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Two of the questions asked most often by leaders are “How can we get our chapter committed to our vision?” and “How can we avoid the student dropoff and leadership burnout that seems to occur mid-year?” If these are concerns for your chapter, here is a task force report from Canadian student leaders that may help.

Our task force discussed some of the reasons why mobilizing your I-V chapter is a concern in the first place. The two general problems we focused on were student dropoff and leadership burnout. We saw dropoff as a decline in interest, numbers, energy and enthusiasm within the broader fellowship. We addressed leadership burnout specifically among leaders on the primary leadership team (sometimes called the executive team or ‘exec’), and the lack of energy, vision and excitement which may infect their ministry with I-V. We have picked out some causes (in the form of questions) that could contribute to both of these problems, and have offered some strategies which could help better the situation.

Student Drop off

Possible Causes:

1. Is the leadership team acknowledging that people in the group may not be fully aware of the purposes and goals of the chapter? Is the leadership in touch with where the chapter members are in terms of commitment, lifestyle and attitudes? Are the leaders charging ahead without being sensitive to peoples’ needs?

2. How well do students know one another? Is there a lack of community in the group? If the group does not know each other, they cannot support each other.

3. Are leaders open to ideas and feedback from the group?

4. Does the fellowship group have a purpose outside of itself? Are people just existing instead of doing anything?

5. Is there an inadvertent social hierarchy in the group? New members can be turned off by this, and it causes a disconnected feeling. This makes it hard for them to put forth extra effort on their part during busy times.

6. Are ethnic and cultural differences causing some people to leave? (See the article cluster starting on page 12.)

7. Are the chapter members being offered any real challenge to grow in Christ?

Strategies for dropoff:

1. Acknowledge and respond to people’s needs. Try to be broad-minded as leaders. Look for input and vision from your group. Don’t barge ahead at the risk of losing people. And watch to see if people are “falling through the cracks.” It’s crucial to follow people up, learn names and sense where people are in their walk with God and their feelings about the group.

2. Acknowledge that people are coming with different perspectives and experiences. Make sure diversity is okay in your large group. Use a variety of worship and format styles to see what people are comfortable with, but also to get them used to new styles they may not be familiar with. Building an appreciation for diversity isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. Note: don’t accommodate to the point that you are untrue to who you are in Christ. For example, desiring to make non-believers welcome should not cause you to stop praying, but it may make a difference in how you explain what you’re doing.

3. Encourage small-groups as a place to build community. Make sure they are safe places of unconditional love and caring discipleship.

4. Delegate a variety of roles to general chapter members (not leaders), including the fringe. Have a list of things that need doing. Aim for “permanent delegation”—for example, a couple of freshmen who set up chairs each week, or a student who will stop by the college president’s office to say hello once a month.

5. Use discussion in your large-group meetings as a method of encouraging thinking and application of ideas, and as a method of interacting with people you don’t already know. Ask your speakers to come ready to get the group talking.

6. Encourage participation in retreats to develop broader relationships in a non-campus setting.

7. Communicate your vision to your membership in creative ways throughout the year. Use skits, commercials, video clips, stories and themes to revisit the key points of your vision. Use printed newsletters and e-mail freely, and invite upcoming leaders to come alongside current leaders in some tasks.

8. Communicate clearly to your group that the chapter leaders are there to serve them. And then actually serve them!

9. Make prayer a central part of your chapter life. Show by action that the chapter depends on God for direction and strength.

Chapter leader burnout

Possible Causes:

1. Is motivation coming more out of duty than love?

2. Has the novelty of being in leadership been overshadowed by the hard work of leading?

3. Do the leaders feel insignificant or unappreciated?

4. Is the leadership structure unwieldy or difficult to navigate? Are student leaders feeling overworked or underutilized? Is there confusion about staff and student roles?

5. Are unmet goals causing discouragement? Are some goals too high or is the timetable unreasonable?

6. Is there any unresolved relational tension within the executive team?

7. Is there a lack of direct involvement in God’s work? Are the leaders rejoicing at seeing God at work in more than just one area of personal or chapter life?

Strategies for burnout:

1. Try to create a group-wide atmosphere of appreciation. Model this by starting leader to leader. Quick e-mails are always appreciated, but don’t forget face-to-face words of appreciation and real letters in the mail. Urge chapter members to do the same for their small-group leader and those who work behind the scenes to plan events.

2. Support each other in prayer. Pray within your leadership teams for each other, and get in the habit of praying on the spot with people: “Hey, why don’t we pray about that right here and now?”

3. Take time to debrief and refocus after events and activities. These can turn seeming failures into learning experiences. We can rejoice at what God did do in our midst. In the middle of the year take some time to evaluate and come up with renewed vision for the rest of the way.

4. Question your definition of success. We must aim to be agents of God’s work, not to meet all of our specific goals. Rather than be burdened with responsibility you can’t handle, simply obey and allow God to work.

5. Set aside a time for the leadership team to “talk about itself.” Aim for honesty, but avoid doing this when people are too tired to handle it. Commit to work things through with each other, being gracious with each other. Adopt the mentality, “It’s not if you screw up, it’s when you screw up, and I will be there for you.”

6. Eliminate marathon meetings that feel pointless. Come prepared, working from a basic agenda. An effective meeting should consist of each person briefly reporting on what they’ve done, with some room for discussion and feedback. Authorize individuals to do assignments or research outside the meeting to save the group’s time.

7. Take the time to do careful leadership selection. Not everyone will thrive on an executive team or as a small-group leader. Match the gifts to the needs in the chapter rather than merely filling open slots.

8. Encourage the chapter members to pray for their leaders. Consider setting aside part of a daily prayer meeting to lift them up to God.

9. Ensure that chapter positions are not all-consuming. God is the focus; InterVarsity is a context for ministry and growth.

We hope that all chapters will try to identify how some of these ideas can be used on their campuses and in their chapters. These are ideas that your chapter may want to keep, so they can be re-read with new leaders, and possibly a couple of times throughout the year with the current executive team. Times get tough, and we hope that just reading through this may allow you to re-evaluate where you are, and what problems may be showing. If you can manage to implement even one new idea into your chapter when energy seems low, enthusiasm within the chapter could really rise dramatically. Remember, there are people all over Canada, the U.S. and the world praying for our campuses. God wants to work at our schools, and it’s up to us to allow him to use us!