November is here already. Can you believe we are 5+ weeks from the end of the semester? It just seems to fly sometimes. Depending upon where your ministry is, the holiday season can be a very slow time or your biggest time of the year. Here are a few tips and thoughts for you as you transition into this season (the key here is BE STRATEGIC in the transitional times)

Away Holiday Ministries

If you are in a college town, everyone goes home or somewhere during the holidays. That may take your group and completely deplete it. A few thoughts for you in that transition are:

1. Don’t be afraid to talk about how many are leaving and going home. Encourage your collegiates to connect at their home church while they are away.
2. Encourage them to spend time with friends at home and share what God is doing in their lives.
3. Challenge them to share their faith with an old friend.
4. Help others see they are different when they come home.
5. Get them excited about the Spring Semester. Since you’re coming to INTERSECT, you might want to get them pumped about that.
6. Have them write out how this Holiday season will be different than past ones, and let them see what they wrote when they come back in January to see if they followed thru.

Note: This also provides a great time to connect with those who stay in your ministry. You have a chance to deepen relationships and really connect in a way you normally do not have.

Home Holiday Ministry

If you are in a town where everyone comes home during the holidays, you have a very brief and unique time to connect with collegiates. As they come home, many will revert back to their old ways and their old friends. If your collegiate ministry is one where some students never connected before they left for school, it will be very difficult to get them when they come home. They are more inclined to go to church with their parents or friends and skip your ministry. How do you change that:

1. Do something big! Have a big event where they can connect and have fun. You can get them to a party or a gathering to interact with you and with the rest of your group.
1. Get word out while they are still at school: Facebook, Twitter, their friends
2. Do something that makes a difference
2. Have lunch, coffee, dinner or coffeecakes with as many of those who are away during the year as you can. Don’t try to recruit them just connect and build the relationships. Most likely they will be back in the summer; and the more they know you and your heart, the better chance you have of connecting with them during the summer and the weekends they come home during the year.