Reaching Freshmen Later In The Fall Semester

Two of the best BCM presidents we have had during my 20 years at LSU didn’t become involved in our ministry until January of their freshman year. Both of them went on a BCM ski trip and meet and connected with our students and staff. They both stayed very involved in our ministry and became presidents during their senior years.

This is a great reminder to me each year to not give up on involving freshmen in our ministry. There is no question that most of the freshmen involved in our ministry do so during the first two weeks of the first semester. Some become super involved and either stay or become involved in one of our local sponsoring churches. Others for a variety of reasons don’t attend anything we sponsor. It’s easy to think they just aren’t interested when in many cases this is not the case. Many of them want to get involved. I think it’s very important we keep trying to reach out to them. Here are some suggestions on ways you can involve freshmen in your ministry at the end of the fall semester or at the beginning of the spring semester.

1. Retreats, Events, Mission Trips – Each fall our BCM sponsors a mission trip to work with the Bowery Mission in Lower Manhatten during the week after finals in December. We always have some freshmen sign up for the trip that weren’t involved at the beginning of the semester. We have had some sign up that didn’t attend anything at the BCM until they signed up. We sponsor a ski trip each January and have the same experiences with freshmen. Many of you attend the Passion Conference in January. These types of trips can be a great way to involve freshmen.

2. Ministry Meals – I have had good success with involving freshmen into our ministry later in the semester by either hosting them for a meal at our BCM or taking them out to eat. If I or one of our leaders calls a freshman and they are interested in our ministry I set up a meal with them. I invite a couple of other freshmen or upperclassmen leaders to join us. This has been a great way for us to really connect with the students. For many of them it’s their first visit to the BCM. We also set up meals with freshmen after they attend a BCM meeting.

3. Collegiate Church Ministry Partnership – We provide the names and contact information of freshmen that attend our BCM for the first time to our local collegiate churches so they can reach out to the student and invite them to their church. This has been a great way to help the freshmen get involved in a local church. Many of them have then attended the BCM as a result of meeting and getting to know BCM students at the church.

4. Parents Surveys – Send a letter to the parents of all of the freshmen whose names you secure. Ask the parents to partner with you to reach and involve their son or daughter in your ministry. Ask them to fill out a survey that provides you with information about them. The vast majority of parents of college students want their son or daughter to grow and mature in their faith while they are in college. This week I have met with five different freshmen who want to get involved in our ministry as a result of parents survey information. Email me if you would like me to send you a copy of our parents survey.

5. Youth Ministers – Email the youth minister of the church where an incoming freshman was involved in high school. Ask them to partner with you in involving the student. Ask them to encourage the student to get involved in your ministry.

Steve Masters, Transitions Contract Worker

An Open Letter to a College Freshman

Here's a good article: An Open Letter to a College Freshman by Timothy Dalrymple

Reaching Freshmen

Reaching out to freshmen is one of our most important tasks. The following are some ideas you might consider using to reach freshmen for your ministry.

1. Parents Surveys – Send a letter and a student survey to the parents of all of the freshmen names you secure at orientations, from churches, etc. Ask the parents to fill out the survey about their son or daughter. The survey would include such things as their church background, the students interests, their high school involvement, etc. At LSU we receive over 50 of these surveys each year. It greatly increases our chances of involving the student. Ask the parent to partner with your ministry to help the student become involved in the campus based ministry and to stay or become involved in a local Baptist church.
2. Youth Minister Email – Send an email to the youth minister of each freshman name you secure. Ask them to partner with you to help the student to get involved. Ask the youth minister to share with you information about the student. Many will do so. This involves them in the connection process.
3. Personal Cards and Letters – Have current college students in your ministry or adults in your local churches write a personal note or email to all of the freshmen whose names you secure. First Baptist Church of Lubbock, Texas does this each year and it’s been an effective way to reach freshmen for them.
4. Freshmen Bible Studies – Many collegiate ministers sponsor specific Bible study groups for freshmen. These are usually led by upperclassmen. Other leaders could include church or campus based ministry staff. One of the reasons for sponsoring such groups is because of the common interests, backgrounds, etc. freshmen have. One of the issues to deal with if you sponsor such groups is how to help the freshmen and upperclassmen in your ministry get to know and connect with each other. The purposes of the Freshmen Bible studies are Bible study, prayer and fellowship.
5. Freshmen Council/Freshmen Leadership Team – Sponsor a leadership group for freshmen. The purposes of this group would be fellowship, leadership development and ministry. If you have such a group, give them specific ministry responsibilities. Freshmen want to use their gifts, talents and abilities for the Lord.
6. Freshmen Retreat – Sponsor a retreat for your freshmen. Let it be led by the upperclassmen in your ministry. Doing so provides wonderful opportunities for the freshmen to get to know each other.
7. Freshmen Praise Band – Form a Freshmen Praise Band. The main responsibility of the group would be to led praise and worship for area youth ministers. Many of the freshmen coming in to our ministries played or sang in a Praise Band during their years in their youth group. Having such a group gives them a place of service and helps them feel ownership of your ministry. Having such a group also helps you prepare students for leading your ministry in worship as your worship service Praise Band and helps you connect with future youth for your ministry.
8. High School Seniors – Consider inviting High School Seniors to your weekly meetings or to a mission trip, retreat, etc. Your college football team is working with, getting to know, recruiting, etc. High School Seniors. They have a team of people doing this. This is an excellent example of how we can more effectively reach freshmen in future years.
9. Freshmen Adoption – Have the upperclassman in your ministry adopt a freshman. Ask the upperclassman to be a prayer partner, mentor, etc. to this student.
10. Campus Based/Church Based Partnership – If you are a campus based ministry then share the names and contact information of all freshmen that attend your ministry with your local churches. If you are a church based ministry do the same with your campus based ministry. We want a freshman to be involved in both and not just either.
11. Mission Trips/State Conferences – One of the best ways to reach a freshman is by inviting them to one of your retreats, mission trips or by their attending a state or national conference. This is especially true for commuters.
12. Referrals – As you reach out to freshmen ask if they would like your ministry to contact a friend or friends of theirs to invite them to your ministry. We have had a lot of students get involved in our ministry as a result of these contacts.
13. Continue to Reach Out – Many of the freshmen that become involved in our ministries do so during the first few weeks of school. However, others may not get involved right away. Some of the sharpest freshmen we have reached where I have served as director didn’t get involved until their second semester or even the end of their first year. Some of these were involved in our college band or athletics or a fraternity and sorority or something similar which kept them from having as much time to be involved in our ministry. I feel it’s never too late to reach a freshman. If they don’t get involved during their freshman year then keep trying during their sophomore, junior and senior years.

Please email me at lsubcm@eatel.net with other ideas/strategies, etc. that you have used to reach freshmen.

by Steve Masters

3 Ways to Encourage Students Entering College to be Involved

TRANSITIONS WEBSITE – We would ask each of our nation’s Collegiate Ministers to take responsibility for entering the names, contact information and college choices of the graduating 2011 High School Seniors from their church into sbccampusconnect.net, our SBC transitions website. Please invite and encourage the youth/student ministers in your area to do so.

NAMB CAMPUS MISSIONARY MINISTRY – The NAMB Student Ministry Team invites youth in our SBC churches to be a Campus Missionary. When they make this commitment they are committing to reaching their school for Christ through their church. They are assigned a mentor to help them do so. They are commissioned by their church. There is a lot of support and accountability. High School Graduating Seniors are asked to commit to reaching their college campus for Christ during their freshmen year. The local Collegiate Ministry (church or campus based) will either serve as or assign them a mentor. Their church will commission them. Check out this ministry on the NAMB website. You can find it in the student section.

COLLEGIATE WEEK AT GLORIETA – Last year at Collegiate Week at Glorieta a record number of incoming freshmen were in attendance. Attending was a great way for these students to grow in Christ and to become connected to their local Collegiate Ministry. Now is the time to start promoting this event for 2011.

By: Steve Masters, Transitions Contract Worker

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.

BCNet Transitions Video Contest

The Church Ministries Committee of BCNet is sponsoring a Transitions Video Contest among college students.

The purpose of the contest is to promote the use of

www.sbccampusconnect.net

by 2010 High School Seniors, Youth Ministers, Parents, Church Leaders, Sunday School Teachers, etc.

Length of Videos – From thirty seconds to five minutes.

Prizes - $400.00 to the first place winner, $200.00 to the second place winner, $100.00 each to the three third place winners.

Judges – Linda Osborne and LifeWay staff.

Deadline: Videos must be turned in on or before March 31^st, 2010. Mail videos to BCM, P. O. Box 25118, Baton Rouge, LA 70894 or ship them to BCM, 3800 Highland Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70802.

Video Usages – State Youth Evangelism Conferences, State and National Youth Conferences, local churches, parents conferences, etc…

Possible Theme/Ideas For Videos

1. Testimonies from current BCM students.

2. Documentary style.

3. Nooma video style.

4. All words/statements.

5. Students speaking into a webcam.

6. Testimonies from parents discussing their discouragement of seeing sons/daughters drop out of church.

7. Youth Transitions Network Transitions video style.

8. Funny scenes from Freshman year and how involvement in church and BCM could have made a difference.

9. Temptations Freshman face.

Transitions Information to possibly include:

1. What a student does during their first three weeks of college sets the pattern for their whole college career in the relationships they establish and the patterns they develop.

Help lay the groundwork for Christlike college experiences by connecting yourself or your students with collegiate ministers through this site.

Once you go to the webpage, enter contact information for yourself or your student. It takes less than three minutes and it will be networked to the campus of your choice!

2. From 75% to 90% of the youth in our Baptist churches have dropped out of church by the time they graduate from college. Of those who don’t drop out in high school many will do so in college.

3. For most college students their college years will be a “make or break” time for their spiritual life.

4. Most college students will make some of the major decisions in life during their college years. This includes their career choice, their choice of a spouse and their choice of the importance of their spiritual life. Having the influence of a Christian collegiate fellowship can greatly help the student with these decisions.

Reaching Out to Freshmen

Reaching out to incoming Freshmen is one of the most important things we can do as a church or campus based collegiate ministry. Most colleges and universities do not provide the names of Baptist preference students so we are dependant on securing names of incoming students ourselves.

Here are some suggestions for ways you can secure the names and contact info of incoming freshmen.

1. FRESHMEN ORIENTATION - At each university, all colleges and universities have recruting offices. This is an important office to relate to. They will usually sponsor orientations for new students. Some campuses have tight regulations on religious group involvement in their orientation. At LSU we cannot have an individual table at an orientation. We have to be a part of one table that represents all the religious organizations at LSU. Find out the policies of your college or university.
2. CONTACTING YOUR LOCAL CHURCHES - To find out the names of graduates coming to your college. If the church prepares a picture report for a High School seniors recognition service, we get a copy and cut out the pictures and attach them to the info card of the student to help us get to know them better. You can also secure a picture and profile of the student from Facebook.
3. CURRENT STUDENTS - We ask our current students to provide us with names of incoming freshmen.
4. STATE YOUTH MEETINGS - In Louisiana, we secure the names and contact information of all juniors and seniors in high school that attend the State Youth Evangelism Conference. I'd encourage you to do the same and attempt to secure names at all local and state youth events.
5. LOCAL CHURCH CONCERTS - Last year we secured over forty names of High School Seniors at a Big Daddy Weave concert at one of our local churches. We secured names at the Passion event held on our campus.
6. SPECIAL EVENTS ON CAMPUS - LSU chooses one football game each fall and invites High School Juniors and Seniors in that are interested in attending LSU. We have a table set up during that day and secure names and make contacts.
7. CENTRIFUGE/WORLD CHANGERS - They continue to provide us with names of juniors and seniors in high school that either will or are interested in attending our college or university. These are provided to collegiate ministries through the state offices.
8. ACT LIST - You can purchase a list of students interested in attending your college or university from the ACT office.
9. RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE INFO - At LSU we receive the names of all freshmen that indicated they are Baptist on their Admission Form. If you don't receive this info then ask for it. It might be available. If the religious background question isnt on the Admission Form and you'd like it to be then request that it be done. Use LSU and other colleges that still secure this info as an example that it can still be done without violating seperation of church and state.

We secure the names of juniors and seniors at all times so we can establish a relationship with the students during their senior year. Once you have secured a name then its important that you contact the students. We attempt to call each student personally. We have attached a guide to contacting freshman (LSU BCM Freshmen Telephone Guide). It has evolved and will continue to do so. We have tried to design it where a BCM staff member, a BCM leader or another incoming freshmen could use it. We add all names into an email merge and email the students regularly. We mail all of them a newsletter and a Survival Brochure. They'll receive from 7 to 10 contacts from us before they begin the fall semester. One of our goals for these new students is that they be contacted at least once by a local church. We provide names to our local churches to do so. We've attached A Church Contact Guide we use to help them with making the contact. We include information about these local churches in our emails and newsletters. We also include the churches in all of our outreach efforts to the new students when the fall semester begins. Hope this has been helpful information for you.

Steve Masters, BCM Director, LSU