As I sit here in the lobby of the National Christian Conference Center in Valley Forge, PA I think about how many conferences I’ve been to in the past year – it’s a lot. When I think about it, it’s not really that abnormal for professionals in specialized jobs to go to conferences pretty often though; really, campus ministry is pretty specialized and the job changes each and every semester.
The conference is mostly about learning to be more effective at working to reach our entire scope – every student on every campus in Western PA. That includes our “Cru” groups (the largely white middle-class kids), but also every ethnic and social niche that I am not a part of. I have no natural knowledge of how to interact with a student who was raised in a tradidional Asian home, nor do I know the ins and outs of ROTC life; nevertheless I am called and charged with reaching students who are part of those sub-cultures as well as students from every walk of life.
Not only that, but on average this past semester I spent 7 hours in the car getting to and from campuses. Let’s do the math, assume that my average speed is 50 miles per hour (probably pretty close), that my car gets 25 miles per gallon (not often) and that gas is $2.09 a gallon (a pretty conservative estimate):
7 hours x 50 mph x 25 mpg x $2.09 = $29.26
Just counting gas alone I spend $30 a week on travelling; in reality, the IRS allows us to reimburse 40 cents per mile (to cover wear and tear on the car as well) which adds up to $140 per week!
As you can guess, they want to teach us how to do campus ministry while driving to campus less instead of more. How? Phone coaching.
Catalytic campus ministry isn’t about what we do, but as Gilbert Kingsley (the National Campus LINC Director) says:
Catalytic ministry is about what others do as a result of what we do.
Our job is to train up students who will reach their campuses, students who know how to walk with God and how to share their faith in tactful ways that make sense to others – to share Christ with people who have never grasped what His life, death and love mean in thier lives. Learning and growth don’t require physical presence, it requires communication. Ah, the wonderful invention of the cell phone National Plan – free long distance!
We will learn how to effectively distance/phone coach students and build them up to reach the students around them… and if we go over our phone plan minutes, I doubt we’ll cross the $140 mark on the overage charges!
Romans 10:17
“…faith comes from hearing…”