coaching

Accelerating Mission Through Video Coaching

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 19:46:11 +0000

November 1, 2017

Gordon Govier

Accelerating Mission Through Video Coaching

In the early days of ��Ƶ, field staff itinerated from campus to campus by train; they were assigned to regions, not campuses. In order to reach every corner of every campus, a goal to which ��Ƶ aspires, we may be returning to a semblance of those days with staff once again mentoring student leaders on a number of campuses.

In fact, it’s already starting. But instead of trains, staff use Zoom and Google Hangouts.

Zoom is a California-based company that offers remote video conferencing services. In the last few years ��Ƶ staff have been using Zoom more and more to hold virtual staff meetings with colleagues across the country. Arul Karunanidhi, an ��Ƶ Campus Staff Minister in Florida, wondered, “Why can’t it work with students?”

Arul discovered ��Ƶ as a sophomore at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and joined ��Ƶ staff at UCF upon graduation. Three years ago, he began to visit nearby campuses that didn’t have an ��Ƶ chapter. “That was a big part of my heart, to do ministry with students who don’t have a witnessing community or don’t have access to the gospel,” he said.

Working with his staff supervisor, he created the position of “itinerant planter.” His first-year goal was to work on three campuses in Orlando. But then God started opening doors not only in Orlando but also in nearby Lakeland. Arul was making connections through students who wanted ��Ƶ on campus, or an alumnus who knew a Christian student on a campus, or a Christian faculty member who had an ��Ƶ connection.

By the end of the year two chapters had been established and two more had active ministry. And Arul had a vision for planting 10 more chapters on 10 new campuses in three years. “God’s been opening doors and now I’m working on nine campuses; we planted ��Ƶ on seven of them,” he said.

Zoom was an experiment at first; it seemed like it might work with student leaders as well as ��Ƶ staff. But has turned out to be a critical component. Orlando is a big, spread-out city and Lakeland is a 90-minute drive away. “There was no way I could meet with people face to face and still have any other life,” he said. “But now I can do Scripture studies with them, I can do training, I can debrief events, all through Zoom.”

At one media-focused school, students changed schedules every month and finding a time for Christian students to all meet in person was nearly impossible. “Let’s try things over Zoom and see what happens,” Arul said. Now the students are doing video conference Bible studies together. “It feels completely natural for them,” he added. After all, the students are already used to a lot of screen time on their smart phones and through online courses.

NaKhia Grays, Black Campus Ministry (BCM) coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Region, faced a similar dilemma. After becoming involved in ��Ƶ as a student at Bucknell University, she joined staff as a volunteer in 2001, and became a full-time staff member two years later. When she transitioned to part-time with the arrival of her baby, NaKhia wanted to keep mentoring students who were initiating BCM small groups in Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Delaware. So she began a monthly Google Hangout video conference. “I was trying to streamline my work and figure out the best way to influence the most student leaders with the least amount of time,” she said.

The first Hangouts were early in 2016. After maternity leave she resumed Hangouts again in February of 2017, following the Black Student Leadership Conference, RELEASE. Within another month, two of the students had started a BCM small group on their campus. “Who launches anything in March of the school year?” NaKhia laughed. “The students were either eager to create a space on their campus that hasn’t been there or they experienced something at the BCM conference that they wanted to replicate on their campus.”

The students share prayer requests and pray for each other during the call. NaKhia teaches about leadership and other relevant topics, fields questions, and then they close in prayer. “The students get to know each other pretty well,” she said. They are encouraged to be connecting with others like themselves on other campuses.

Arul found the same response. “We were creating a community across campuses,” he said. “It really felt like the original ��Ƶ—a Christian fellowship between the universities.”*

Arul’s hope is that each campus represented on his calls will eventually have their own staff person—perhaps one of the students he’s now mentoring by video, so that a sustainable ministry can start at each school. “They just need vision, support, and coaching,” he said.

In the Mid-Atlantic region, NaKhia is hoping to see Black Campus Ministry continue to flourish through Bible studies and BCM chapters. Some of the students NaKhia has been coaching have become accountability partners to strengthen their faith. Long-term relationships are being built.

This year, Florida classes and scheduled events were thrown off schedule by Hurricane Irma, which moved through the state near the start of the semester. But Arul found that getting his students back on track was helped by the video conference connection.

It looks like video conference coaching will be keeping ��Ƶ on track for years to come.

*See how ��Ƶ got its name on our history page.

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��Ƶ's Most Effective Evangelism Project

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:20:09 +0000

News

October 23, 2017

Gordon Govier

��Ƶ's Most Effective Evangelism Project

��Ƶ’s best evangelism project should no longer be a well-kept secret. “Zero conversion coaching is our most successful and most fruitful project,” said Evangelism Director Doug Schaupp. “I don’t have any other tool that has worked 100 percent of the time. It always produces conversions.”

Conversion to life in Christ is one of ��Ƶ’s best metrics, and we’ve seen incredible growth in recent years. Decisions to follow Jesus surpassed 4,500 last year, up by 130 percent from ten years ago. “That includes 10 new believers a day for the past four years,” Doug said. But the increase is not consistent across the board. “Many chapters saw zero conversions last year.”

Melissa Montecuollo inherited one of those zero conversion chapters. After teaching middle school English for several years, she longed for a job that allowed for more spiritual conversations and transformative opportunities. It was difficult to have conversations with middle schoolers in public school about how they could improve their lives.

She considered joining ��Ƶ staff. “When I heard about Northridge not having any staff at the time, I just knew I had to be there,” she said. California State University—Northridge was close to where she grew up. “I knew that was a place where God wanted to do something.”

Melissa’s arrival at Northridge brought stability to the chapter, and she enjoyed investing in the students’ lives. “With ��Ƶ, I could have real conversations with students about God and faith, and about their hopes and dreams for their future,” she said.

And yet transformation didn’t seem to be happening as she had hoped it would. “We kind of knew what to do but we didn’t know how to cultivate a culture of students who were ready to say yes to Jesus in some way.”

Melissa was thrilled to find out that the Evangelism Department had started offering zero conversion coaching for chapters like hers. After four years at Northridge, she was ready to sign up.

Zero conversion coaching was created by Bryan Enderle, a part-time staff member who is also a very popular chemistry lecturer at the University of California—Davis. Bryan has been an ��Ƶ staff member for 16 years, and for the past three years he’s been an evangelism coach. Learning about so many chapters without conversions compelled him to respond and develop a coaching plan.

“The most common problem in zero conversion chapters is not doing an ask,” Bryan said. “They don't ask people to believe.” Doug quotes James 4:2, “You do not have because you do not ask.”

Other common problems are looking only for first time believers and not nominal Christians who are Christian in name only, and using Scripture passages and wording that doesn’t resonate with listeners. And, sometimes, the answer to the zero conversion problem is as simple as helping a chapter recognize when someone actually has made a decision to follow Jesus.

Melissa’s coach at Northridge was Leslie Jonan (now Leslie Kearsley), from the University of California—Los Angeles. Leslie and Melissa had been interns together and both had been on staff for about four years. But Leslie’s experience at one of ��Ƶ’s top ten conversion campuses helped her give Melissa a new perspective.

“They just need someone who is checking in with them, giving them application steps, being outside eyes, and helping them move forward,” Bryan said. The coach doesn’t necessarily have all the answers; sometimes they are just somebody to talk with and answer questions. The coaching is done by phone or video, and entails one 90-minute call per month for nine months.

Working together, Melissa and Leslie both had ideas that they were able to discuss and evaluate. Melissa changed the way invitations to faith were given at large group meetings and began collecting written records on decisions that were made. Leslie also helped her with ideas on how to invite students to Fall Conference. “That was really helpful for getting students there who were ready to make decisions,” Melissa said.

With Leslie’s coaching assistance, Melissa saw a culture change at Northridge last year. The theme of the year was, “What does it mean to say yes to Jesus?” There were 25 first-time conversions or returns to faith. “We are providing opportunities for people to say yes to Jesus,” Melissa said. “If we help create the culture where that’s the norm, then the choice is there to say yes to Jesus or not, and we don’t have to worry about that.”

Doug is pleased that all of the chapters who have participated in coaching for the full nine months have seen new faith decisions. “This includes West Coast, Midwest, and East Coast chapters, state schools, private schools, and community colleges, plus International Student Ministry and Black Campus Ministry,” he said. “Even student leaders are signing up for our coaching.”

The secret is getting out. Coaching is accelerating ��Ƶ’s mission on campus.

^{Photo of CSU--Northridge students by Melissa Montecuollo.}

News Keywords

Evangelism

California State University

Northridge

coaching

coaching

Accelerating Mission Through Video Coaching

Accelerating Mission Through Video Coaching

������Ƶ's Most Effective Evangelism Project

������Ƶ's Most Effective Evangelism Project

��Ƶ's Most Effective Evangelism Project

��Ƶ's Most Effective Evangelism Project