Chapter Planting at Solano 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

Solano Community College by Matt Lee and Hunter Buikema

The Campus

Solano Community College (CA) is a school that is off by itself (not near a
city), almost as if it were placed where a rest stop should be. Because of
the remote location, the students seem to come from all over the place,
like Vallejo, Suisan City, Fairfield, Vacaville, Dixon, Napa, and Travis
Air Force Base. There is an obvious lack of school pride. Most students
don’t even know the school colors or mascot. In many ways the campus can
feel like an extension of high school. Also, most Christian students seem
to only identify with their church community and are often unwilling to
expand that community.

There seem to be two major types of students, both very different from each
other. One group uses the campus only as stepping stone to where they are
going to next. These students may be taking classes here only to save
money, knowing they are leaving to go to a four-year school. These students
tend to have the least amount of identity with the campus.

The other group of students seems unmotivated and they don’t really have a
plan. If they do have a plan, their plans are unrealistic; that is, they
aren’t making the right choices to achieve their goals. Also, this group
often comes across as educationally challenged. They don’t appear to be
very smart or studious, or have come from schools that didn’t give them
much of an educational opportunity.

One other group that we haven’t mentioned is a large population of people
with mental or physical disabilities.

There seems to be a greater diversity of social economic class, age, and
ethnicity than in the university setting. There are many more students
carrying a high level of baggage. More of them are bitter about things in
their lives, and are coming from drug-ravaged homes, for example.

The Challenges

. Many students come from such broken situations that it makes it difficult to break away from negative influences or make positive life changes (i.e., crack babies where parents sell drugs or give them drugs). . The age difference between people we work with can span 40+ years. We work with students who are 16-50’s. It is hard to get them to relate to each other in Bible study and in life situations when they are in completely different stages of life. Also, how do we recruit for conferences when we have older students . . . do we have anything to offer the students who are over 30 years old? . There is a high turnover of students. how do we build leadership structures with students that we may have for only a semester, or two years at the most? Often they are very immature and not ready for leadership roles. How do we paint a picture of campus ministry for these types of students? . Christian students are often willing to identify only with their church community and don’t want to be a part of a ministry on the campus. . Students are never on campus unless they have a class, so we can only meet with them if we are on campus when they are there and only if they have a break during that time. There is an unwillingness to come on campus or stay on campus for some function. Some of this unwillingness is because students are often working when they aren’t on campus. Because of this we are never able to have a large-group meeting. If we ever did have a large group we probably would have to meet during the day. This also makes leadership or discipleship difficult. If we can only get students for an hour a week, should we mentor/disciple them or encourage them to be in a Bible study with students? . Our time is split between this campus and another campus which makes it difficult. We can’t give Solano our full attention. We are only on campus two days a week. . We don’t know why this is but, for whatever reason, ministry here is very exhausting. Even a few hours spent here often leaves us feeling physically and emotionally drained. . Many times students aren’t consistent and don’t show up so it can be really depressing and disheartening.

Ministry Contacts and Opportunities

We know a Christian in the school administration department. We have a
faculty advisor but she is leaving. We know of various Christian faculty
but we have yet to meet them.

What We’re Doing

We have three to five Bible studies a week and one to two GIGs per week. We
are trying to push students into inviting people to Bible study and to lead
GIGs. But so far, all of these groups are run by the staff, with students
occasionally leading a Bible study. We usually set up in the cafeteria and
have a sign which from time to time will help to initiate conversation or
Bible studies with interested parties.

One key activity we have done regularly to establish a ministry is to have
an information table at the beginning of each semester. We also attend
Student Club Day. Also we have managed to get some students to conferences
and they have really enjoyed these times and usually come back more excited
to be part of InterVarsity.

Our Vision

There are quite a few people who are Christians on the campus. The problem
is most of them only identify with their church. So our vision is to build
partnership with the local churches and tell them about what we are doing
at Solano and what we hope to do there. We want to show them how we can
work together. Our hope is that the pastors will tell their students to go
and be a part of InterVarsity. After pooling or gathering the Christians we
hope to set up some better structures for large group gatherings, prayer
meetings, training in various disciplines such as evangelism, and campus-
wide evangelistic events. We are hoping to also become more involved in the
campus life, maybe in tutoring or community service. We hope to also gather
students to conferences as that seems to be a great catalyst for ownership
of the ministry. The final thing we are hoping to accomplish is some sort
of faculty ministry.

Our greatest hope is in the fact that there seems to be many Christians
here. When we have an information table, there are many students who sign
up and we often hear them say they know of many other Christian students.
This gives up hope that we could have a large ministry here if some of
these Christian students catch the vision for campus witness.

What God is Doing

About a year ago we ran into a student and started a conversation about the
type of people we wanted to be. That led us to present the gospel and study
the Bible with him for a few weeks before school ended. When school started
up again last fall, we came across this student again. We began to lead
GIGs with him and invested in his life. We found out he was a coke baby and
learned about his terrible life at home. His parents have sold drugs, and
he sells and does them. We began to pray for and with him more and invest
in him more. We even began to pray that his sins would become unattractive
to him. We gave him rides home, went to a movie with him, had him at one of
our homes, and invited him to run errands with us.

Then one day he called us. He had been in a fight and stabbed someone. The
people that fought with him thought he had drugs so they attacked him. This
event made him reexamine his life. He said he didn’t want to have anything
to do with drugs anymore and thought it was time to try the Christianity
stuff we had been talking about. The guy regularly studies the Bible with
us and continues to wrestle with whether or not he wants to become a
Christian. And he has stayed clean for the most part and is separating
himself from drugs and he continues to call us his friends. And we find
that pretty cool! If it wasn’t for Solano we wouldn’t have been friends
with a drug-dealing, drug-using, foul-mouthed individual like this guy.

One extra side-note to the story is sort of funny. This guy once offered to
sell drugs to help support the ministry. It was kind of touching when he
offered to do this but we had to turn it down; his heart was in a good
place but his methods were not. He has also offered to beat up or take down
anyone that messes with our wives . . . not the usual offer given to us by
friends! (

Help Needed

We don’t know how to word this, but we need help to stay recharged on
campus. It can be hard to come to campus wanting to work and do ministry,
and knowing that people may not show up. Even if they do, we are likely to
walk away extremely tired.

How should our time be spent at a community college? At the university in
the area we have an understanding of how to use our time, what we should
do, and who we should meet with. But starting work at a community college,
we don’t really know how and where to spend our time.

Chapter_Planting_2yr_Comm_Solano_CC.doc