Fall reflections

While things are finally slowing down after a very busy few weeks, I’ve had some time to reflect about the fall ministries.

New Leaders with New Perspectives: This year, more than previous years I took a few risks inviting some students into leadership. Resulting in the largest and most diverse team of leaders I’ve ever worked with. I’ve been fascinated as we’ve learned to work together. Each one has so much potential and has grown a lot in the past few months! I’ve been blown away as these leaders have stepped up in surprising ways, and chosen to try new things even though it’s scary and uncomfortable. I’ve seen new possibilities of ministries as I’ve gotten to know these leaders, and I’ve seen doors open to previously unreached groups of students like grad students, residence students and South Asian students because of the connections and relationships these student leaders have built.

Mark studies: It’s actually been surprisingly fun studying the Gospel of Mark this semester (especially given my previous post about Mark). I’ve enjoyed seeing new study leaders take the things they’ve learned during bible study prep and teach these studies using their skills and gifts. Some highlights have been Allison’s bible study snacks (this girl brings her A-game when it comes to food: ‘smores pie, pumpkin muffins, and strange but delicious chocolate bars) and Laura’s teaching illustrations (including a magic trick that left us so astounded that our loud exclamations got us shushed by the neighbouring study room!). It’s also been fun studying these familiar passages with new students and seeing how they interpret and apply these passages!

Spiritual Workshops: Workshops this year have been sporadically attended, which can be disheartening. However, I’ve noticed that as I track some of the growth in students this year, many of those invitations to try something new and conquer fears have come from workshops. I have seen students grow in boldness as they invite their friends to events and deeper relationship with them. I’ve seen students learn how to create welcoming environments. I’ve seen students conquer fears in sharing their faith with their friends.

Outreach: Often the planning of, invitation to, and execution of outreach events has been challenging for our community. Trying to land on clear, specific and reachable goals and communicating them well to each other is usually where we go awry. In the past, we would plan these large, flashy events that would draw lots of students but then have poor follow-up and not see these new students again. This year, we’ve tried some simpler events, which haven’t drawn the same range of students BUT has given us excellent opportunities for follow-up as the people coming to these events are our friends that we regularly do life with who are not yet part of our IVCF community. It’s been fun getting to know each other’s friends and watching as they become friends with others in our community. I’m excited to see how some of these new friendships will grow deeper and fuller.

All in all, there’s lots of potential for the next semester, I’m hopeful for what’s next.