplored territory out there, that we need to be keeping notes! To be a Trekkie for a moment, I want to keep a “Captain’s log” of sorts. In fact, when you think about it, Star Trek and college ministry have a lot in common… but that is a post for another time Suffice it to say that our field is relatively uncharted and the more we college ministry explorers record our notes and findings, the better off we and our field will be. My good friend Benson Hines’ blog, exploring college ministry, is a perfect example of what I am talking about. He has essentially built up an uber critical knowledge base that anyone remotely interested in college ministry needs to check out. But there needs to be more like this. To be sure, there are a number of other blogs out there devoted to our field but again, our field needs more intentional exploration. So here is how this applies to me: I have just about wrapped up my first year in a church-based college ministry. Thus, my ministry is essentially in its infancy. Additionally, I have at least two very unique colleges that I focus on- one is the Comet tribe of University of Texas at Dallas, a division 3 school of about 14,500 students and the other is the Thunderduck tribe of Richland College, a large community college pushing 20,000 students. It is this community college that deserves special focus. In fact, college ministry to community colleges is extremely uncharted, and that reason alone warrants blogging! Nevertheless, I want to blog about my experiences, my failures and successes, what works, what doesn’t work, and every other musing that stirs in my busy head so that perhaps others can learn… but I want to do this purposefully.

Yet another reason I want to blog is so that I can keep those outside of our field up-to-date. I think this aspect is especially critical. My buddy, Ben, compares college ministry with world missions, and he is right to do so. They are so very much alike. We college ministers are not unlike missionaries who would approach a unique people group in some distant country. We, like missionaries, have a tribe of our own, with a unique culture, language, and tradition. For example, the Aggie tribe of Texas A&M is quite different than the Red Raider tribe of Texas Tech in each of those categories. But it is this missionary analogy that I want to continue to run with here. Missionaries frequently blog to keep friends, families, and supporters up to date and inform them of needs and prayer requests. As a college minister, I want and need to do the same! My mentor, B.J. Ramon,  has done something really cool in this regard. He is the Baptist Student Ministry director at the University of Houston, a huge and diverse tribe! He has organized 20 or so of his closest brothers and sisters to pray for him via Facebook. He sends out a brief update and his prayer requests every Monday to his 20 supporters. What a brilliant and easy idea! This entire aspect of blogging deserves much more attention, but for now,  I want to be blogging like a missionary.

I think one other reason I want to blog is that it’s good for me. There  is something therapeutic about it, being able to journal about a cause that I want to devote my life to. Also, I geek out on this stuff. Maybe it is because I am a millennial (see previous post), but I love being able to voice my thoughts online and interact with others. Furthermore, it is simply exciting to be taking part of such an uber important cause, just like Star Trek!   Blogging also keeps me self aware. I can look back and see where I have come from and how I am progressing. It helps me keep my thoughts in order and reminds me of the lessons I have learned. I want to blog for me.

There are many other reasons for blogging, but I think this is a good start. So why do you blog? What are your goals? Any thoughts or ideas?

It was one of my college students that showed me these…and I have become hopelessly addicted. Auto-Tune the News is a continuing series of YouTube videos by The Gregory Brothers where clips of news anchors, politicians, and the like are manipulated with an auto tuner and some video editing to compose HILARIOUS and witty songs and themes. Check them and a LOT of other sweet stuff out here.

The concept is brilliant. Take something a little mundane, throw in some technology and creativity and in a matter of months your reaching millions. But there is way more going on here. This phenomenon is quintessential of the millennial generation…my generation. For a fairly decent explanation on the millennial generation, check the Wikki page here. So let’s take a quick look at these. First off, they are taking the news…something typically bad, negative, discouraging, and making it hilarious. Moreover, the humor is not overly demeaning or personally attacking anybody. It’s a different sort of humor…positive and not hateful, evenly distributed and not to any one person or party’s demise. Third, they are using technology in a really fun way…ie the Auto-Tune effect, video editing, You Tube venue. 4th, it is clever. There are reoccurring themes, catchy melodies, and it is all recent and relevant. 5th, it is timely. They seem to put these videos out fairly quickly. And they are already trying out new things like Auto-Tune the Ads (yeah, like tv commercials!).

As college ministers, there is a lot here that we can tap into.

1. Are we being good students of culture and of those we minister to?

2.  Maybe there are ways we can “Auto-Tune” a few things in our ministry…announcements, marketing, encouragement, just for fun, etc. Now we don’t want to get too carried away with this, but a little fun and creative technology use is most welcome with students!

3. Perhaps this could be a way you could give some of your students some ownership and participation in your college ministry. Create a team or task group that could develop and implement fun technology use in your ministry.

4. Maybe you or somebody you know has a lot of knowledge in video or sound editing….so put on a workshop where you show students some of the basics. I think this could be a fun venue to hang out with current and new students.

Any thoughts?