The college students are arriving for the 2006 Keynote Summer Project! We’ll have four Keynote student bands, and we’re also partnering with two other ministries of Campus Crusade for Christ. The Impact Movement, the ministry to African American students, is putting together an evangelistic urban gospel band. Here’s Life Inner City is piloting a traveling dinner theater designed to raise awareness of ministry needs in the inner city.Part of my role in the summer project is the same as during our new staff and intern training in the fall: I schedule classes and teachers and help prepare the teachers and communication coaches (or “comm” coaches) for their jobs. The main difference is that during the summer project, the whole process is bigger and more complex!
I’ll also be a comm coach myself for one of the bands. Two coaches are assigned to each team to help the students learn stage communication skills through daily public speaking workshops called comm drills. During these drills, each student talks about a subject of their choosing, receives suggestions for improvement from a coach, and then practices those tips by speaking again.
My comm coach partner and I will also
- help all of the students on our team write a personal story about how God has worked in their lives;
- help decide who will share a personal story and/or a gospel presentation in concert;
- help those students prepare what to say and how to say it; and
- coach all the band members in their movement while on stage.
It’s always fun to watch the students grow in their communication abilities throughout the summer. And often when they feel stretched in their speaking abilities, God is also at work stretching them spiritually! Please pray that God will use me and all the staff to minister to our project students.