CD/ACD Feedback Survey

Trying to summarize the many thoughts expressed on the CD/ACD Feedback Survey is a lot like trying to gather feathers during a wintdstorm. But my esteemed colleague, Holly Ashman has done so and so I would like to take a few minutes to reflect upon the things we’ve discovered and in short, summarize Holly’s summary.

First of all, I would like to express on behalf of the Staffed Campus Regional Team (that’s David, Holly and I) that we are so proud of you and the work you are doing. It’s easy in the day to day business of ministry to forget that we are involved in eternally significant, God-glorifying work. I want to remind you again that we see the value of the work you all are doing and eternity is changing because of your faithfulness in the mission. We really love you guys!

We are glad to learn that you guys seem to be enjoying and experiencing Jesus.

There were some serious common denominators in the area of challenges you guys are facing. It seems like as time goes on, complexity seems to grow like the ravenous beast it is. I remember when being a CD meant leading a ministry on campus – meeting with staff and student leaders and setting direction for the movement. Now we’re talking about WSN, ESM, Multiple Movements, financing the ministry and attending several conferences to help you to do each of these things better. Throw in any concept of a personal life, whether you have a family or are single, and we are talking about complexity to extraordinary degrees. It’s a good thing you guys are walking with Jesus! So looming large on our agenda will be to put our heads together about how to help you survive, love Jesus, love your families and even love your job in the midst of the chaos.

It’s fun to see the different things you all are doing to raise the $$$ for the region. We’ve got golf tournaments, fellowship dinners, desserts, luaus… It might be nice to share the wealth as it pertains to wealth.

Evangelism seems to be moving largely towards natural and body modes which is no huge surprise. Students are drawn to the process of evangelism rather than looking at it as an event and we have no problem with that at all. It is still true however that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God or as it’s been put by Keith Davies, all evangelism is relational and all evangelism requires initiative. The famous quote from St. Francis on this is “Share the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.” I get the idea, but at some point Francis, you’ve got to open your mouth. This is always a tension.

To me, evangelism in the post-modern culture is helping folks see the beauty of the gospel. In modernity, it seemed to be more about just proclaiming the facts of the gospel. I think our job is to present the gospel in such a way that students are captivated by the beauty of it. But it’s still the gospel. People still are saved by God grace (how beautiful is that?!) and through faith. In our pluralistic culture, it is tempting to view the gospel as annoying or offensive and so rather than learning how to communicate it to this generation, we hope our lives will be radically different enough that people will ask us.

I think it’s mainly a swing of the pendulum towards service and that’s not entirely bad because it’s clear in scripture that we should show people love through action and so I am a big fan of the things we’ve been doing with Katrina relief because we are actually caring for people and we are in a position to demonstrate and articulate the beauty of the gospel in the process. You guys are probably more aware of this than I am. So we will keep talking about this. In short, the process of evangelism is happening on our campuses and in this we rejoice.

Another issue that seems common to our leaders is the difficulty in aligning and equipping students to really lead in movement launching ventures. I think the reality is that it’s a rare student that can minister as effectively as our staff and there’s that messy catalytic feel to the movements. One campus made mention of how they are seeing every student as a multiplier. “We have moved to a philosophy in Cru (and our other movements as they grow) that everyone is a Target Area Leader, we challenge all 2nd year students who are walking with Jesus to lead a target area with us. Wider net and lots fail, but they know we are not just a "club" on campus. It seems to weed out those who are excited for ministry and those who are no there.”
Yes, it’s messy, but that is a great example of broad sowing and cultural architecture.

As a whole, it seems our younger students are getting the idea of win, build and send, but there seems to be a suspicion of anything that smacks of corporate CCC. This is not new by the way. We rejoice at the faith steps all of you are involved in as you lead your students by your great example.

In summary of my summary of Holly’s Summary, I will copy and paste the 5 points that Holly came up with for us to chew on as a staffed campus team.

1. We need more think tank time with our local leaders on how to get the gospel out to this generation and how to lead a team to really create multiple movements. They need to share what they are learning and doing. 2. We need to somehow help them not feel so overwhelmed with their role/responsibilities. Each person has different giftings and different capacity, but we need to help them feel like they are doing their job well, and that it's not constantly overwhelming. 3. We need to think through more what rapid reproduction looks like with this generation of students. 4. We need to make sure LL's and their campuses are at healthy support. 5. We need to help students who are leading not feel burned out or overwhelmed in the ministry as well. This is not what God would want for our staff and students. It seems we have such a great task before us, we need to learn how to do only what we are called to do and leave the rest up to God

You’ve been great. Thanks for listening.

I’m out like “Life at Large,”

Mike