leading a movement
Two Essentials for the
First Week of School
By Ben Rivera, Student LINC Consultant

1. Essential #1 - Doing a survey is a must for your first week of school. Don't miss out on this most critical event. You will gather more interested people during the first week of school then any other time of the year.

My favorite survey is the 30 Second Questionnaire. You can change the first three questions to be more contemporary with the campus culture but the essence of questions 4 and 5 need to be asked with a response of "Yes", "Maybe" or "No".

Contacting the "Yes" and "Maybe" student responses to questions 4 and 5 by email, phone, or mail is important. You can invite them to your weekly meeting or Bible study and follow them up in a group setting. Or you can make an appointment with them individually to personally go through the gospel.

If you are passing our Freshman Survival Kits (FSK's), that would be the time to do the survey. To get a kit, the student needs to first do the survey.

2. Essential #2 - Do a Double Exposure Poster Campaign on your campus all year long, beginning with your first week of classes. Here's how it works;

First Exposure:

Every two weeks put up a new Bible study or weekly meeting poster of your choice on campus. Take the old one's down and put up the new one's. This will give your weekly meetings as fresh advertising look every two weeks. Try it, I think it will work. Go and grab the Weekly Meeting posters and Bible Study Posters.

You have a good variety of posters. Simply put the day, time, and place of your meetings at the bottom of the poster, print and you're ready to put them up. You can also be creative and make your own 1/4 page flyers to pass out to people in class, in the cafeteria or where ever you're at.

Second Exposure:

Every two weeks put up a new ESCmedia poster. This is not to replace the Weekly meeting/Bible study posters but in addition to. Once you're there go to "Quick Jump to a Campaign" and you will see some great evangelistic posters. Every two weeks put up a poster with a different campaign. This will provide your campus with lots of variety.

Someone can get the article that goes along with the poster by going to Everystudent.com web page. I would encourage to also put a sticker on the poster (or cut and paste from your word processor) with your own dedicated email address through your internet provider along with the time, place and day of your weekly meeting. That would allow students to contact someone locally if they had questions and also come to your weekly meeting/Bible study. Be sure to have a couple of articles with you at your meetings so that you might give to students who request them. Download these articles ahead of time.

The spirit behind the ESC posters is to allow you to take the initiative while you're on campus to say, "Hey, did you see that poster on campus? What did you think about it? Would you like a free article that goes along with the poster?" This opens the door for your to share the gospel and invite them to your meetings. This is a great way for you to open up spiritual conversations all over campus. Go for it!

Overall you will be giving the campus a Double Exposure every two weeks of the entire school year. You advertise for your weekly meeting and you spread the seeds of the gospel. It is an easy strategy with lots of potential.