Bob Fuhs: Some Wise Observations

A few weeks ago I helped lead a gathering of 80+ leaders with the US Campus Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. We had some great discussion, some decent disagreement and frustration with a sense of greater hope generally sprinkled in. Depending on which email I read last, we either did a wonderful thing, or we are all going down with the ship.

So – I would like to post some thoughts from some of the key leaders in attendance. This from Bob Fuhs – formerly directing the ministry at UCLA and now hanging with the Golden Gophers of Minnesota.

These are simply some bullet points from Bob regarding next steps for the UMW Region (a bunch of cold states with names like Dakota). I particularly like his take on the barriers.

Have each local leader and metro leader give us a snapshot of their scope including # of campuses, # of students, ethnic breakdown on each campus, what is currently happening on that campus.

Our region needs to talk about multiple movements exclusively in terms of ethnic students. To talk about it in terms of anything else (the band kids, theatre kids, etc…) is too distracting and confusing and takes us away from what really needs to be happening on our campuses.

Get back to expansion work. A team can take one day a week to do launching this semester…and find a way to stay involved with that launch (as opposed to the Desert Road trips that were a one time deal with no continuing involvement). Also, some student leaders might really get into helping to launch a new campus.

Add a new campus or movement launch to a possible Target Area for a training group or action group.

U of M raise up interns to solely do expansion within the MSP area…and they are on our team and not Metro.

We need to make reproduction a non-negotiable. Multiplication can be a negotiable, but not reproduction. This gives some focus to our training groups and what we need to require.

Launching movements takes time. Even finding a person of peace does not guarantee a started movement. Students are (can be) immature, broken, fickle, flaky…making it hard to build something with them.

Key leaders are out there. This is why in launching, we need to target those already spring loaded for leadership. Is it possible to find those high-leverage high school seniors and know where they are off to college?

-Can we get a small booklet published with stories of launched movements and pictures of win-build-send and principles to use with staff and students?

Possible barriers to launching ethnic movements:
*we are fighting 50 years of momentum
*there are no key ethnic leaders regionally, nationally and globally. Our leadership face is still white.
*The name “Crusade” might be too hard edged, smacking of “olde tyme religion,” smacks of white establishment.

God has called CCC to be involved in and lead the charge in accelerating getting the gospel to every person on planet earth-starting with university campuses. We must never forget this is why we exist.

Try these exercises with your team:
It’s 2010 and our movement is marked by the fact that we are really reaching every student on our campus. How did it happen? What principles guided us? What worked? What things did we try? What things did we need to do? What problems did we need to solve?

A successful launch needs a least 4 things:
1. Tools. How to’s in terms of small groups, weekly meetings, evangelism, discipleship…
2. Modeling. They need to see what a movement looks like. Either they come to us or we go to them. Summer projects are key. It’s hard to create something you have never seen.
3. Ongoing support and encouragement.
4. Consistency of leadership at some level. Could be staff, volunteers locally…someone who will be there longer than the average shelf-life of a student leader (i.e. more than 4 years).