You can learn a lot about loving the lost by spending time with Jesus in the Gospels. Of course, all "Good Christians" know this. But often our "knowing" does not translate into our "doing." We are prone to stay isolated in our Christian communities. It's a sad truth-but a lot of us spend too much time with our "brothers and sisters" to the point we have no relationships (at least no meaningful relationships) with the lost.
And if we do-we usually tend to have relationships with people who are at least OPEN to the idea of Christianity, people who have commonalities with us.
This happens all the time in churches.
It also happens on campuses with Christian organizations. When I first came to UTSA I thought that students would be much more missional and intentional and open to being on the "edge of lostness"-after all, they are all about relationships...but I found out something that shouldn't have surprised me: Our kids are reflections of us.
The "Good Church Kids" quite often prefer to circulate in Christian circles Monday-Friday (some of these kids spend all their time with as many Christian organizations as possible during the week) and the end result is they "stay safe" but miss out on the adventure of following Christ and being obedient to the Great Commission and the Second Greatest Commandment! Sound familiar? It should-the story is played out in thousands of churches across America. We like to 'be safe.' Jesus never called us to that.
Which leads me to something amazing our BSM students are doing. You must know-they are doing this because they have been in prayer and are following the Spirit's prompting. We have been talking a LOT about being missional and not attractional as a ministry. Too many organizations (like too many churches) put on a lot of shows to "attract" while never living attractive lives that intersect with the lost. We reject that idea. The students have committed to a lifestyle that is intentional in being missional-in developing relationships with the lost. What follows blesses me to no end:
Several of our students, male and female, last semester, expressed a burden to reach out to the Atheist Agenda, a campus organization at UTSA that is quite militant. This semester, two of our students have actually attended their meetings (not to "de-convert), but to develop relationships. The story gets better:
We have been praying for the students in Atheist Agenda. We have a corporate sense of calling to go to groups and to people that others avoid. Through this meeting-relationships have been developed with some of the students in the Atheist Agenda. Something quite humbling (and sad in many ways) came out of the conversations. A few of the students from the Atheist Agenda said "BSM...we are cool with you...you guys are all right."
The stories that flowed from the conversation revealed that the Atheists have been burned, tricked (that is their perception) by other Christian organizations who were more concerned with pounding them over the head or winning an argument than they were concerned about them as people.
Stories were told by some of the Atheists about WHY they became hostile towards Christianity-and the common thread-how Christians treated them. Some come from church backgrounds. Some were seeking and exploring and had bad experiences. Some felt like 'projects.'
They knew us (BSM) only because we serve free lunch and our students have shown them authentic love. They are wary of other organizations.
From this comes a night we are scheduling with them to go bowling. Now bowling is not the end of the story-we are praying and working towards building trust and God-honoring relationships that He will use to build bridges to the Gospel. We are willing to love, to be patient, to invest-and I am SO proud of our students.
Please pray for them, for me, for the Atheist Agenda-pray for God to use these relationships and this scheduled time to bring students to Himself.
Our students also are putting on another event-it's an elaborate game called "Fugitive"-and personally, I can't wait to play. Long story-but we'll need a lot of space and every college student who hears about it thinks it's just about the coolest idea ever.
Our students have determined to not invite other Christian organizations-but to specifically invite non-Christian organizations, to play. Again-a bridge activity that will allow us to develop relationships with students who might not normally connect with a ministry.
Now some might think:"Wait-are you not being cooperative with other organizations?" We are-but we are refusing to perpetuate the Christian bubble experience.
If you put together all the students connected on a fairly significant level to Christian organizations at UTSA, you would find around 450 students...out of 29,300 on campus.
There is much work to be done and we cannot continue to circulate the same kids in the same Christian bubble-there is a campus that is lost and needs Christ. I am proud of our BSM students for their willingness to go to the edge.
Pray for them. We are asking God for a campus. We can't do it-but all things are possible for Him.
Oh-and feel free to tell this story to your church. What would happen if we all came together to worship and to encourage each other-to be refreshed, and then went out into the harvest fields with great intentionality? What if we spent more time with lost people?
What if...?
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