THE HIGH SCHOOL MINISTRY OF CRU

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Five Turkish students walking to school. They are ascending the staircase, outdoors, campus. Cold autumnal morning. Nikon D800, full frame, XXXL.

Getting to Know Your School

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As you prepare to go hiking, whether in the Rocky Mountains or through an Amazon jungle, you must first know where you’re headed. Without a map and a compass, your trip is doomed to aimless wandering at best, and death at worst.

As you seek to influence your campus, you will want to make sure you know the campus and its people. Otherwise, you may just run aimlessly from one activity to another without really changing things on your campus at all.

  1. You must know the basics about your school.

    You may think you already know the school very well, but there are some valuable questions you can begin to answer that will help your ministry get started in the right direction:

    • Who are some other people who know the school very well? If I didn’t know anything about the school, what would I want to learn?
    • What do other people – adults and students – think of the school?
    • Who are the most influential students?
    • What groups are most influential on the campus?
    • These are good starter questions for helping you get oriented to the school.
  2. Now that you’ve got the basics down, become an expert.

    Like a private eye or a reporter in search of a story, dig a little deeper. To truly familiarize yourself with the campus, you need to find out more about the community and the school.

    Here are some of the many things you can do to get familiar with the school:

    Look through the most recent school yearbook. Notice students who appear often. Look for those in leadership of various groups. Try to use the yearbook to get a general impression of the school.

    Next you could look through local newspapers and publications. Ask yourself, “What kind of reputation does the school seem to have? Is it mentioned often? Are the articles positive or negative?”

    Also, find out who are the most influential students and teachers. Try to determine the key Christian students on your campus. Seek to meet them as soon as possible and share with them your desire to impact the campus. Meet supportive adults in the community. Talk with teachers, coaches, and administrators. Find out what makes the campus tick. What recurring problems are mentioned? What are the strong traditions?

    Attend sporting events, plays, or other performing arts events. These are great ways to get a feel for the school and the student body.

  3. Finally, start meeting students.

    Start with known Christian students, student leaders, and athletes. Your research of the campus will help you decide which students to go to first.

So, get to know the basics about the school; then become an expert on the school; and then you’ll be ready to meet the key students. When you’ve done these initial steps, you can confidently move ahead, trusting God to bring results through your ministry.

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What they’re saying about Cru

You’ve read the article on “Involving Adults in Ministry” and know the importance of gathering a team to help you reach your campus. How do you start this gathering process? It begins with an Adult (Family Night) Informational Meeting.

Here’s what you do:

  1. Have this meeting in a place where people will feel comfortable. Once you start, welcome everyone and introduce yourself. Let them know briefly how you came to faith in Christ and why you want to reach out to students at your school.
  2. Talk about what it is like at the school, and communicate why this ministry is needed. Explain that it is more than a Bible club; your goal is to give everyone on campus a chance to receive Jesus. Share your vision with the people. An example of a vision statement is: “Our vision is to help fulfill the Great Commission among young people, giving every student the opportunity to respond to the salvation message of Jesus Christ, to be discipled in their Christian faith, and to be trained to reach others with the Gospel.”
  3. Then go into more details of how you will do this – your strategy:
    • Evangelism – To win young people to Christ
    • Discipleship – To build them up in their faith through studying the Bible
    • Challenge – To train and equip them to effectively communicate their faith in Christ with their peers
  4. Have a Christian student take a few minutes to share how God has used him/her to influence others at school.
  5. Then talk about a process that will get other students involved:
    1. Start meeting regularly to pray for the ministry.
    2. Meet with and challenge as many Christian students as possible to commit to being involved in a discipleship group.
    3. Begin to disciple the students who respond to that challenge and train them how to share their faith in Christ with others.
    4. Organize creative evangelistic outreaches and follow up students who come to Christ.
    5. When enough students are involved, begin having regular weekly meetings.
    6. Bring students to conferences and retreats that can help them grow in their relationship with Christ.

    This may seem overwhelming to people who have busy lives (including yourself ), so you need to give them some choices. Let them know some of these specific ways to get involved. Remind them that every act of service, no matter how small, is significant.

Involvement Options

  • They can help lead discipleship groups. They can provide transportation for students who can’t drive. They can open up their home for Bible studies or outreaches.
  • They can make flyers, bring refreshments, buy pizza, form a prayer chain.
  • They can form an Advisory Committee (like a board but with important legal differences), providing support and oversight for the local ministry.
  • They can give money to support your ministry.
  • They can give you names of students and other adults at your target school who may want to be involved.
  • And other ways you haven’t even thought of yet!

GET A COMMITMENT!!!

You don’t want your time and effort to have been wasted. Pass out a response card and have them fi ll it out. Let them know that you will get back with those who respond. Then don’t neglect to get back with them! It’s very de-motivating when someone signs up to help and never gets called back.

Close in prayer and break out the refreshments!