Why in the world wide web is FOCUS starting a digital campus?

About two years ago, Curtis Martin, the president and founder of FOCUS had an idea: What if we dedicated a group of missionaries to work with students online? My first reaction was less than enthusiastic. My mind raced to a number of thoughts about why this wouldn’t work. Wouldn’t this take personal and human side out of FOCUS that is essential to our mission? Would online missionaries feel less connected to students? Would it be an effective use of time?

And since then we have heard even crazy ideas and comments. Will you guys have avatars on the web? Will you spend most of your day just on Facebook and Twitter? So, will you just start discussions and conversations in chat rooms?

Taking the idea of the digital campus from a thought to a reality has been quite the process. My own thought process has evolved even since I wrote a blog article on this last April. An idea like this opens itself up to innumerable amount of possibilities. I mean you can pretty much do anything on the web. And for that matter there is no limit to the amount of man power and time you can waste on the web either. For the digital campus to be a success, I knew we had to be clear about what the digital campus would do and would not do in order to be successful.

Here are the four building blocks of the digital campus. They all conveniently start with P.

Purpose: The Main Thing
In order to effectively work with in FOCUS, we knew that the digital campus needed to be true to the mission of FOCUS. FOCUS’ Main Thing is: “Inviting college students into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church. Inspiring and equipping them for a lifetime of Christ-centered evangelization, discipleship, and friendship in which they lead others to do the same.” The question wasn’t how can we pull in web traffic with the digital campus or how can we do something that is nice or neat or fun. The question became: How can we use the internet to further FOCUS’ Main Thing? This became the purpose and the drive of the digital campus.

Platform: FOCUS Equip
A lot has happened since Curtis’ idea about the digital campus two years ago. In particular, FOCUS launched a new website just over a year ago called FOCUS Equip. The basic premise of FOCUS Equip is to take FOCUS’ curriculum and to put it online so that it is electronic, adaptable, and free for anyone to use. We also threw in a library of video and audio talks and a mobile application for iPhone, Android, or iPad platforms.

Since this launch, we have noticed a great deal of positive feedback not only from our current FOCUS campuses, but also from non-FOCUS campuses, alumni, and others. Because of this online success, using FOCUS Equip as a platform for the digital campus seemed like a no-brainer.

People: Non-FOCUS Campuses
This was perhaps the trickiest one of all. If we primarily concentrate on non-college students, then we run the risk of not accomplishing the main thing. If we concentrate on current FOCUS students, then we play a secondary role to what the missionary is doing on campus. College students on non-FOCUS campuses seemed to make the most sense. We consistently get more requests for FOCUS missionaries than we can handle. We also know that several non-FOCUS students use FOCUS Equip and want to be trained. The main purpose of the digital campus will be to reach out to students on non-FOCUS campuses. The digital campus missionaries will coach these students via Skype and email. Many students want to start something on their campus like a Bible study but they don’t know how. Our hope is that FOCUS Equip and the digital campus missionaries take the mystery out of this process and help these students to be world changers on their campuses. This opportunity gives the digital campus an immense amount of potential and ensures a relational connection between the missionaries and students.

Pontifical Call: The New Evangelization
New initiatives in Catholic America these days seem to begin and end with the New Evangelization, and this project is no different (for what the New Evangelization is, click here). Two particular things about the New Evangelization come to mind. First, John Paul II called for new ardor, methods, and expression to be associated with the New Evangelization. The digital campus is definitely a new method in trying to evangelize and equip others to evangelize. It is an attempt to utilize new means in order to touch the hearts and minds of men and women today. Second, Pope John Paul II set a beautiful vision for what the New Evangelization should be. Now, we are beginning to know how to accomplish this vision in practical terms. The digital campus is an attempt to better learn how to train others for practical evangelization.  Our hope is that through the digital campus we can continue to learn how to train college students and others.

So, here they are, the four Ps of the digital campus:

• Purpose: The Main Thing

• Platform: FOCUS Equip

• People: Non-FOCUS Campuses

• Pontifical Call: The New Evangelization

We are looking forward to an exciting year of exploring what it means to carry these out online.

Do you know college students on non-FOCUS campuses who might want to live out FOCUS mission on their campus? If so, have them contact us at digitalcampus@focus.org.