Parents & Youth Ministers Partnering with Collegiate Ministers

When reaching out to incoming freshmen our BCM here at LSU invites area and state youth ministers and parents of the incoming students to partner with us to involve their students in our ministry and a local church. We have found this a very effective way to increase our involvement of incoming freshmen.

We mail a letter to the parents of all of the incoming freshmen whose names and contact information we are able to secure. We ask them to partner with us in involving their son or daughter. We ask them to complete a survey about their son or daughter and to mail it back to us. This greatly helps us know more about the student before they arrive on campus. You can view a sample of the Parent Letter and Survey or by clicking the link in the downloads section to the right.

We make contact with each student after we receive their survey. After making contact with the student we either make a telephone call or send an email to the parent about the contact with the student. If the student doesn’t become involved in the BCM that school year we will make contact with them again each year until they graduate. We have included our parents letter and survey at the end of this article. We also include testimonies about BCM involvement from parents, which is included.

If an incoming freshman signs up to participate in one of our BCM Freshmen Family Group Bible Studies or our Freshmen Council Leadership Team then we email his or her Youth Minister and inform them the student has signed up. We ask them to encourage the student to follow through on this commitment. We ask them to partner with us in involving the student in our ministry and the ministry of a local church. You can view a sample of the EMAIL we send to youth ministers or by clicking the link in the downloads section to the right.

A few years ago I was in a meeting of college ministers and youth ministers discussing our transitions ministry efforts. Several of the Youth Ministers shared they provide names of their students to BCM Directors, but they never hear back what type of contact was made with the student or their response. This triggered our emailing of our area and state youth ministers.

We have included the template we use in emailing our youth ministers. I hope these two ideas may be of help to you in reaching out to the incoming freshmen class of 2012. Email me at lsubcm@eatel.net or call me at 225-343-0408 if I can ever help you in any way. I would love to hear ideas and strategies that you are using to reach freshmen.

Steve Masters – BCM Director at LSU & LifeWay Transitions Coordinator