Faculty Continuum

Download the Continuum PDF

View Resources for the Prospective Stage

View Resources for the Connected Stage

View Resources for the Emerging Stage 

View Resources for the Establishing Stage

View Resources for the Catalyzing Stage

The Challenge

Navigating the world of campus ministry is no small task. The path to establishing and advancing a witnessing community on your campus might feel ambiguous and a little intimidating. As you think about your ministry, you may have wondered: How do we translate our passion into action? Where do we currently stand in our journey to reach the campus and how do we build momentum? What resources are best suited for our current context? How do we deal with setbacks and challenges?  

Ministry leaders frequently share the desire for more clarity and cohesion in our campus ministry strategies. That's what inspired us to create the Campus Continuum. The Faculty Ministry Leadership Team has created a draft Faculty Ministry Continuum to describe the development of ministry with faculty, since it is different from ministry with undergraduate and graduate students in several ways. (For example: Faculty are in their workplace when we meet them on campus. Faculty cover at least 3 different adult life stages.)

The Campus Continuum provides campus ministry leaders with a clear and strategic framework to:  

• Understand the growth and developmental journey of a witnessing community.
• Assess where your community currently is in its journey.
• Provide a roadmap for future growth and direction.  

How can the Continuum help?  

Though this tool is still a prototype primarily designed with campus staff and staff directors in mind, we are making it available because we think it can be helpful for anyone who is passionate about growing their ministry. It aids in:  

1. Understanding Over Guesswork: Communities are complex and often don’t follow a straight path. Instead of guessing, leaders can lean on the Campus Continuum's structured approach to navigate the complexities of ministry growth and identify the next steps for their community.
2. Strategic Clarity: By identifying your current stage, you can better strategize for the future. This includes setting clear objectives, determining leadership actions, focusing on discipleship, and setting goals for community growth.
3. Cultivating Momentum: Use the Continuum to energize your team, celebrate milestones, and pray for God's guidance and direction moving forward.  

Diving Deeper: The Anatomy of the Continuum  

The tool is constructed around five distinct stages of community growth:  

• Prospective
• Connected
• Emerging
• Establishing
• Catalyzing  

Each stage is enriched with specific categories:  

• Definition: Snapshot of the stage.
• Core Focus: The primary objective.
• Key Leadership Moves: Tactics to accomplish core focus.
• Who to Develop: Identifying who to invest in.
• Signs of Life: What does “success” look like?
• Critical Transition: The criteria for moving forward.
• The Four Faculty Loves
• Staff/Faculty Ownership Diagram

Of course, community growth isn’t always a linear, straightforward journey. Even with our best intentions, our ministries can sometimes face setbacks – a normal phase in any community of faith. While the Continuum suggests a progression (left to right), it’s also designed to assist when revisiting the previous stages (right to left) to regain momentum. No matter where your community is, the Continuum’s aim is to provide clarity – answer, “where are we?” – and to serve as a guide to help us move forward in step with God’s spirit together!  

Faculty Continuum Resources 

These resources are currently being tested by the Faculty Ministry Leadership Team. 

Prospective

Little is known about what is happening on campus

• A Brief Guide to People Within the Academy: This guide provides a snapshot of some key roles for campus faculty and administrators.  
• Faculty Log Sheet: The faculty log helps you keep track of important relationships you have with faculty as you meet and network with them.
• Faculty Network Mapping Exercise: The faculty network map helps faculty prayerfully consider key relationships around them both with people and institutions.
• Campus Exploration For Faculty Ministry: Engaging in ministry with faculty means begins with getting to know the specific context of the college or university where they serve. This exercise helps staff to get to know the history, people and structure of each campus and invites prayer for God's work.  
• Meeting with Faculty: Campus Minister's Guide: Meeting faculty on campus means connecting with them in their workplace. This article provides practical guidelines for preparing to meet faculty and growing relationships with them.
• Roles in the University: This resource is a guide to the typical organizational structure of a large American R1/R2 university.  
• Finding, Inviting and Meeting with Faculty: This guide addresses the prospective stage of faculty ministry: the season of listening, learning, prayer and laying groundwork. Before a community forms, there is the faithful work of meeting faculty where they are, hearing their stories, and building trust and relationships. Think of new faculty outreach not as a program to launch but as an ongoing, year-round practice.  

Connected 

A few contacts are interested in starting something new  

• Faculty Log Sheet: The faculty log helps you keep track of important relationships you have with faculty as you meet and network with them.
• The Faculty Gatherings Toolkit: This toolkit provides everything needed to gather faculty/administrators/staff to launch a community of faculty following Jesus together on campus including a guide and template for hosting a first faculty gathering, and resources for further gatherings. 

Emerging

A community has formed on campus

• Square Inch Stories: Square Inch Stories are short talks that help the church and campus understand what it looks like to love God/one another, your campus, your academic discipline and our world.  
• The Faculty Gatherings Toolkit: This toolkit provides everything needed to gather faculty/administrators/staff to launch a community of faculty following Jesus together on campus including a guide and template for hosting a first faculty gathering, and resources for further gatherings. 

Establishing

A missional community is developing on campus

• Contributing To The Kingdom Through Faculty Life: The Missional Activity Ideas Resource can help faculty and staff consider how to engage in mission.  Which of the four faculty loves seems compelling to a person or a group? How much time and energy is available?  Ideas in this resource are a starting place for further engagement in mission individually or in community.
• Square Inch Stories: Square Inch Stories are short talks that help the church and campus understand what it looks like to love God/one another, your campus, your academic discipline and our world.  
• The Faculty Gatherings Toolkit: This toolkit provides everything needed to gather faculty/administrators/staff to launch a community of faculty following Jesus together on campus including a guide and template for hosting a first faculty gathering, and resources for further gatherings. 

Catalyzing 

The missional community is engaging multiple corners and/or campuses

• Under Construction