I was saddened to hear about the death of one of my childhood musical heros Michael Jackson. Then two days later the death of Billy Mays. You know, the OxiClean guy who then sold me a big purple “ShamWow.” It seems the whole world stops with the death of celebrities and it is so tragic. I was reminded that from the time anything is birthed, it is dying. Yes, even the iPhone is doomed if Apple doesn’t innovate and grow. It’s called a life-cycle. What about your ministry? Is it merely functioning as an Organization or an Organism? Organizations offer structure to complexity but can die out if they don’t produce something. Conversely, an Organism can multiply and reproduce itself naturally and consistently to prevent death. Jesus’ discipleship model uses the latter. If our ministry, even with extravagant structure, doesn’t produce disciples, it too will suffer death. So in this dry time of summer, you could be preventing ministry death by doing a few key exercises:

• Mentor 1-2 new key leaders one day a week over lunch
           o Tim Elmore has some great resources at GrowingLeaders.org
• Take 1-2 key Administrators at a local campus out to lunch
           o Share your vision with them and find new opportunities to partner
• Identify 2-3 student organizations that you can partner with for events
           o Look for opportunities to make new bridges onto the campus

The idea here is to invigorate internal growth (mentoring leaders) and explore external growth (opportunities on campus). Develop 1-2 new leaders who can step up in the fall semester. There are plenty of doors on the campus that the Lord is waiting to open, just seek His direction. The death of our Savior brought life for us, our ministries and so many lost souls on our campuses. Remember, every day is one day closer to the end, yet our Gospel thrusts us toward that Day which we long for as believers in Jesus. Death was defeated at the Cross. What great news we have to share!

Nate Stewart

SBTC Collegiate