Recently, over 320 college students gathered in Columbia, MO for our annual MBCollegiate Conference. A conference is a massive undertaking, but our intent isn’t simply to hold a really awesome event that produces social media worthy photos and a highlight video reel; it’s to provide a launchpad for students’ growth in Jesus and their witness on their campuses.
In planning the conference, one of my primary goals is that we as campus ministry leaders help students take what they learned, wrestle through it and flesh it out, then live it out in their everyday lives so that the conference impact continues long after the weekend is over.
This won’t happen by accident. Trust me; I’ve been doing campus ministry for a long time and taking students to conferences for many years! If we want the conference to not just be a memorable experience but a trajectory-changing one for our students, we need to implement an intentional plan to see that happen.
In the days and weeks following a big event, we must practice intentional follow-up in a variety of ways to ensure that our students don’t just have a temporary spiritual high but actually integrate what they learned into their daily lives. I’ve used a simple step-by-step follow-up strategy in the past. This process can be used after any kind of “big” campus ministry event—fall retreats, leadership conferences, training days, spring break trips, summer projects. I encourage you to employ this process—or your own version—following your next big campus ministry event.
- Immediate Follow-Up (Within 72 Hours, preferably 48)
- Personal Check-In: Send a text, call, or meet up for coffee to ask: “What was your biggest takeaway? How do you feel God is calling you to respond?”
- Post-Conference Gathering
- Organize a debrief session within the first week.
- Let students share testimonies of what God did.
- Discuss practical next steps for applying what they learned.
- Help Them Create a Spiritual Action Plan (Week 1-2)
- Encourage Personal Reflection
- Have them write down their reflections.
- What was their target?
- Do they know?
- Have they told someone?
- What habits need to change?
- What next steps do they feel called to take?
- Integrate this event into the Campus Ministry (Week 2-4)
- Consider starting a Conference Follow-Up Bible Study related to students’ main takeaways.
- Provide testimony opportunities, live and on social media, about how they were challenged.
- Let students help lead discussions to apply what they learned.
- Help students stay on track by pairing them up for spiritual check-ins.
- Keep the Fire Going (1-3 Months Post-Conference)
- Conduct regular check-ins on this.
- Ask: “How has your faith grown since the conference? What has been challenging?”
- Before the end of the semester, hold a night where students share how their lives have changed since the conference.
- Encourage long-term growth
- Challenge Them to Pour into Others (Ongoing)
- Shift the focus from personal growth to multiplication
- Ask: “Who are you discipling? Who can you invite into what God is doing in your life?”
- Encourage them to invest in younger students and share their faith regularly.
As the quote goes, “those who fail to plan plan to fail.” Implement a followup plan like this one after your ministry’s next conference, retreat, mission trip, or other big event. Then watch how God uses that intentionality to multiply the fruit of the event!
