Chapter Planting at Richland Community College - Ministry Exchange (MX)

This document is part of a larger cluster of articles about InterVarsity
chapter planting at https://www.intervarsity.org/mx/page/chapterplanting

Chapter Planting: Richland Community College by Erik Klouse

The Campus

Richland community college is a campus of about 2,750 students in Decatur,
Illinois. The school has no dormitories or sports teams, and we are the
only religious organization on campus. That was one of the main reasons we
started InterVarsity there. The school is known for its computer science
program and its nursing program. It is 82 percent White, 15 percent Black,
1 percent Hispanic, 1 percent Asian, and 1 percent other.

The Challenges

. There is nothing on campus that the students can rally around with a sense of school pride. The closest thing is the school cafeteria, and even it is tiny. So there are no dorms, sports, or a student union. Students come to school and just go to class, then go straight home. There’s nothing on campus to help them “linger.” . We only get the students for two years. On the upside, we can do a lot with someone in two years. However, we need to lower our expectations of a four-year process to get them into leadership. We literally invited people onto the leadership team just because they showed up for Frisbee or a BBQ. We did have a leadership application, but only after the group had been up and running a few years with willing leaders. (In other words, they were not skilled leaders yet, but willing ones.) . The relationships with local churches can sometimes be tricky. A lot of our students are from the city of Decatur, so they are already connected to churches. By motivating them to take their campus seriously as a mission field, we sometimes appear to be “competing” with local churches over their young people, and this is a tough balance. . There are so few of us that the group has a hard time with difficult personality types. Every year that we have been in existence, there has been at least one or two difficult personality types involved. One year, it was several kids from the same family who were negative all the time. Another year it was an older man going to college and spending a little too much time around the young women in the group. Another year it was a female student who hated men and had major control issues. Because there are so few in our chapter, those students were really hurting our efforts at reaching out, as well as hurting our efforts at being a grace-filled community of hope and love. It doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t be involved, only that staff have to put in extra effort personally so that the other people in the group have more of a positive experience with InterVarsity than a negative one. . The age thing is a big challenge. I still haven’t figured out how to meet the needs of folks at the community college who are not 17-25 years old. They are part of our mission field too, but we are not greatly set up to meet their needs. For example, I had an older man go to our winter conference, but it was weird to have him room with three younger guys in college. His small group at the event was weirded out as well. What do we do with them?

Campus Contacts

We have two incredible faculty folks involved in the campus ministry. One
is in the engineering department, and the other is in the computer science
department. Both of them have helped with leadership team meetings, led
Bible studies for students, led a Bible study for faculty, and helped with
service projects. We have also had a great relationship with the office of
student life over the years, and the head of student programs was a
Christian involved in the faculty study. She has since moved on, but her
replacement also likes us. We generally have nice kids in our group, and
they work hard and help out with other events. We have received the
“organization of the year” award for a few years.

What We’re Doing

There is a weekly bible study on Wednesdays, a prayer meeting on Fridays,
and several food giveaways and book tables throughout the year. We have
also done some service projects together as a group. There is a Club Day
once each semester that we are always a big part of, and every once in a
while we’ll host a fun activity for the whole campus. This year our
students are doing a “Banana Bonanza Extravaganza” day with all kinds of
crazy games revolving around bananas. I don’t know why. They get it.

The Vision

First of all, I don’t know what we would do without the faculty support
because we also give a lot of our time to the four-year school in town. The
fact that these faculty members are capable spiritual leaders at Richland
is wonderful. They are basically honorary staff.

Second, we really need an IVCF staff for Richland full-time. Now that the
group has been in existence a few years, it has enough momentum to warrant
more attention. My wife is now an AD for InterVarsity, and she has a vision
to plant more chapters at community colleges. We are looking to hire a
staff person who wants to do community college work.

Third, a major part of our success has been partnering with other programs
going on at Richland. We have co-sponsored (and rescued) several events
with other groups. We always volunteer to help out the Office of Student
Life, like serving refreshments at events, or cleaning up outside, etc. We
have also provided several articles for the school paper about our
activities. The college loves us. We have humbly served other groups, and
it has actually benefited us because of the reputation that has come with
it. If you co-sponsor things with other groups as often as possible, it
provides rapport with those groups, connections with seekers, and gives you
a great standing with the college.

God is Working

See the stories above. I know God is working through our partnerships with
other organizations and by providing such great faculty for us.

Help Needed

We need other staff to see our work at the community college as worthwhile.
More affirmation by peers and supervisors is important. If InterVarsity is
serious about reaching every student on every campus, then ministry at
small, difficult two-year schools is just as valuable an investment of
resources as the more “successful” chapters at bigger four-year schools.
Richland Community College is a campus in my own home town that has no
organizations trying to meet the spiritual needs of the students. We can’t
ignore it.

Chapter_Planting_2yr_Comm_Richland_Community_College.doc