Ideally, Athletes in Action wants to be involved in reaching every student on every campus through the athletic department. In specifically reaching the athlete, we hope to reach every student through the platform of sport. This is an ambitious goal that only God can bring about, but concentrating on reaching Freshmen athletes each year provides a strategic way to accomplish the vision.
Reasons for Reaching Freshmen
- Historically, Freshmen are the most open to the gospel. Statistically, 85% of those who receive Christ do so before the age of 19.
- By reaching athletes in their first year, we have a greater opportunity to reach those in the athlete’s sphere of influence during their collegiate career.
- A normal growth curve of one to three years precedes new Christians having their own growth groups, assuming leadership and having an impact. Although there are some exceptions, we cannot build movements around the exceptions. If we focus on Juniors or Seniors, just about the time they begin to make an impact, they graduate. Movements happen when athletes multiply their spiritual lives into others. This creates momentum.
- Students should graduate with a greater depth of maturity and greater breadth of ministry skill and experience after 4-5 years of involvement, preparing them to be “lifetime laborers” for the harvest.
- The Freshman class is a measurable, definable, reachable audience. In many cases, the Freshmen are required to live on campus and may be more accessible. We can continually be giving other segments of the campus opportunities to hear and respond to the gospel through various strategies, but let's aim to personally contact every Freshman.
- Freshmen are probably the most accessible and easy to share with. It might be less of a "faith barrier" for a Sophomore to share her faith with a Freshman than a Senior.
- We tend to be more motivated when we can say with integrity that we are giving every student in the department the opportunity to respond to the gospel. It gives focus and clarity to what we are trying to accomplish. We need to be crystal clear with our objectives and promote creativity in the strategy of fulfilling the objective.
Implications for Planning
We should be starting our year by asking the question: “How will we as a leadership team trust God to reach every incoming Freshman athlete with an exposure to the gospel this year?”
We should be ending every year by asking, “How many of the Freshman did we reach with the gospel? How do we continue to pursue those we didn’t reach?”
We need to build our campus plans around reaching the Freshman class. Reaching Freshmen needs to move from one of many optional strategies to a distinctive on our campuses. It's not whether we reach them-- but how we will reach them.
How Do We Do It?
You (and your leadership team if you have one) decide on the most effective strategies to reach your campus. Here are a few ideas that might help:
- Be present if/when your athletic department hosts an “Incoming Freshman” event. There will usually be an orientation of some kind; ask permission to attend and welcome the Freshman.
- Have a cookout geared especially toward the Freshman.
- Host a Men’s Night Out or Women’s Night Out for the Freshman.
- Put together a Freshman Survival Kit. Ask an AIA staff how to do this.
- Make yourself available to the athletic department as a tutor. Perhaps request to work with Freshman who are having a difficult time making the transition to college.
- Have community service projects and go out of your way to invite Freshmen.
- Get a roster of all the athletes on campus and make sure no one slips through the cracks. Do a team meeting to let all the athletes on a team know why you are there. Consider doing Spiritual Surveys as a means of initiating conversation and opening doors with the Freshmen.
In all these matters, listen closely to God’s leading. Remember: though you are pursuing Freshmen and hoping to expose them to the gospel as early in their college career as possible, let God be the one who orders your steps. No need to burn bridges in a desperate desire to reach the Freshmen. In God’s grace you will have other opportunities to interact with them during the next few years and He will draw them to Himself in His timing. You just be faithful to pursue them early and often!!