1

Venture Scape Map

OVERVIEW

The College/ YA Group, also known as “Redemption College”, is a ministry belonging to

Redemption Gateway Church. This ministry is open to college students and young

adults that are members of the church, interested in becoming members of the church,

or neither but would still like to attend. It first started meeting in the homes of church

leaders and members back in 2016. It since has had a couple of different formats and

alliterations of it, whether it be having new leaders or the scheme of how each gathering

would go. From its conception, what has stayed consistent is that it has been meeting in

a house for an hour and on a weekly basis. This of course with certain exceptions such

as holidays, a leader getting sick, among other irregular things. Something very irregular

that caused the College/ YA Group to take a break from meeting up was the COVID-19

pandemic. In April of 2020, there was a decision made to put a halt on the gatherings

for an indefinite amount of time. The break ended up lasting a couple of months and

when it launched in July of 2020, there were some considerable differences. There was

a change in leadership, the gatherings were now held on the church campus, and no

longer was it on a weekly basis. Having new people lead was nothing new, but the

leaders themselves were. Pastors Mike and Brandon were now in charge of the ministry.

For the first time, the gatherings were now two hours long and held on the second and

fourth Sunday of the month. Another change that the ministry was not used to is that

they would now start meeting on the church campus. This relatively recent relaunch
 2

consisted of many changes with the intent to improve the experience and mission. The

new location had significantly more space which allowed for growth, the new leadership

gave a fresh energy the ministry needed, and the new schedule allowed a more in depth

connection while making it more accessible and less restrictive with days. The purpose

of the College/ YA Group, according to the description stated on their website, is to help

people connect into the church and be strengthened as healthy, growing disciples. More

specifically, to be a place where young adults can be known, loved, and centered on the

Gospel with a small group feel. In terms of the ministry, their definition of success is

establishing connections between young adults that are in the same stage of life and

are bonded through their faith.

Missions and goals of the ministry are listed below in no particular order.

- Connect the youth otherwise fragmented by multiple circumstances

- Establish a welcoming and comforting faith based community

- Build relations so members are not alone in this journey as followers of Jesus

ANALYSIS

The College/ YA Group is currently in the climb stage of the Venture Scape cycle. This

can be concluded by identifying stages they have been in and stages they have yet to

meet. They had a dream to relaunch the ministry in a new way and start a new chapter.

They took a leap in the reboot effort with some drastic changes that people were not

used to. During its first few months the ministry had to fight to spread the word and
 3

inform the church that the gatherings are back on after a few months of absence. Now,

after just over a year of running the ministry in this new revamp, there is an established

new norm and comfort but they still are not at a place where they feel like they can be

so they continue to climb until they get there. Although there have been many

accomplishments made through this journey, ultimately, the College/ YA Group still has

yet to arrive at the end of it. Once they do, they would be able to re-dream of further

opportunities that the ministry can accomplish or be a part of.

The ministry’s desired state is to be at the re-dream stage of the Venture Scape cycle.

This can be concluded by their desire to keep developing their efforts of their ongoing

goals and of what they consider to be success. Once they feel that they have arrived and

crossed the finish line of this particular journey, there are still ways that the ministry

would like to expand and reach their target audience beyond the established gatherings.

There are further ambitions upon the College/ YA Group completing the current project

of accomplishing its missions and goals through the gatherings. These ambitions

would still have the same purpose in mind of being a form of outreach in the hope of

bringing people to Christ or at least spark curiosity. A way to continue this ambition

could be to have exciting open invite events for young adult members of the community

that would entice new people to be a part of the ministry.

In order to make the College/ YA Group’s current state meet its desired state, the gap

between these two must be identified. As mentioned previously, the current alliteration
 4

of this ministry launched just over a year ago so it is still relatively new. There has been

a significant amount of progress in that time period, but there are still some gaps to

undertake. A goal of the ministry is not to grow just for the sake of growing, but rather

build individual connections among another. At the same time, it is a goal to outreach as

many members of the community as possible so they all build those connections

together. This will move forward a mission listed in the Overview section of the report

which is to build a community that young adults are able to connect whereas they

wouldn’t otherwise be able to due them being fragmented by attending different

schools, service times, or many other circumstances.The more members that are a part

of this ministry the closer it will be to reach one of their main goals.

STRATEGY & TACTICS

In order to achieve this organization’s goals, a clear strategy was mapped out with its

corresponding tactics for the purpose of ensuring that everything is to be well executed.

Using the thorough analysis above as a foundation, these strategies and tactics have

been established as the best way forward.

STRATEGY: The target audience I have identified for College/ YA Group is any young

adults aged 18-25, regardless of where they stand in their religious beliefs. This has

been confidently concluded based on the current members that attend, the name of the

organization, and upon asking one of the leaders myself. The right message I have
 5

identified that this ministry should send to its target audience is that these gatherings

are a safe place where everyone is welcomed from all walks of life and spiritual stance,

with the purpose of building intimate connections and establishing friendships while all

while discussing and learning more about Christ. This message would be tied to a call

of action encouraging its current members to invite friends of theirs to join. In terms of

Duarte's Communication Toolkit, this message would be conveyed by using speeches

and stories. Climb speeches would be effective to communicate to its current members

the progress they have made in their growth thus far. Reminding them the current state

of the venture in comparison from what it was months ago, and revisiting the dream of

building a ministry to reach out to more people. The leaders of the ministry can express

how they believe that the College/ YA Group has even more potential to reach more

lives and grow the community that they have built thus far. Climb stories would also be

effective to bring back memories of how the current members might have felt nervous

or uncomfortable when they first joined but now they feel free to be themselves and are

comfortable. Illustrating the results of joining and staying in the ministry, all the

friendships, all the memories, the laughs and good times. Stories of members’ growth in

their faith and how their community might have been there in tough times could also be

effective in encouraging current members to want to bring more people to experience

what they have. The right time I have identified to deliver this message is towards the

end of every meeting, taking the last few minutes to close up the night. This would allow

the attendees to communicate with those that they want to invite in their free time and

make their invitation more probable than in the middle of the gathering.
 6

TACTICS: The potential resistance I have identified from the young adults is that they

would eventually lose interest after a certain amount of time. Points that would

contribute to this perspective would be if the attendees find the gatherings boring or if

they do not find a connection with anyone resulting in them feeling left out. In terms of

Duarte's Communication Toolkit, the tactics and tools I have identified that this ministry

should execute in order to reduce this resistance are ceremonies and symbols. Climb

ceremonies would also be effective to provide inspiration to renew commitment. I

suggest having an exciting annual event where there is a group picture taken of all the

members that attend the ministry. Perhaps it could be themed and props welcomed to

make it more interactive and memorable. The idea behind this ceremony is to commit to

being in the following year’s pictures as well as to inspire members to invite others so

they too can be part of this community and the number of people in the picture grows

every year. This renewal commitment to the College/ YA Group would inspire members

to stay in the ministry and inspire more outreach. Climb symbols would be effective to

provide visual and spatial inspiration. I suggest framing and hanging up the best group

picture of the night on the wall. This would serve as a reminder to the people who attend

of all the friends and connections they have made, making them glad they joined and

wanting them to continue being a part of the ministry. Additionally, by making it a goal to

have an increased number of people each year, it would make the attendees want to

reach out more in order to meet the fun challenge they have set. The visual

representation of seeing all the annual pictures on the walls of the main room where the
 7

gathering takes place would inspire commitment to the ministry. I have identified these

motivating strategies to be most effective for the tactics to use over warning strategies,

and therefore the one to adopt for this ministry. This has been confidently concluded

based on the ministry’s desire to have people want to be there and look forward to the

gatherings instead of feeling like they have to or else there would be consequences. The

College/ YA Group aims to be a positive space where the attendees feel loved and

heard. A motivating approach would serve best for current members to keep being part

of the community that has been built and to inspire others to want to be part of the

ministry.