Chapter 10 Favorite Faculty Events

• Arrangements
• The Event
• Follow-Up

An excellent way of communicating the Gospel to colleagues in the university is the "Favorite Faculty Banquet." In this strategy, students from the various Christian student groups on campus -- Campus Crusade for Christ, Navigators, Inter-Varsity, Baptist Student Union, etc. -- are challenged to invite their favorite professors or staff member to a banquet in their honor. The meal may be a breakfast, luncheon, or dinner; all work equally well. The program at the meal includes a time for recognizing and honoring the favorite professors and staff, possibly some light Christian entertainment, and a well-credentialed academic speaker who shares his personal testimony. We have been doing Favorite Faculty banquets in Christian Leadership Ministries circles for at least 15 years with uniformly positive results. I have done a half dozen to a dozen banquets and the comments for all of the affairs I have done have been very positive.

The critical element in doing this type of outreach is the participation of Christian students. If the students get excited about the opportunity and really buy into it, you will have a good turnout; if they don’t, you won’t. I haven’t kept records for the events I have done, but I would venture to guess that the smallest crowd I’ve seen would be about 50 (20 or so favorite guests and 30 plus students and others involved in hosting the event) and the largest crowd would be well over 100 (with perhaps 50 favorite guests). Even at the low end, I think you would have to agree that this format is an effective way of reaching out to colleagues. As I said, the key is getting students involved. It can be a pretty intimidating thing for a student to (1) invite a professor or staff member to a meal, (2) sit with the guest through a meal and carry on an engaging conversation, and (3) introduce the guest and possibly share why he or she is special. From the professor or staff member’s point of view, it is so unusual that a student would show this kind of appreciation, it would be difficult to turn down such an invitation.

If your Faculty/Staff Fellowship decides to do a Favorite Faculty Banquet, the following steps should be addressed when arranging for the event, conducting the event, and doing follow-up after the event.

Arrangements

Well in advance -- possibly several months -- of the anticipated date:

1. Assemble a small group from the Faculty/Staff Fellowship to make arrangements and to oversee follow-up activity.
2. Choose a date and time for the event. Be sure to check the campus calendar to avoid conflicts with another campus happening.
3. Contact the directors of Christian student ministries to enlist involvement of their students. A successful event can be done with involvement of only one of the larger student groups; however, you should try to engage as many of the groups on your campus as possible in the interest of fostering cooperative relations. Remember, this is the key element in the entire endeavor.
4. Line up a speaker for the event, working out details of transportation, honorarium, and local accommodations. Be sure that you get someone with credible academic or professional qualifications and someone who has a reputation as a solid speaker for such occasions. Christian Leadership Ministries has a list of speakers and can help in this task if you need it.
5. Schedule your meeting room, decide on the menu and other physical arrangements.

Some compromise might be necessary to line up the speaker, the meeting room, and the students on the desired date. Once you have completed these steps, you’re in business.

A month or so in advance of the event:

1. Have invitations and comment cards printed. These should be attractively done because the invitation will be the visual point of contact between each invitee and the sponsoring groups. Sample invitations and comment cards are shown in Figure 10-1 and Figure 10-2.
   It is important that the invitation very clearly communicates the Christian nature of the event. This is done by giving the names of the Christian student groups involved, by including the name of the Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship and possibly the talk title.
2. If desired, arrange financial sponsorship for the banquet. One approach is to let the student pay for his faculty guest and to raise money for scholarships to cover the cost of the student’s meal. This enables the student to provide for his guest’s meal without making his financial outlay too terribly high.
3. Meet with the Christian student groups to challenge students to bring their favorite professor or staff member to the banquet. If students are concerned about inviting their current professors, have them invite professors from previous semesters. Students who commit to invite a professor should be given an invitation and encouraged to begin praying for the individual they are inviting. Past experience with this formatsuggests that a high percentage of professors who are invited actually come -- the most frequently cited reason for declining the invitation is a schedule conflict. Students should be encouraged to actually extend their invitation about two weeks before the event.
4. Accept reservations from students who have received commitments from professors or staff members to attend the banquet. Reservations should be closed a few days before the event, depending on the requirements of the facility being used. Students should remind their guests a few days in advance of the event.
5. Carefully monitor activity of students as they are inviting individuals. If you are going to have a problem at any point, it will be the students putting off extending invitations and you have a flurry of activity at the last moment.
6. Enlist participation of as many members of the Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship as possible. This will be a faith stretcher for them as they see colleagues in the university being challenged in an attractive way to consider the Christian message. It will also be useful for them to welcome colleagues as they come into the facility and to help with the follow-up.

The Event

Some pointers for conducting the event are in order.

1. Once the students and their guests have assembled, the Master of Ceremonies (usually one of the leaders in the Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship) should give a short welcome, especially recognizing faculty and staff guests and complimenting them on being a "favorite" professor or staff member. After the welcome, a blessing should be given by the MC, a student, or a member of the fellowship.
2. When the meal is over or nearly so, the MC should give a general statement of recognition to the favorite faculty and staff guests. One really nice touch that has been done is to have each student introduce his guest and to share why that person is his favorite professor or staff member. This will take a bit of time, but it is worth it. It will be very encouraging for everyone in attendance.
3. The MC should then introduce the speaker, paying particular attention to his academic or professional credentials.
4. The talk should be strongly oriented to academics -- professors and staff -- since they are the honored guests. Moreover, it should include a clear Christian testimony including how one becomes a Christian. At the conclusion of the talk, the speaker should turn the program over to the MC.
5. Follow-up of guests depends critically on how much attention is given to the comment cards. The MC should ask each person to fill out a card, giving his name, address, and campus phone number and comments regarding the meal and program. The comment card may have a place for guests to check if they are interested in meeting with the speaker (if this is possible), if they would like information on the Faculty/Staff Fellowship and/or if they would like to receive Christian material, such as Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
6. After the comment cards have been completed, the MC should conclude the banquet.

Follow-up

Follow-up is very important but often neglected. The goal here should be to contact every guest as appropriate to the level of interest indicated on the comment cards. The following steps are recommended:

1. Sort out the student cards and make these available to the leadership of the student groups involved.
2. Sort faculty/staff guest responses into the following categories: Already Christian, Interested, Other.
3. Assign guest cards to fellowship (or program committee) members for appropriate follow-up as follows:

Already Christian. Personally challenge them to become involved with the Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship.

Interested. Personally meet with each individual for an evangelistic appointment. Delivering written materials mentioned by the MC or the speaker is a good opener. Be sensitive to questions that might have been raised by the speaker.

Other. Send each individual a follow-up letter thanking him for attending and for his support of students. Emphasize the importance of the university as a forum for the exchange of ideas.

A number of years ago, we had Walter and Ann Bradley visit us in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for a weekend that included a Bama-Texas A&M football game. Our Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship decided to do a Favorite Faculty Breakfast in conjunction with their visit. We made all the arrangements, reserving a room in the student center for a Saturday breakfast; had invitations and comment cards printed; the whole bit. Then I went and challenged the students, who really got into the spirit of things. I remember imagining how the whole thing would work because it was my first experience with this format. As I speculated about the meeting, I thought about who on campus I would really not want to be invited. Who could be so antagonistic that he might stand up right in the middle of Walter’s presentation and create a scene? And I immediately thought of a professor in liberal arts who I thought could present problems, but I thought that the chances of him being invited were so remote that I immediately dismissed the notion. The next day as I was walking into my office, a young woman in my college Sunday School class at church came running up to me shouting, "Dr. Mellichamp, you’ll never guess who I invited to the Favorite Faculty Breakfast and who’s coming!" In the split second I had to reply, I thought Prof. So-and-So. Then I thought, no way. But, you guessed it. She had invited him, and he was coming.

Well, I spent some anxious moments thinking about all sorts of possibilities, mostly bad. Finally the day arrived. We had a good crowd of about 25 faculty and staff guests and 25 students and four or five representatives from the fellowship. My student was one of the first to arrive with her guest firmly in tow. To my amazement, everything went perfectly. The food was good. The sound system worked. The arrangements were perfect. And Walter did an outstanding job of sharing his testimony with just the right touch of humor in just the right places. The comment cards were completed and collected, and before I knew it, the banquet was over. But not quite. After I declared it officially over, people stayed around and talked and several came up to the front to speak to Walter, including my "friend." He hung around until everyone else had gone and he had a chance at Walter by himself. I eavesdropped to hear what he had to say. I’ll never forget it. He said, "You know, Dr. Bradley, you and I have both struggled with some of the same questions. I’ve come up with a completely different set of answers than you, but I really appreciate you’re coming here today and sharing honestly with us. Thanks." So much for my imagined scenario. In fact, the comment cards were all in that same positive light. The students wanted us to do the banquet on an annual basis. The guests were all very favorable in their reactions.

This is such an attractive way of reaching out to colleagues. Every one wins. The students win by doing something special for a professor or staff member who has been special to them. The guests win by being recognized. And the Christian faculty and staff win by having their faith stretched. And the Gospel is shared clearly and attractively. The Favorite Faculty Banquet is easily one of the most effective ways we have of reaching out in the university.