This Fall at CSU-Fullerton, we've been doing our best to get the name of Destino out to the general students population. One of the challenges we continually face doing ethno-specific ministry is, "how do we target Latino students or surface them from the thousands of students on our campuses"? If you're asking this as well, you're ready to do contextualized ministry. I wanted to share with you all one thing that we did that I felt was really effective at targeting and attracting Latino students on our campus this fall.
Horchata.
Horchata is a rice based drink that is incredibly popular in the Latino culture. While many non-Latinos like it, it is a drink that many have never heard of or tried. In the days of Coke and other sodas, drinks like horchata, jamaica, and tamarindo don't normally register for people even if their favorite taco stand has them readily available. We have used free horchata as a filter for those that might be interested in Destino. By offering free horchata for taking a survey, or even just for free to come talk to us, the vast majority of the students engaging us at the involvement fairs and taking our surveys have been Latino.
The great thing about this approach is that the principle is fairly universal. What are the things that would attract the typical Asian American student? Is there something that African American culture is aware of and enjoys that the rest of American society has missed. If you can find that one thing, you will see the numbers of students you are targeting for your movement increase dramatically. For less than $20 we got more than 70 names of students that are interested in hearing more about Destino from one event. Coupled with the survey we did with Cru that asks students to check a box if they'd be interested in a Christian movement serving the Latino Community and we have over 150 contacts to follow-up with this fall. I'd call that a win in an language.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Your One Movement Will Never Mobilize the Whole Campus and Neither Will Mine
Each fall we do everything we can to get students involved in our movements. We do surveys, follow-up students in the dorms, share our faith, have socials until the wee hours of the morning, and table like it's our job (because it is). At the end of the day, we hope students will be drawn to what we're doing and the Lord that we show and tell them about and plug into our movements. We do all these things because we know they pay off for the next four years as students grow, stay involved, and begin to reach out to the campus. The ultimate goal is that they learn to walk with God and fulfill the Great Commission for a lifetime. We're a mobilizing movement. We want to see students taking the gospel to the campus, their communities, and the world.
In the past, our most successful models have centered around the idea of one giant movement that is ever expanding and reaching beyond its borders until the entire campus has been saturated with the Gospel. The goal is every student on campus having a chance to hear about Christ before the end of their college experience. An incredible feat, and a worthwhile goal. Recently, however, I have begun to rethink the goals we have set, especially with the recent push in Cru to see 100% of the students involved with us sent to the world to make a difference for Christ, and I posit that this is as worthwhile a goal as the previous, and maybe even more. If we were able to mobilize 100% of the students involved with our movements the changes beyond the campus to the world could only be imagined. Which brings me to the reason for this blog posting. It's something I've begun realizing working with Destino. No one movement will ever mobilize the entire campus.
What is comes down to is culture. Working with Destino I've seen many of the principles I learned in Cru work, and I've seen many fail. We can debate the definition of principle later, but regardless, I have come to understand many of the reasons that Cru as an organization is 90% white, and it's our culture. Working with Destino we are able to create a culture and tone in our movements that is appealing and challenging to Latino students. This looks and feels much different than the culture and tone of Cru movements and it is precisely because of these differences that we are able to align and mobilize a previously hidden segment of our campuses for the fulfilment of the great commission.
With the ever-increasing diversity on college campuses it is incredibly difficult to create a movement with the culture and tone to attract and challenge every student. Even the idea of a multi-cultural movement is actually one culture in and of itself; a multi-cultural culture. It will draw those that like that idea and want to learn about other cultures and races, and bring about reconciliation, but will alienate those that have no perceived need for it.
As a Destino team, we are reaching out to and mobilizing those that connect with and enjoy the Latino culture, but I am in no way delusional enough to believe that my one movement will draw in and mobilize every student. We do have students from other ethnicities involved, but you know what? Our movements are probably 90% Latino. Because that is the segment of the population that is drawn to what we do and the culture we have created in our movements. (sound familiar?)
If we really want to see the whole campus not only reached, but also mobilized for the fulfilment of the great commission, we need to be serious about multiple movements. Any one movement can successfully saturate the campus if it's large enough and well managed, but what about the other parts of our strategy? What about students being built and sent? When Destino at Cal State Long Beach has saturated the campus with the gospel, I'm going to guess we'll still be 90% Latino. That means many others on our campus aren't going to be built and sent by our movement because they just didn't feel like they "fit in" at our meetings or couldn't relate to some of the things we were talking about.
Don't get me wrong, I believe God is the great equalizer. He has the power to draw us all together and we are undoubtedly one in Christ. I would also say that we are Biblically obligated to cross-cultures, learning from and encouraging those whose culture and race reflect God's character differently than ours. But he has given us culture and race for a reason, and to turn a blind eye to the differences is to doom our organization to remaining as it is; mobilizing a good chunk of the college campus, but leaving what will soon be over 50% of the campus reached with the Gospel, but unaligned, unchallenged, and unmobilized.
In the past, our most successful models have centered around the idea of one giant movement that is ever expanding and reaching beyond its borders until the entire campus has been saturated with the Gospel. The goal is every student on campus having a chance to hear about Christ before the end of their college experience. An incredible feat, and a worthwhile goal. Recently, however, I have begun to rethink the goals we have set, especially with the recent push in Cru to see 100% of the students involved with us sent to the world to make a difference for Christ, and I posit that this is as worthwhile a goal as the previous, and maybe even more. If we were able to mobilize 100% of the students involved with our movements the changes beyond the campus to the world could only be imagined. Which brings me to the reason for this blog posting. It's something I've begun realizing working with Destino. No one movement will ever mobilize the entire campus.
What is comes down to is culture. Working with Destino I've seen many of the principles I learned in Cru work, and I've seen many fail. We can debate the definition of principle later, but regardless, I have come to understand many of the reasons that Cru as an organization is 90% white, and it's our culture. Working with Destino we are able to create a culture and tone in our movements that is appealing and challenging to Latino students. This looks and feels much different than the culture and tone of Cru movements and it is precisely because of these differences that we are able to align and mobilize a previously hidden segment of our campuses for the fulfilment of the great commission.
With the ever-increasing diversity on college campuses it is incredibly difficult to create a movement with the culture and tone to attract and challenge every student. Even the idea of a multi-cultural movement is actually one culture in and of itself; a multi-cultural culture. It will draw those that like that idea and want to learn about other cultures and races, and bring about reconciliation, but will alienate those that have no perceived need for it.
As a Destino team, we are reaching out to and mobilizing those that connect with and enjoy the Latino culture, but I am in no way delusional enough to believe that my one movement will draw in and mobilize every student. We do have students from other ethnicities involved, but you know what? Our movements are probably 90% Latino. Because that is the segment of the population that is drawn to what we do and the culture we have created in our movements. (sound familiar?)
If we really want to see the whole campus not only reached, but also mobilized for the fulfilment of the great commission, we need to be serious about multiple movements. Any one movement can successfully saturate the campus if it's large enough and well managed, but what about the other parts of our strategy? What about students being built and sent? When Destino at Cal State Long Beach has saturated the campus with the gospel, I'm going to guess we'll still be 90% Latino. That means many others on our campus aren't going to be built and sent by our movement because they just didn't feel like they "fit in" at our meetings or couldn't relate to some of the things we were talking about.
Don't get me wrong, I believe God is the great equalizer. He has the power to draw us all together and we are undoubtedly one in Christ. I would also say that we are Biblically obligated to cross-cultures, learning from and encouraging those whose culture and race reflect God's character differently than ours. But he has given us culture and race for a reason, and to turn a blind eye to the differences is to doom our organization to remaining as it is; mobilizing a good chunk of the college campus, but leaving what will soon be over 50% of the campus reached with the Gospel, but unaligned, unchallenged, and unmobilized.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Destino is Unique!
Sometimes, when an organization is relatively new (like Destino), it can be difficult to define a clear picture of the group's heart and soul. I am not talking about a mission statement or set of goals... those are usually easy to identify. Rather, it is el sabor (the flavor, or culture) that can take some time to develop. I am always learning more about the real nature of Destino, and sometimes I come closer to understanding it by recognizing what it is NOT. Destino is a ministry that is part of, and was started by Campus Crusade for Christ. However, a breakthrough moment for me was realizing that Destino is not a standard Campus Crusade group for people who are ethnically Latino. It must be fundamentally different or something would be very wrong.
Campus Crusade is now 60 years old, and consequently "grew up" in the environment of the majority white culture. Even though it's culture is white, much effort has gone into making the groups on campus welcoming to everyone, and I believe they are! The interesting thing is that no matter how welcoming, enthusiastic, or understanding of other cultures a CCC group becomes, they will still operate with the norms that fundamentally define the group's culture. It is literally impossible for a single group to fully adhere to the norms of two cultures at the same time. We could not start a meeting both on time, and 15 minutes late. We can't dance salsa if the music that is playing is already classical. (You could try I guess... I would like to see a video of that!) The point is that some people will not feel comfortable in a cultural environment that is different than their own. They don't want to be a part of a group that is WELCOMING to their culture, they would rather find a group that actually IS their culture. The goal of Campus Crusade is that all people would get a chance to hear the great news of Jesus Christ, but if there were only one group... a culturally white group that is merely welcoming to other cultures... then the people who are not comfortable outside of their own culture would never hear the news. This is why Destino must exist, and why it must be different from Campus Crusade for Christ.
The apostle Paul said it this way: "I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." 1 Cor. 9:22 He not only tried to be welcoming and understanding, he BECAME LIKE THEM! This is why Destino is a culturally Latino ministry. It is welcoming to all cultures, just like Campus Crusade, but it operates with a unique Latino flavor that gives it the ability to reach people that other ministries would not.
Introduction
Introducing: The Destino LA staff team, 2011!
We have discussed 5 critical steps that we believe are keys to seeing Destino thrive in the next few years:
1. Staff and students would have a dependence on God that is driven by our lifestyle (not driven by a collection of events).
1. Staff and students would have a dependence on God that is driven by our lifestyle (not driven by a collection of events).
2. Movements are growing as staff and students regularly share their faith.
3. Intentionally engaging the obstacles that Latin@s face so that healing and development will occur.
4. Nurturing relational networks so our movements are giving and receiving help through partnerships inside and beyond ourselves.
5. Destino's Latin@ identity is explored continuously through conversations and experiences.
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