The Next Cycle

It's the first day of October and Fall Retreat starts tomorrow, which means we're at a transition point in the semester. The first 4-6 weeks are all about gathering contacts, meeting new people, sharing the Gospel, and advertising for Cru far and wide on our campuses. For the staff, it's been all about launching and attempting to launch new ministries. Praise God, we've been able to have some point of contact on 14 Pittsburgh area campuses and been able to give out over 7,000 Cru cards!

There's a thing we talk about in Crusade called "Cycles of Momentum" - just a way of looking at the campus ministry year. It's far from biblical truth or anything, but it's a helpful tool in planning when to do what on campus. I think it can help you as student-leaders, or just involved students, too. You can check out an article on the subject here, and I'm going to take a few minutes to describe it briefly and point out what's next, so to speak, for our semester.

If you've been involved in Cru for long enough, you know by heart the adage "Win, Build, Send", or at least you should. In fact, if you don't - why not? It's three words! It's a brief and memorable way to summarize our mission and vision - we want to win students to Christ, build them in their faith, and send them to reach the world. Very Great Commission focused and biblically rooted. You can view the cycles of momentum in the campus ministry year in these broad terms too.

Phase one of the semester - roughly the first 6 weeks - are a sort of "Win" phase. We're focused on interacting with as many students as we can, sharing the Gospel with as many as will hear, following up new contacts and generally focusing on reaching out. The next month or so - October, where we're entering now - is a "Build" phase. Our focus shifts to consolidating these newly involved people and any new believers, helping them plug in by getting more involved in Cru, leading in some way, getting into a small group or discipleship setting. This begins with Fall Retreat, as it's a tremendous way to help new people, especially freshmen, get plugged in. Then the rest of the semester is a "Send" phase, particularly focusing on sending to Radiate. There people can learn about summer project opportunities, grow deeper in their walk with God, and learn more how they can get involved and minister to others on campus. And that builds momentum moving into the spring semester, which opens with another "Win" phase.

This isn't to say we never do evangelism in a Build or Send phase - in actuality October and November are great times to do a larger, more focused outreach, such as the David Williams event coming up on October 14. Part of building is helping someone learn how to share his faith, encouraging them to take a step of faith to invite a friend to an outreach-type event or Cru. Or that we never seek to be building or sending during a win phase, or vice versa. You get the picture. It's just that the general focus of our ministry is on one of those things in a stronger way than on the others.

So, in thinking about these things, I have a few questions for you to consider as you think and pray through and plan the next month of your ministry.

• What new people have we connected with, and how can we best help them get more plugged in?
• What are the things already established that are natural "building" events or activities?
• What is an outreach we can plan for the next month? How can we encourage some of the younger students to be involved in it?
• What are the greatest ministry training needs the people involved in Cru have? How can we meet those needs?
• What are some ways to help build community among the people involved?
• How can we keep the ministry, or give the ministry, outward focus, on evangelism and reaching the campus?

I encourage you as leaders on your campus together to process and pray about these things, and let them help you make some plans for the next month or so. I hope it helps! We're praying for you.

-Jason