Our goal in Chi Alpha is to grow our ability to reach out and connect to our community around us, now and after your time at CSU. As such, we want to help YOU be prepared for the marketplace, missions, church planting and the like by reaching out to your community now, like Jesus did to his community when He taught and preached.

We know sometimes sparking conversations with strangers about the Gospel or teaching your small group members to reach their community can come with challenges, so we created this questionnaire for your cohort to use to identify areas of difficulty, then plan ways to grow your capacity to reach your community together. Simply work through this questionnaire as a cohort and discuss each question as a group, then jot down some of your findings about strengths, weaknesses, or goals you want to make for the semester. At the end, you will have an opportunity to create a plan for the semester that fits your cohorts needs, and to meet you on the journey, Chi Alpha staff is going to fight beside you in the plan that you come up with! This is meant to be fun and bind your cohort together as we take on our part in fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus at CSU.

Are you ready?

STEP 1: Identity

First, come up with a totally awesome cohort name:

Don't worry, no one is "too cool" for a sweet codename

Name the individuals in your cohort:

First name is fine!

Who should be the point of contact for your battle clan?

We'll reach out to this person for planning and resourcing.

Which resource leader claims your group?

*Hopefully claims ;)

STEP 2: Identify

This section may make you feel like you are not meeting standards or expectations set before you as leaders, but do your best to fight against any shame or burdensome thoughts that may come. These questions are only meant to open conversation within your cohort to help your journey as a wholesome, Jesus loving, disciple-maker, and nothing more. We all have areas to improve in, so let us improve together.

For starters, which description would you say your cohort relates closest to?

These are descriptions that try to 'label' some hard areas of outreach, they don't encompass everything, but hopefully give a place to start.

Holy Huddle: We all love having community around us, but struggle to meet and invite new people into it during the semester

Lone Evangelist: We all excel reaching out to our community, but lack the brotherhood/sisterhood to bring people into after meeting someone

Timid Disciple: We sometimes feel the Spirit leading in our hearts to talk to someone, but starting conversations and bringing Jesus specifically into the conversation is a challenge because of how they may react

Young Student: We know that reaching out to our community comes from a Biblical perspective but really don't even know what that practically looks like as students

Leader in a Pickle: We are doing well at meeting new students each year, but struggling to teach our small group members to do the same

In the text boxes below, talk within your cohort about how you are doing in each category related to outreach. Think about where you are successful now, where you need more attention, and what kind of help you would want. Begin to think about how YOU as a cohort wants to grow your outreach abilities as followers of Christ. As Christians, we will always be on mission reaching those around us at school, work, at home, or in the city; so what ways do you want to grow?

Building boldness and being led by the Spirit:

Inviting new people to memory making and/or starting new friendships for life together:

Teaching current small group members about outreach:

How are you creating diversity in your small groups (i.e. international, different races, cross-cultural, etc.)

STEP 3: Make a Game Plan

To close, spend 10-15 minutes making a plan with your cohort that you can commit to based on the challenges you have previously discussed; try to find a plan that balances the needs of all cohort members so you can all grow together and share in the experience. The goal of this plan is twofold: 1. to come up with a regular rhythm (weekly or bi-weekly) for your cohort to engage with outreach activities throughout the semester and, 2. to partner with staff once throughout the semester to ask questions, get examples, and reach out to connect together for support Once you submit the form, you will be redirected to a calendar where you can schedule a time during the semester for Austin Mancey and Kayla Gibson to actually join your "activity/plan" to help out, so we can all learn and grow as a community.

Action Plan for Fully Customized OCP Experience

Some examples to spark your creativity: - prayer walking campus weekly - more training on how to strike up conversations - chat board once a month and one time street preaching - finding new students for life together activities

For scheduling purposes, we are spacing each (1) cohort per day, on Tuesday or Thursday afternoon. Time slots for three hours allow for a briefing/planning, plan execution, and a recap at the end. If your cohort needs a different time during the week, please reach out through our contact page so we can find a time that works!