Tag Archives: Campus Ministry United

Free Audio from Family Vacation 2012: Never Roam Alone

20 Jan

For more like this, visit campusministryunited.com’s download page.

Free Audio From the 2011 Campus Ministry United Workshop – #cmuw11

11 Jul

Each year seems to be better than the last – 2011 was no exception. Please share these resources with anyone who may benefit.

2011 Campus Ministry United Workshop – #cmuw11

9 Jul

Having a blast at the 2011 Campus Ministry United Workshop!

Lessons are awesome, worship is inspiring, and the fellowship is great.

All audio recordings from the weekend will be posted to this website as soon as they’re available (shortly after the workshop is over).

To follow live Tweets from this event, check out #cmuw11 - it’s been a great year!

2011 Campus Ministry United Workshop Around the Corner

24 Jun

The 2011 Campus Ministry United Workshop is nearly upon us, and in a few days my family will pack our bags and make the journey from San Francisco to Arkansas to join everyone else on the campus of Harding University for this event.

I’m excited, because the CMU Workshop is more than just a meeting for campus ministers and students – it is an annual celebration of a movement we are all part of to plant new campus ministries and encourage evangelistic activity among college students nationwide.

What started in 2006 as a small meeting of about 40 leaders interested in reaching college students has grown each year, and many positive things have happened in a short amount of time.

Several brand new ministries have been planted around the country, a number of young ministers have been trained to enter full-time ministry, money has been raised, plans for the future have been laid at God’s feet in prayer, and, just this year, two full-time staff persons were added in Lynn & Carol Stringfellow to promote CMU’s agenda to reach college students year round. A large, influential church in Tulsa, OK’s Park Plaza Church of Christ joined the team in 2010 through sponsoring the Stringfellows, and elders and leaders from other churches have approached us about getting involved in other ways as well.

New ministry sites are being researched, plans for new plants are being made, and new people are contacting us about being trained for ministry. We have much work to do, many interested in helping to get it done, and for that we are thankful.

All this has been an answer to prayers prayed by people passionate about reaching others with the gospel of Jesus Christ and seeing His Kingdom break out in power on this earth.

God has been behind all the good things that have happened so far, and I believe He’s just getting started!

If you are interested in reaching college students with the gospel of Jesus Christ or simply in evangelism (regardless of the form it takes), you ought to join us at the 2011 Campus Ministry United Workshop July 7-10 at Harding University.

A Facebook Event Page has been set up, and pertinent info has been posted on the Workshop Page of campusministryunited.com.

The CMUW is more than just a workshop – it’s a celebration of a Christ-centered movement to reach college students for and with Jesus. If you want to be part of something bigger than yourself, join us.

God is doing something special!

Vast Majority of US Teens to Attend College – What’s the Church Going to Do About It?

14 Jun

The Barna Group’s research continues to tell us a story – a story about the church’s need to respond to the call to responsibly shepherd older teens and college students.

Here’s an excerpt from a study released in May of last year outlining how a nationwide sample of older teens responded to the question, “What do you think your life will be like 10 years from now?”:

The most common aspirations of teenagers were related to college and their professional pursuits. Finishing a college degree was their top-rated future priority. A majority of teenagers felt certain that they would accomplish this goal by age 25. In all, 93% of teenagers said they would either definitely or probably obtain a college degree by their mid-twenties.

Add to this David Kinnaman’s comments from Barna’s latest study (a follow-up to the one done a year ago):

With the vast majority of teenagers hoping to experience and graduate from college someday (see previous Barna study on this subject), Kinnaman suggested that college and career decisions represent an important opportunity for faith leaders to influence students. “Today’s teens have huge aspirations in life and a great deal of self-confidence that is sometimes out of proportion with their abilities. Taught to believe they can accomplish anything at anytime, many young people figure if they see a problem or a need, they can just start a new company or nonprofit to address it. And armed with technology, some of them are actually doing that.

“Still, many young people do not seem to understand how a rich, historic understanding of the Christian faith and the gospel ought to inform their career aspirations,” Kinnaman continued. “And faith leaders are not as intentional as they could be with instruction and coaching on these types of decisions. Understanding how teenagers hope to spend their professional lives can help faith communities and institutions better support these students as they discern God’s calling in their lives.”

Kinnaman is right in saying youth leaders should do more to guide young people toward making career decisions and future plans through the lens of faith, but couldn’t one also say more attention should be paid to intentionally ministering to students while they’re actually in college?

The moral of the story this research tells certainly indicates more could and should be done – 93% of the young people in this country are going to go to college, and 100% of them need to know Jesus.

If you are one who agrees with that statement, let me ask this: what are you willing to do about it?

I have some suggestions – more on this soon.

Check out the new campusministryunited.com!

17 Jan

The new campusministryunited.com is live! There are still a couple of minor fixes needed (like the picture dimensions on the contact page), but overall this is it.

Click the screen shot below to go to the site:

Thank you to Keith Chambliss for the design … solid work. :)

Stringfellow Enters Blogosphere

21 Oct

Lynn Stringfellow learned to read and write and is busy making posts on his new blog (inaugural post here).

Lynn is the two-time winner of the westcoastwitness.com Inflammatory Commenter Award. That being said, you’ll want to add  tulsaoilman.wordpress.com to your favorites list. It’s bound to be interesting reading.

Seriously though: the heart Lynn and Carol Stringfellow have for people – particularly college students – is nothing short of amazing. They’ve been an inspiration to Airiel and I for many years and will continue to be until the end of our days together.

If you haven’t already heard, Lynn and Carol are in the process of raising money to cover expenses for their new ministry of nurturing nationwide campus ministry plants (learn more here).

I strongly believe in what they’re planning to do, am committed to contributing financially to their work, and would like you to consider being so as well. It doesn’t matter if it’s as little as $10.00 per month – every little bit helps!

We’ve put in dent in the fundraising goal, but still have about $82,000 we need to raise.

It will come together as people own this mission, and more and more are as time passes!

If you’re interested in being one of those people, email campusministryunited@gmail.com expressing interest and you’ll be contacted quickly.

Can you help?

Stringfellows Moving to Work Full-Time Toward Nationwide Campus Ministry Plants

16 Aug

Youth ministries are very common among Churches of Christ, but very few campus ministries exist … in all, less than 150. There are over 2,600 accredited, four-year institutions in the United States alone, and if you factor in community colleges that number soars to thousands more.

Why am I telling you this? Because 77% of those who make a decision for Christ in the United States do so by the age of 21. Over 97% of the colleges and universities in the United States lack a Church of Christ campus ministry … this matters because as a fellowship we’re barely even trying to reach millions of students (much less actually doing it) when studies show the college years are among some of the best to do so.

Campus Ministry United (CMU) exists to remedy that.

Cryptic messages abounded on Twitter and Facebook last week prophesying “big news” to be announced in one week from CMU. One week is up, and the announcement is here: CMU is hiring two full-time staffers to promote church-run evangelistic campus ministry plants all over the country!

Lynn & Carol Stringfellow wearing traditional South-Floridian garb.

Lynn & Carol Stringfellow – long time campus ministers for the Bay Area Church of Christ in Tampa, FL – will be assuming their new role about a year from now.

Their job will be to work full-time in advancing  CMU’s mission in four primary ways:

DIRECTORS OF MINISTRY ADVANCEMENT – PRIMARY INITIATIVES

1)Fundraising
•Provide support for ministry/university church planters trained through CMU.

2) Networking & Recruiting
•Bring new students into CMU’s training program.
•Make connections with churches interested in sponsoring campus ministry/university church plants through CMU.

3) Research & Development
•Organize bi-annual study of Church of Christ campus ministry.
•Provide enrichment materials to address needs through provided outlets (CMU’s web presence, annual CMU workshops).

4) Public Relations
•Serve as an ambassador between planters, churches, Christian colleges and secular universities.

The Park Plaza Church of Christ in Tulsa, OK, has committed to being the sponsoring congregation behind this work, and Tulsa will serve as central headquarters for the Stringfellows and their ministry.

This work is a missionary effort, and like all missionaries the Stringfellows will live on support kindly donated from churches and individuals. We have about $100,000 we need to raise immediately to cover the operational budget (mostly the working fund) for this ministry for the first year.

If you have a heart for reaching college students and would like to find out more about financially supporting this ministry, please email CMU at campusministryunited@gmail.com expressing your interest and someone will get back with you quickly.

I am very excited about this news! People all over the world will now be blessed by Lynn & Carol’s work. Their ministry in Tampa has consistently made an impact on the lives of students, most of whom were not Christians before encountering the Stringfellows. The church as a whole will be blessed as their evangelistic zeal, focus on the unchurched, and influence spreads.

Folks, we’re working toward making CoC campus ministry plants a regular occurrence in a healthy way that’s never been done before. More news will follow – please post any questions you may have in the form of a comment.

Congrats Lynn & Carol – may your work be blessed! I’ll be keeping this work in my prayers, and I hope you will too.

2010 Campus Ministry United Workshop Audio – #CMUW

15 Jul

As promised, here is all available audio from the 2010 Campus Ministry United Workshop at Harding University:

A few lessons did not make the recording (namely Mitch Wilburn’s, Clint Hill’s [edit: Clint's lesson was re-recorded and uploaded at a later time], and one of Patrick Mead’s) – our recording equipment wasn’t cooperating in the beginning. Sorry about that.

Despite minor technical issues, this was our best workshop yet overall. About 160 very excited people were in attendance, and most left fired up to reach their campuses for Christ. Mitch Wilburn was awesome, Patrick Mead was both informative and hilarious, Monte Cox was insightful, Robert Cox was challenging, and all of our other speakers did a wonderful job.

Benson Hines‘ class on brainstorming proved to be a hit, as did Orlando Henlon’s class on learning to focus on reaching outsiders. Of course, Lynn Stringfellow, Kerry Cox, and Clint Hill brought heat as they always do.

2010 was a great year, and we’re praying 2011 will be even better! Go ahead and mark your calendars now – the 2011 CMU Workshop will be held July 7-10, 2011 on the campus of Harding University in Searcy, AR.

To access audio from all of the past CMU Workshops as well as other CMU events, visit the CMU Audio/Video Page. We’ve developed quite an archive.

Enjoy! :)

Worship on the last night of the #CMUW

11 Jul
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