by Doug Troyer, CEAI Area Director - Phoenix, Arizona
Below is a description of ‘ideas that work’. These are things that we have learned, sometimes the hard way, that help to keep the club thriving on our campus.
OFFICIAL RECOGNITION
Having your Bible Club an officially recognized campus club is CRITICAL. It is also the step that many clubs fail to follow through with. To truly impact the campus for Christ, your club must become part of the school culture. If your school has clubs that meet on your campus they must, BY LAW, allow you to meet as well. If they allow clubs to: have club accounts, hang posters, make announcements, use facilities rent free, etc. the must, BY LAW, allow a Christian Club to do the same. The Equal Access Act simply states that schools CANNOT use religion as a basis for setting a club apart. In summary, “If they let other clubs do it, they have to let the Christian Club do it.” [see Legal Rights Resources]
By being an official club, C.C.C. (Christian Club on Campus) has become a part of our school culture. Flyers are past out and hung up, and announcements are made. C.C.C. has been invited to represent the school at district events, we work Freshmen Orientation, we have a table at Club Day & Future Frosh , and information about the club is sent out quarterly in the school mailer. These ‘minor things’ take C.C.C. from ‘a small fringe group of students’ to an integral part of our school community. This has a HUGE impact on our student body.
STUDENT LEADERS
From a group of 3 or 4 student leaders who have had God move on their hearts to reach their campus, generate an invitation letter to send to prospective student leaders. Have the students pray that God will guide them as to which students to invite into leadership. Develop a list of 15-18 possible leaders who are known for their faith, and send them an invitation to a “Leadership Planning Meeting”. You will want to include a Leadership Application at this time. Make sure that your Leadership Application has a ‘parent permission’ section. Don’t worry about a date or time to meet that works for everyone, just plan it and DO IT. God will direct those He wants on leadership.
When you Leadership Team of 12-16 students are assembled begin praying for the vision, and the action behind the vision, God would have you take. Develop your Mission Statement and go over your strategy for getting your club approved on your campus. [see Legal Rights Resources]. Have the leaders pray for guidance as to how God might best use them to serve on the Leadership Team.
In the Spring of each school year [mid March or early April] have your existing Leadership Team begin to pray about who might come on board as new leaders to fill the void that will be left by your graduating seniors. Invite them to fill out an application. Go over the applications and pray for God to reveal who to add to the team. Bring them on board now! This gives them a chance to get plugged in, involved and discipled before the end of the year.
This process ensures that you have students who are known for their faith and lead by God to be involved on their campus. And it continually replenishes your Leadership Team so you don’t lose momentum trying to ‘get things started’ next year.
LEADERSHIP DISCIPLESHIP
This may be the most important part of an effective campus ministry. Plan time for your Leadership Team to meet each week. Spend that time getting connected to God and to each other. Spend a minimum amount of time planning upcoming meetings. Instead, focus on growing your kids spiritually. Help them stay plugged in to God and each other. Do Bible studies, book studies, spend time in prayer together, put them with accountability partners, and challenge them continually in their walk. Ask God for guidance as to what He’d have you disciple this group in. If you help them grow and stay focused on God, He will equip them to lead the club. There will never be a time when you will be ‘struggling to get kids to volunteer’, for they will line up to serve Him.
The best time for Leadership Discipleship is immediately before your large group meetings. For example: Leadership Discipleship meets from 5:00pm-6:15pm. The larger C.C.C meeting is from 6:30pm-8:00pm. This allows the Leaders to commit to one night/week rather than try to find two nights that will work for everyone.
The focus your leaders Leadership Discipleship should be three fold. First, help them grow in their relationship with Christ. Time in the Word, time in prayer, and book studies that focus in spiritual growth are excellent ideas. Secrets of the Vine and On Being a Servant of God are two books that we used at the start of the past two years to focus our attention on our vertical relationship with the Lord. The second area of emphasis should be in helping your leaders know ‘why they believe what they believe.’ Discussions, videos on refuting evolution – secular world view, and books such as More Than a Carpenter and The Case for Faith are all great resources. Finally, it is vital that your leaders be discipled in how to intentionally share their faith with their classmates. There are many excellent resources from groups such as Dare to Share, Evangelism Explosion, and Way of the Master.
LEGAL RESOURCES
The keys to whether a club can meet are: are other clubs meeting on your campus? and the club must be student initiated and student lead. This is why a dynamic group of student leaders is vital to success. As educators we cannot teach or lead the official club. The question that must be asked in defining your role in the large club setting is, “If I were sponsoring the [fill in the blank] club, would I be doing [fill in the blank]”. If you’d make copies, plan fundraisers, reserve meeting rooms, etc. for any club, you may do that for the Bible Club. What you may not do is share your religious view openly with the large group. This is why parent permission from your leadership team is so important.
There are many organizations willing and able to send you resources and offer assistance with obstacles that can come up when trying to develop a campus ministry.
They have information you can use to ‘educate the powers that be’ to help the approval process. They also have access to attorneys who are the real experts in this arena. Here is a list of a few of them:
Christian Educator Association Internationalwww.ceai.org