The BASIC conference was incredible! As the conference room filled with 500 students worshipping together I was overwhelmed with how blessed I am to be a part of what God is doing among college students. One of our advisors mentioned at the conference that they would like to read about what characteristics we have seen that make groups successful.
So, as I thought about what the most successful groups are doing I put together a list of 5 things that all these groups do well. They are (in no particular order):
Over the next two weeks I’ll cover each of these four topics. Let me begin by talking about developing community. In almost every successful group I’ve visited they have had an incredibly strong sense of community.
The group that Cheryl and I started at SUNY Geneseo went from 2 students to 40 in less than 2 years and a big reason for that was because of the strong community being encouraged. When Cheryl and I attended college at SUNY Oswego our BASIC group grew from 15 students to over 60 mainly because we were fostering community and every time we visit the group in Potsdam they invite us to have dinner at one of the student’s or advisor’s homes and it is clear how strong of a community they have built. When student’s feel like they know each other well and are in a safe environment they will be encouraged to keep coming and to grow in their spiritual walk.
So, how do we intentionally develop a strong sense of community? There are a couple simple things that Cheryl and I have done in order to accomplish this, both intentionally and unintentionally. When we started the Geneseo group I spoke at our first meeting and shared a lot about who Cheryl and I are, our background, my testimony (including some challenging things God has brought me through), and how and why we joined BASIC. I thought it would be good for the students to get to know Cheryl and I, so that they would feel more comfortable with who we were and the direction of the BASIC group. I didn’t realize that in being so open about what God had done in our lives I had opened the door for others to feel comfortable being open about themselves and their struggles as well. As the weeks went on we saw students who had been very quiet and shy begin to open up about their struggles and the things God had done in their lives. Since then the Geneseo group has done their best to focus on students feeling welcomed and comfortable to be themselves over trying to add to their numbers.
Another thing that enabled students to feel open and comfortable with us was sitting down with them over meals. Cheryl and I made a point of taking each student (when we were small – student leaders and potential leaders when the group grew) out to lunch throughout the semester. We would pay for their meal and just take some time to get to know them better.
We also made it a point to hold regularly scheduled social events. We would get together for movie nights, game nights, barbecues, meals at the dining hall before the BASIC meeting, have students over to our house before or after church for a meal, etc. Most of these things didn’t take much time to plan, but we reaped huge rewards as the students got to know each other better. Before we knew it the students began spending time together outside of the group. They were building on the community that we had started and taking ownership of the group.
These are just a few things we have done that have been successful. It’s important to note that not everything will be successful. Every campus has it’s own DNA and you’ll have to learn by trial and error, but the important thing is to try. As I said I’ll be covering the other four areas over the next two weeks so be sure to check back often. Also, most of these topics I’m touching on will be covered in much more depth at the Propel: Leadership Summit May 13-14. This will be an awesome time of networking, training, and planning for your group. We’ll be giving out tons of free resources and the first 10 groups that register at least 4 people will receive the first 3 DVD’s of Francis Chan’s new series BASIC free! You won’t want to miss this, register here!