How to start a church-based college ministry - Part 2

This is part 2 of a 3-part series that will give you a high-level overview of the essential milestones and steps you need to take when starting a disciple-making college ministry based in a local church. You can read part 1, which outlines the two steps for the first milestone here.

In this post we’ll look at milestone 2: Discipleship ground-work, which is all about ensuring that you as a leader are personally walking as a disciple of Jesus and have a fully-orbed biblical understanding of what it means to make disciples of Jesus. 

Prepare the ground - Milestone 2: Discipleship ground-work

Despite the fact the language of discipleship is pervasive throughout most of the churches and college ministries we encounter, it’s surprisingly rare for someone who’s starting a ministry to have a clear, biblically grounded articulation of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and how, practically, the process of discipleship happens. 

Be a disciple of Jesus

Don’t take for granted that just because you’re in a leadership position in your church, have been to seminary, or can answer big theological questions that you’re actively walking as a disciple of Jesus. In fact, in our experience, positions of leadership in the church can be one of the most challenging spaces to remain humble, heart-aligned, and intentionally connected with Jesus. Being a disciple of Jesus is, fundamentally, about having a heart that is increasingly aligned with the heart of Jesus. This begins with experiencing the Father’s love for you in Christ through the Spirit, and is generally evidenced by love-driven practices of regularly being with Jesus through prayer, reading Scripture, and living as a part of a community of faith. If any of those things are lacking, it’s worth doing some self-evaluation. 

Know how to make disciples of Jesus

Disciples of Jesus are disciple-makers. Jesus’ final command - the great commission - was for his followers to go and make disciples. Before you launch any formal ministry you need to have a biblically-grounded and contextually informed vision for what it will look like to disciple the college students you want to reach to and in Christ. You should identify core practices, content, and ideally a disciple-making vehicle or process that can help you navigate this work. 

Once you have some basic framework or structure in place, you should work towards having at least 2-3 people that you are individually discipling and have developed a meaningful depth of relationship with before moving to the next milestone.  

How long will this take? 

This second milestone will likely be the longest in of the 3 to complete. It will likely take 2-4 months to solidify your own walk as a disciple of Jesus, do the biblical reflection and preparation for articulating a clear discipleship vision, and then to gather a few select people and establish a healthy rhythm of discipleship with them.

For the first church-based college and young adult ministry I launched back in 2010, this stage of launching a ministry actually took a little over a year since we decided to ensure that we had some really solid foundations with each of the people our small team was discipling before we publicly launched.

Once you’ve completed the essential steps of building habits of living as a disciple of Jesus personally and are personally discipling at least 2-3 others, you’re ready to move into the third and final milestone of launching your ministry.

We’ll talk more about that in the next post.