How to start a church-based college ministry Part 3

This is part 3 of a 3-part series that gives you a high-level overview of the essential milestones and steps you need to take when starting a disciple-making college ministry that’s based in a local church. You can read part 1 and part 2 here and here.

The third and final milestone in the process of launching a college ministry in your church focuses on starting something simple that will help accelerate the work of discipleship. This is the milestone where you - at least according to most definitions - actually “launch” a ministry that has a regular public gathering space. 

Milestone 3: Leadership and launch groundwork

Milestone 3 is all about leadership and launching. 

Learn to lead

As we say frequently, discipleship precedes leadership. Leadership of a ministry builds on the fundamental principles of disciple-making that you’ve grounded yourself in during your work on milestone 2. As you launch a formal ministry gathering, additional skills like vision-casting, intentional personal growth, and how to develop and lead a team will become essential.

Two things need to be done to help you continually be growing in your leadership: 

1. Get to know your strengths and weaknesses

If you know where God has gifted you and where you’re not as gifted you’ll be prepared to remain humble, empower others, and learn along the way. Getting honest feedback from those you’re close to and from skills or personality tests like the Myers-Briggs, Strengthsfinder, or Working Genius are both great ways to accelerate this self-knowledge.

2. Make a plan for intentional growth

The growth of a leader isn’t something that will happen on accident. If you want to lead well over the long run you need an intentional plan for learning and growth. What books are you going to read? What podcasts will you listen to? Who will you learn from? Set some specific goals and get to work on growth.

Start something simple

Here is where you actually “launch” a ministry. Once you have a solid core of people who are being discipled, it’s time to start some sort of regular, public-facing gathering that can become a launching pad for further discipleship. This may look like an on-campus worship service, a college night at your church, or simply a regular hangout space for the people you’re trying to reach. The format and frequency of what you launch needs to do at least 3 things:

1. Intentionally accelerate (rather than distract from) the work of discipleship

Whatever you start, it needs to be something that actually supports and accelerates your work of discipleship. This likely means it will be something small scale and not high production value.

2. Build on what (and who) you already have

Whatever you start, it should ideally be a platform to develop and grow those people who are already connected to you in discipleship. If you have someone who’s a natural Bible study leader, start a simple public Bible study and have them co-lead with you. If you have someone(s) who are gifted musicians, you might start a regular worship gathering and let the students lead the worship. If your church has a building near campus, starting something simple may mean putting on regular open house hangouts and inviting college students to the church for snacks and games.

1. Be (primarily) outward-focused 

Whatever you start, it should be focused on reaching people who are outside the church walls. Jesus’ great commission is about going, not about creating a space for Christians to withdraw. If you want to have a disciple-making ministry it needs to be structured to reach new people from the beginning. This means that what you launch should be easily accessible and welcoming to people who are not Christians.

How long will this take? 

Depending on the resources at your disposal and the maturity of the people you’ve been discipling, starting something simple could take as little as a month or two. For some leaders - particularly those in small churches with minimal resources attempting to pioneer something at largely unreached campuses this process may take a semester or two to establish a solid rhythm of that simple gathering space. 

It’s worth the work

To hit all three milestones - prayer and culture groundwork, discipleship groundwork, and leadership development before starting something simple - will take 8-12 months in most cases. This isn’t a fast-fix. But doing your due diligence as you start a ministry will set you up for long-term effectiveness and impact.

It’s worth the work.