Reaching Freshmen

By: Steve Masters

Involving freshmen in our campus based ministries and helping them stay connected in a local church are some of the most important responsibilities we have. Here are a few suggestions that might help you reach and involve more freshmen.

1. Email the youth minister of freshmen that are interested in becoming involved in your ministry. This will also be an encouragement to the youth minister. Ask them to provide you with information about the student. Ask them to partner with you in ministry to the student.

2. Consider having your upperclassmen adopt freshmen before they arrive on campus. Ask your freshmen now if they would like to be adopted. Ask your upperclassmen to call, facebook, write, etc. their freshmen to establish a relationship with them before they arrive on campus. Secure prayer requests from them.

3. Consider sending a Parent’s Survey to the parents of your incoming freshmen. Write them and ask them to partner with you to minister to their son or daughter. Ask them to share the interests, backgrounds, etc… of their son or daughter. Ask them to share the names of friends that might be interested in being involved in your ministry.

4. Sign freshmen up for Freshmen Bible Study Groups before they arrive on campus. Assign them to a Freshmen Bible Study Group before they come to campus. Ask your upperclassmen leaders to call, write, facebook, etc. them and establish a relationship with them as soon as possible. Once they arrive on campus there are multitudes of things competing for their time and commitment. The sooner your ministry can connect with them the greater chance they will get involved.

5. Remember that some of the freshmen that attend your first few weeks’ activities are there looking for relationships. They may or may not have a spiritual background/relationship with the Lord. Remind your leaders it is critical that they develop a strong relationship with these students so once they find other relationships on campus your ministry will stay connected to them.

6. Remember that some of your most dedicated freshmen may not attend any of your ministry meetings during the first few weeks. They may not even know you exist. During my years as a collegiate minister some of our most influential leaders didn’t get involved in our ministry until late in the first semester or even into the second semester.

7. Consider forming some sort of freshmen leadership group. Freshmen respond to ownership, fellowship, leadership development and ministry. Let these be the purposes of such a group.

8. If you are a campus based ministry, provide your local churches with the names and contact information of all freshmen that attend your ministry so they can invite them to their churches. If you are a church based ministry, provide your campus based ministry with the names and contact information of all freshmen that attend your church so they can know who is visiting churches.

9. Consider sponsoring a Freshmen Retreat during the first part of the fall semester. This gives them a good chance to connect with each other.


Email me at lsubcm@eatel.net or call me at 225-343-0408 if you have any questions. I would like to hear other ministries you have done to reach freshmen so I can network them to our nation’s collegiate ministers.