Welcome back!

We pray that you are doing well and that you had a great summer. It may be hard to believe, but the beginning of the school year is already here! Hopefully you have been looking forward to it.

Welcome back to your campus! We pray that this fall semester will bring glory to God and bring you closer to Him. We also pray that this fall many students will have the opportunity to hear about Christ on your campus.



Here are some thoughts in regards to starting the semester well as a ministry:
Prayer, be in prayer for the fall semester. Some things to pray about: your own academics, walk with the Lord and ministry to others.
Take time to dream and to ask the Lord about the "immeasurably more" He'd like to do on your campus and in your life this fall.

Ephesians 3:20-21 "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

As you dream, please take time to check out Campus Crusade's godsquad website for additional ideas and resources for the first six weeks of the fall. Also, please think carefully about how to welcome new students and welcome back returning students to your campus and to your activities and meetings. One way to do this is by considering your ministry's publicity situation.

If a Freshmen were to step on campus, who didn't know anyone and didn't know if there was a Christian group on campus, would he or she be able to find your ministry? Do the nonbelievers on your campus even know there is a Christian movement on their campus? You must make yourselves visible for new and returning students. At all times, every day of the school year, we want to have posters up around campus. This is so essential. You can plan great meetings and outreaches but if no one knows you exist or how to find you, no one will come.Some essentials to keep in mind in making up your flyer:

your ministry's name
day of your weekly meeting/Bible study
time you meet
room you meet in
Easy to read from a distance (If they have to get right on top of it to read it, most likely it won't be effective.)
Bright paper
Posted in high traffic areas
Keep it simple (so it will be easier to read)

If you want to communicate some sort of message about your group on the poster, try to focus on something to do with: love, friendship, acceptance, and community. You want people to be attracted to your group not put off by it. At your first few meetings, it is great to pass around a sign up sheet asking for people's names, addresses, phone #s and email addresses. Create an email distribution list and keep people updated on coming events, announcements and reminders.

Publicity is pretty simple to do, it doesn't take that much time or effort but for whatever reason we tend to neglect it quite a bit. So, let this be the semester that everyone knows how to find you! Check out http://www.godsquad.com/posters/index.htm and http://everystudentpromotion.com/ for more publicity ideas and poster downloads.