So you’ve prayed, you prepared and you promoted, what comes next when gearing up for new and returning students? Glad you asked! We will be continuing our discussion from last week about the most crucial time for campus ministers, the first two weeks!
Like I mentioned last week, students are more open to everything in these first few weeks of school than any other time afterward. We have a special window of opportunity to make the biggest impact. What you do with this time will lay the foundation for the rest of your semester. If this sounds like a lot of work, well, it is! The extra time you take to work hard in the beginning will garner great fruit later. Today, I’d like to focus on two very important components to your welcome strategy.
1. First Night
Have you ever been to an open house? Usually you will find the house is clean, there is no clutter to be found, and sometimes even the sweet smell of cookies in the oven. When you are inviting people in your home in the hopes to sell it, you want to put your very best foot forward.
The same rings true of college ministry. Though we aren’t trying to sell anything, we are trying to make people feel comfortable in the hopes that they will want to return. Your first meeting is an opportunity to put out a good first impression. I think it is important to say, be authentic! Your group has something AMAZING to offer the campus, and that is the reality of the Gospel! Be yourselves and watch how God uses you to reach the students. Obviously, for each group this will look different. Start by considering these questions:
-Are we creating a warm and friendly atmosphere?
-Do people have multiple opportunities to connect?
-Do we have food or games that bring an element of fun?
-Are we communicating effectively?
-Is our purpose clear?
These are good questions to constantly be asking your leadership team, not just on first night! Each week is an opportunity for you to care for and love on the students that walk through your door.
2. Follow Up
This is perhaps the most forgotten and most important component of the first two weeks. Picture it: you’ve planned and prayed and worked your tush off to put on an incredible first two weeks! You are even surprised by the positive response and the dozen new students that walked in your door on the first night. You are looking forward to preaching tonight about God’s love when you walk in the door only to find one new student has returned. Do not fret! This campus minister’s nightmare is easily avoidable by having a plan for follow up.
When you table on your campus during these first few weeks, have a very simple sheet for people interested to fill out. On this sheet, include name, number, and email address. You can find a nicely designed template on our leader’s resource page. You can use this information to invite students to your events throughout the week. Encourage students to connect personally with new people so that the invite can be more natural. If that can’t happen, don’t worry, students are always looking for something to do and ways to make friends in the beginning. Taking the initiative makes a HUGE impact.
On your first meeting, be prepared with more in depth contact cards that ask for more information. Ask things like year in school, major and perhaps their birthday! This information will be very useful to you in the future when planning events. Most importantly, these cards represent people. As a leadership team you can pray over every student and devise a system to contact each new person. This can be through email, text, or coffee date! Taking the time to connect with students outside your regular meeting time means a lot and makes new students feel wanted and welcomed! Not to mention it is a great way to model friendship evangelism to student leaders.
Hope these tips helped and gave you some ideas for the first few weeks! I would love to hear from you! What are some of your favorite go-to welcome week activities? What things have you seen be really successful on your campus?