I was thinking that it might be a good time to take down some thoughts on difficulties we’ve encountered in transitioning graduates from the campus to the “real world.” I would love to hear your thoughts on any of these & also any ways you’ve found to overcome these. Here we go:
Difficulties encountered in transitioning graduates:
- First difficulty encountered is upon the staff person who is discipling the person. Usually, this person is being equipped to Evangelize or Establish & then they graduate. The staff person is faced with the reality of making the decision to:
Bring the disciple on staff as an intern
Follow the disciple off the campus & help them grow – Thus distracting the staff from having his laser focused on the campus.
Transition the disciple from “his disciple” to “another person’s disciple who is focusing on graduates”
Trust God to complete the laborer completion process.
The second difficulty encountered is by the disciple – He realizes that much of the movement he’s been a part of is focused on the campus. He also realizes that he goes from being a leader in a movement to just another face at work & a beginner level employee at that.
The third difficulty is creating community within the body – For instance, on campus A & B were C’s disciple. D & E were F’s disciple. Etc, etc. and then after they graduate, they now find themselves in this new “graduates group” we’ve created and A, B, D & E aren’t really in community & actually find out that there was quite a bit of competition among them while they were on campus. Therefore, community is trying to be built on a pretty shaky foundation.
Another difficult faced by the disciple is Character Issues that really show when the pressure gets turned on after graduation. Weaknesses really show through that weren’t near as visible when they were on campus involved in the movement where life was much “easier” in many senses.
Finally, after taking the time to write all these thoughts down, it’s really easy to see that these disciples need not be overlooked or “thrown out to the wolves” in a sense. These need to be thought for/cared for/shepherded and lead. They need love & they need to be involved in a Leadership Environment that consists of:
Life on life; B. Stretching; C. Supernatural Dependence; D. Truth Spoken in Love; E. Experience and Explanation; F. Others Intensity; & G. Focus on the Lost.
Would love to know your thoughts on this. I know I’m making a lot of assumptions in writing this but feel like those who are reading this will be assuming much if not all I’m assuming in posting this. Brian Firpo
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2 comments:
Brian, These are great observations and clearly issues that we have all experienced in one way or another!
One of the big things we are realizing is that these questions and issues are helping us understand our weak points and even areas of neglect within our discipleship on campus! Thank you Lord for helping us see!
I want to interact with each of your questions, but will have to write a little later! RGL
As I read your observations it's clear to me that there aren't any easy solutions to these questions. I think that this process of getting more involved with our people post-campus is going to be healthy for us... helping us learn more about what we've built up to now.
So far the way we've attempted to address this issue has been through appointing post-campus staff. The idea would be for us to get involved with these graduates through disciple communities, which are basically small groups of disciples now out of college. We opted for the group approach to try and minimize the feeling of getting passed-off to someone else and to help them make stronger connections with one another. Having a friend with you in the group helps you to branch out your relationships with others.
We are still trying to figure out how these groups will work. At one time we had 4 groups of 10 apiece led by Brian and I separately. Now we are back to 2 groups with Brian and I each leading one.
How will we welcome in the future graduates? I don't know. How will we multiply these groups and help the graduates lead? We're trying to figure that out as well.
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