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My survey revealed an amazing overlap of common characteristics that seem to mark the strongest fellowships, and I think they are worthy qualities to emulate at every school. Since my first survey, I've tried to keep tabs on these characteristics at strong campuses, and I find that they continue to serve as accurate indications of healthy growth, community and outreach. Every campus is different, so I offer the nine qualities listed below as marks to keep in mind as you evaluate your group and plan prayerfully. (After you've read these, see Are You Hitting the Mark? for helpful evaluation questions.)

Mark #1: High quality leadership. High quality leadership is a prerequisite for which there is no replacement. Effective leaders know how to equip, enable and empower. They develop other leaders. And effective leaders are people who have first learned to follow. As a result they know how to lead by serving.

There are three facets of leadership that characterize strong fellowships:

Developing a vision. According to one campus surveyed, "Vision needs to be regularly stoked, renewed and re-owned, but not necessarily reinvented." Leaders (including staff and students) of strong chapters agree on a common vision, and that vision must be continually refined and communicated. The real hard work comes in passing the torch in such a way that successive generations of leadership can embrace it and develop it.

Calling members to commitment. Calling chapter members toward commitment usually comes over time in small steps, with staff and chapter leaders taking the younger students from whatever starting point is appropriate. The call to commitment also comes through camps and training programs. Among the schools surveyed, most mentioned that their leaders definitely feel called by God, and that their confidence in that calling is reflected in the depth of their motivation, dedication and enthusiasm.

Selecting leaders. While chapters vary in the ways they set up the selection process for new leaders, the strongest groups take it very seriously. All who are called to leadership have a clear understanding of their roles early on, and they try to include others in their efforts through effective delegation.

On two-year campuses, the selection and development of leadership carries an additional sense of urgency--students often take on the mantle of leadership quickly. Nonetheless, many strong chapters at two-year schools are able to nurture high quality student leadership.

Mark #2: Partnership between staff and students. The strongest fellowships have staff and student leaders working in a powerful and cooperative way. Students are not skeptical about the staff, nor do they hold them at arm's length.

Good relationships are fostered when staff and students adopt a mutually encouraging approach and demonstrate their availability to one another. Some of the attitudes that help staff/student relations include modeling thankfulness and encouragement and curbing any tendency to be overly critical. Staff and students spending time together and showing a genuine interest in each other also fosters trust and security.

Mark #3: An attractive community. This led the list when schools were surveyed. Community is frequently a function of the large-group meeting, and this is one quality that I can often measure in the first fifteen minutes when I visit a group. Large group meetings serve the chapter as a source of encouragement and positive support, providing a sense of overarching identity for the fellowship. They are worth doing well!

Warmth and attractiveness. This seemed to be the goal of most of the large-group meetings at strong campuses. "A place to bring friends," "attractive to visitors," "accepts people where they're at," "an outgoing style," and "high quality. of meetings" are all phrases that keep" coming from these chapters.

Good worship and music. This aspect of strong chapters is not always as well done as leaders wish it could be, but the atmosphere is far more important than technical excellence. The goal is to create a worshipful atmosphere.

Quality teaching. Schools surveyed all claim that high- caliber speakers and teachers make a difference. Some chapters focus on topics, others on theological issues and still others on systematic Bible exposition. Of course, all three are great in combination!

Mark #4: Strategic evangelism. It's important to distinguish between evangelism that is carried out as individuals and that which is carried out as a chapterwide thrust involving all members. Strong chapters are in the position to take risks corporately. Since this is can be an area of extreme risk, staff members are often highly involved as catalysts.

Several features emerged among strong fellowships:

First, the chapters are usually committed to penetrating the campus with the gospel.

Second, the groups usually have a strong working strategy to help different segments of the campus respond. Strategies include small groups doing outreach together, evangelistic coffee houses, investigative Bible discussions, dorm discussions, intramural teams and friendships in classes and housing units.

Third, most have attempted broader campus missions using Cliffe Knechtle, 2100 media and, lately, Bruce Kuhn and Curt Cloninger.

Training in evangelism and in understanding culture and ethnicity is also a high priority, and most strong fellowships encourage students toward events such as Florida evangelism projects, global projects and Urbana conventions.

Mark #5: Strong small groups. The "macro" is built on the "micro;" thus the quality of large-group fellowship is built on the quality of the small groups. Jimmy Long, Blue Ridge regional director, has stated that there are four important dimensions to building a strong small-group structure: 1) training small-group leaders, 2) implanting in them a sense of the chapter's vision, 3) developing new and future small- group leaders and 4) keeping the leaders accountable in order to protect small groups from deteriorating or drifting. At many schools, strong small-group includes a policy that every small group should have a co-leader. There is also an emphasis on training and teamwork, with some chapters requiring that small-group leaders attend a small-group leader training camp or go through a several-week-long training course over the summer or early in the fall. Many chapters use the same Bible study material to provide a cohesiveness throughout the group. A small group curriculum can provide essential discipleship teaching for young Christians meeting their needs at every stage. Whatever the chapter uses, it should be part of overall intentional strategy.

Mark #6: Gaining from training. Some training takes place on campus, while other training occurs off campus. In every case, however, the stated goal is to go beyond a simple teaching concept toward establishing life patterns. It's interesting that among different strong chapters, each has developed a competence in a particular area. For example, Stanford effectively uses Mark manuscripts; the U. of Illinois-Urbana and UNC-Chapel Hill have very effective small-group leader training. Trenton State U. and Carnegie- Mellon have emphases in discipling. (I wonder if the distinctive at Cambridge University in England is training in daily quiet time.) We can certainly value these differences and gain strength from them. [And now, dear reader, you see the value of this cross-campus journal, right?]--Ed.

Mark #7: Effective new student outreach. Not long ago, a different parachurch campus ministry took a survey asking students, "Are you interested in spiritual things?" When the survey was taken in the first week of school, 80 percent said that they were. By the third week, only 10 percent said that they were interested. Obviously, it's critical to move quickly as the campus year gets under way. Those chapters with effective new student outreach emphasize two broad aims: 1) to offer students a warm welcome and then 2) to integrate them quickly into the life of the chapter. Each chapter is different, but all have in common an easily visible, attractive presence when students arrive and a fast, thorough follow-up process (sometimes within twenty- four hours). Follow-up includes getting students into small groups, hosting outreach events and helping freshmen feel welcomed and cared for. (For more ideas and strategies, see the Chapter Strategy sections of the Summer 1989, 1991 and 1992 issues of Student Leadership.)

Mark #8: Regular corporate prayer. Prayer is the activity that reveals most closely our dependence on God. Without such dependence, people rely on themselves and bum out. Prayer was an active ingredient in all of the fellowships surveyed. Some, however, had pursued it more consciously than others as an aspect of corporate life together. Some chapters have consistent and large daily prayer meetings. For some of the strong chapters on commuter campuses, two times may be scheduled each day, or the time may vary from day to day. Some chapters add an extended concert of prayer one day each week. Several of those surveyed said that their chapter's ability to take risks has been tied directly to regular prayer times. And some have been able to see a direct connection between conversions on campus and their daily prayer meeting.

Mark #9: Helpful traditions. Some traditions can become outworn and hollow. These are the types of traditions that need to be torn down. On the other hand there are some traditions that become foundational in the progress that a fellowship makes over the years. As long as these traditions retain their content and are constructive contributions, they should be maintained. The kinds of traditions that emerged in the study of strong chapters include activities that foster strong small groups, a keen sense of attachment to the larger family of InterVarsity and IFES, a sturdy pattern for leadership recruitment, some format for outreach that worked well for each campus, and ways of passing on vision to the next generation of students.

Now what? Are these marks of strong chapters worth emulating on your campus? If you want to discuss these further as a group, consider using the questions in Are You Hitting the Mark? But what if your campus is a unique case? You might still find the questions helpful, but my real prayer for you is that God would show you the best ways to make an impact on your campus. That's the freedom we have in InterVarsity--the flexibility to follow our God as he goes in power before us.