OK, I’ll admit it. Over the holidays I watched the Rachael Ray show with my wife. Cheryl absolutely loves to cook and will watch pretty much anything on the Food Network if I let her have the remote. As we were watching, Rachael Ray said something that made me think of college ministry.
She said something to the extent of “Anyone can make pasta or burgers, but it’s the stories people watch for.” This got me thinking. Most campuses that we are working on have several ministries available to the students. Each of these ministries will have some things in common. While we should never consider ourselves in competition with these other ministries I do think we should always be looking for ways to improve our ministries and reach more students. So, what distinguishes your ministry and sets it apart? As Rachael said, what sets her show apart is her stories.
Obviously, as a part of the BASIC network one of the things that will most likely set you apart right away is that we encourage baptism in the Holy Spirit, but apart from that what distinguishes your group from others? Do you have a strong emphasis on prayer, worship, or evangelism? Does your group have a strong sense of community or promote a culture of challenge as we talked about a couple weeks ago? Is there one or two major events you put on each year that your ministry is known for? Is your group known for having excellence in all that they do?
If you can’t easily answer the question “What sets your ministry apart?” then you should begin praying over this with your leadership. Chances are if your ministry isn’t doing anything particularly different then what someone would expect if they walked into any other ministry then you won’t have much to show for it at the end of the day. For those of you who can easily answer that question please leave a comment below, so we can gather ideas and brainstorm together on ways to improve on what we’re doing and effectively reach more students for the sake of the Kingdom.