What to Do @ the End of a Semester

1. Take your spouse out to eat to make up a little for all the dinners you were late for or missed.

2. Look at a list or picture of those who attended your welcome week events and make a list of those who did not come back or disappeared along the way.

3. Write a note or Christmas card to these students that they will receive at home...warm and encouraging...not where were you, you dirty dog!

4. Find 2 or 3 books to read before spring semester starts ( ok, one or two may be ones you "read in").

5. Take a day alone somewhere to think, pray, de-compress.

6. Have a "Pizza talk-back session" with 4 or 5 freshmen about why they got involved, why they stayed connected and why some friends did not.

7. Have a "Pizza talk- back session" with 4 or 5 upperclassmen about what worked, what didn't and why. 2Principles to remember: students think and talk better with pizza in their mouth and you need to ask questions and shut up and listen....don't explain why and justify...eat your pizza, listen and make notes!

8. Read your Bible a little more.

9. Work out out topics/outlines for your talks for next semester.

10. Take your spouse out to eat!

Wise Sayings and Principles of College Ministry (19, 20, 21)

19. If your meeting space and chairs are not at least 60% capacity, you won't attract other students. College students want to be a part of something that is growing and lots of empty chairs sends a negative message. Determine your set-up and number of chairs by the number you are expecting. (this was submitted by one of our readers in response to #2.)

20. Never let a student come through one of your events without getting a name and contact info, if possible.

21. Donors tend to give in relationship to what is asked for or expected.

"Wise Sayings and Principles of College Ministry"

16. Campus wide publicity and promotion not only tells about an event or the ministry in general-But-the quality of the publicity or promotion tells about the quality of the ministry.

17. If multiple staff members know all the same students and work with all the same students, you are not using your multiple staff to full advantage.

18. The Big attracts--the Small keeps.

"Wise Sayings and Principles of College Ministry"-Part 5

13. To maintain upperclass involvement, there must be opportunities/responsibilities not available to them earlier in the ministry.

14. Large special/fun events (Homecoming, Welcome events) can be used to attract students to your ministry and help the campus at large be aware of your ministry.

15. To have a ministry larger than your personal ministry, you must organize and administrate effectively.

Remember, no one knows who said them first and not everyone agrees they are true.

"Wise Sayings and Principles of College Ministry" Part 4

10. To increase the number of students your ministry is reaching, increase the number of students in leadership/ownership roles.

11. You will attract students like the students who are already in your ministry.

12. For a college ministry to continue to grow, it must have more than one "in" group.

Wise Sayings and Principles of College Ministry - Part III

No one knows who said them first and not everyone agrees they are true.

7. To reach a particular student group, reach someone in that group.

8. Students will only hear four (4) announcements at most.

9. The single most effective way to grow your ministry is to establish an intentional and specialized freshmen ministry.

"Wise Sayings and Principles of College Ministry" - Part 2

Here are numbers 4,5, and 6 of "Wise Sayings and Principles...". Remember, no one knows who said them first and not everyone agrees they are true.

4. A college ministry usually reflects the strengths and weaknesses of its leader.

5. When you stop intentionally recruiting and training leaders, you have begun the end of your ministry.

6. Who you reach determines who you can and cannot reach.

Comments and additions welcome!