Wednesday, November 28, 2012

One Last Thought on Collegiate Large Group Events

In previous blogs I mentioned three formats for weekly Christian events
-Large Group Worship (band and speaker)
-Fun Event with a testimony or brief Biblical message
-Interactive Bible Study

Let me throw out a fourth....for want of a better term, let's call it Variety Event.

This means something different each week, such as
-Program on sex trafficking with guest speaker
-Getting Ready for Marriage with a panel of married couples of a variety of ages
-Tough Questions of the Bible with a couple of sharp, unafraid theologians who would address some common questions, but let students ask their toughest questions
-Poverty and Hunger in the World

In these examples I have intentionally mentioned some "religious" and some not. This could be a format for reaching out in starting a new ministry or with a high emphasis on outreach to non-believers

You may say this would take a ton of planning. Yes, but that could be laid out at the beginning of these semester and not function on a "Oh my gosh, what are we going to do next week basis".

By the way, I have a bias to panels (with a GOOD moderator). It allows you to provide a variety of viewpoints and to highlight some people who have something to offer who might not be good solo communicators.

Variety Event could be a good occasional even if you regularly do one of the other formats.

Keep thinking about why you do what you do format wise and who you are trying to reach, what your purpose is and, and what other ministeries are doing. How do you meet a need that is not being met or how do you reach out to a different group of students? How do you be a better partner with ministries with which you are cooperating?

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