There are over 29,300 students on campus at the University of Texas, San Antonio. That is the number of a city. Of those 29,300 students, approximately 500 or less are actively connected to a Christian student ministry organization.
In other words, Christian organizations on campus are about as effective as the church is to the city. That sounds harsh, but it is a reality.
Of course, there are variables: There are certainly students who follow Christ on campus who are not connected to a Christian organization, and not every student connected to a Christian organization is necessarily following Christ. Still...that number, that ratio haunts me.
Many students who come to our campus as freshmen have the same mindset many believers have when it commes to the church: "I need to find a place where I can connect, get fed, and be safe." We have many students come to our organizations from churches that fall into one of the following categories:
1) Students who are looking for a safe place to be with others who also desire safety. Every god imaginable is on our campus. Every worldview imaginable is on our campus. Some come simply to connect and to find commfort. Such students will often rotate from one Christian campus organization to another, nightly, to stay safe in a Christian 'bubble.' Like church members who fill their nights and activities solely with church members, such young people are so focused on staying safe with others they do not dare engage the lost person who sits next to them in class.
2) Students who are making decisions as to whether they are going to continue in some kind of Christian commmunity while at college or slowly drift away. Almost eighty six percent of students who 'grow up in the church' leave the church for good after graduating from High School. These students are torn between continuing in what they were taught as young adults and exploring alternative worldviews.
3) Students who are looking to invest. This is a small minority group-but we are blessed beyond measure when students arrive on campus with a heart for being on mission and the desire to connect with a community, to invest in that community, and to be a missionary to the campus.
4) Students who want to reproduce their youth group experience on campus. Well-intentioned but often lacking in the area of discipleship, these students just want to be around other believers, be good people, do some good things and have fun. The larger issue of the Kingdom of God and following Christ daily is still something that needs to be taught. With these students, we go over foundational issues again: How to have a quiet time, how to pray, learning the Scriptures, growing in relationship with God.
There are certainly other sub-categories. This is a broad view. And I want to boast in Christ-what He has done and is doing-and how our young people are responding to Him. I have great reason for hope on our campus!
I am proud of Baptist Student Ministries-our young people-at the University of Texas, San Antonio! God has been workin in our group in remarkable ways, teaching us what it means to be a community of faith on mission together. I see young people going to the edge of lostness to share their faith, to develop (intentionally!) relationships with the lost for the sake of the Gospel. Our young people understand that being on mission is not something we do once a year on 'mission trip,' but rather something we do daily. We are a community on mission.
Our students are developing relationships with Atheists, with the irreligious, with skeptics, with students from other faith backgrounds, all for the sake of the King and His Kingdom. They are praying for our campus and putting feet to their prayers. They have rejected the idea of Baptist Student Ministries being a safe Christian 'bubble' and have embraced the idea that we are a community of faith on mission together.
These young people bless me tremendously. I am encouraged by their faith, by their love for others, by their desire to journey together into the harvest fields. When we gather to worship or to study, it is to glorify God and to edify one another and to exhort one another on. We continue to see new students, continue to develop relationships with the lost-the process is slow at times, but our young people continue to pray and to persevere, to plant, to water, to invest.
So, as you read about our Baptist Student Ministry Mission Trip, please know this one very important thing: Our students are on mission daily on our campus, in our city. They have not compartmentalized 'missions' as something we do from time to time-rather missions is a part of who we are as a faith community on campus.
God is working in wonderful ways, and I praise Him! Please pray for our students as they continue to, in faith, reach out to the lost, the marginalized, the cynical, even the hostile. God is at work, and I see wonderful and amazing things ahead. God is forging a group of students who are hungry for Him, who have a passion for Him and His Kingdom, who are collectively saying, "Here I am, send me!"
And for this, I am blessed. I pray you are as well.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
From Community to Communitas: Being On Mission Together
A common conundrum for the church is how to be outward focused and at the same time build stgong community within the church. Often the discussion goes something like this:
Person # 1: "We need to be more evangelistic."
Person # 2: "We need to take better care of our own members. We need better fellowship"
Person #3: "How can we do both well at the same time?"
This conversation, or a variation of this conversation takes place in churches across the U.S. If a church begins to grow, long time members may feel threatened in a sense. Their community is changing. Their sense of what it means to be in community is being challenged. People do need to feel that they have strong connection points in the church, a sense of community. A church can be so focused on reaching new people that existing members are lost in the shuffle.
On the other hand, when a church focuses so much on the 'sweet fellowship' of the members, the congregation becomes ingrown-so focused inwardly that any sense of being on mission is lost amidst potlucks, socials, committee meetings and church functions. Evangelism is something that is done by pastor and staff, and any new additions that take place in the church seem more accidental than the natural result of being intentional in reaching the lost. If there is 'growth'-it is more likely to be transfer growth.
Is being "missional" contrary to building stronger community within the church?
Absolutely not. In fact, a right understanding of community involves the people of God being on mission together. Community is strengthened by being tested, by the community journeying together for one common purpose, by being tested.
Alan Hirsch describes "communitas" as (my paraphrase) the strengthening and deepening of a community that in faith journeys into the liminal zones (the outer edges). In other words, when a community is on mission together, something much stronger is forged than mere 'sweet fellowship.' For community to truly grow in depth, the community must be forged in the fires of faith, testing, being on mission together.
And perhaps this is where the breakdown occurs for many churches: Spectatorship is either encouraged or enabled. Fellowship is defined as simmply getting together and enjoying each other. Mission is something that is defined in terms of a trip, service is something scheduled on the church calendar from time to time. Prayer is something we meet to do once a week, and largely the prayer time is focused on membership. I could go on. You get the idea.
God calls us to something far greater than insulating ourselves from the outside world. He calls us to engage lostness. As salt and light, we are His plans for preserving and flavoring and illuminating the world. For the salt to be effective, it must get out of the salt shaker. For the light to be meaningful, it must shine outside the walls of the church facility.
For communitas to be formed, the gathering of God's people must be on mission together. It is in that 'being on mission together' that stronger, more authentic relationships are formed, community is enhanced, bonds grow stronger as God's people live, love, serve, share...together, on mission.
What will this look like in your church? Every church has a different 'personality' and each church has it's own strengths and weaknesses. A good starting place is for the community to prayerfully go through the Scriptures to understand what it means to be on mission together. None of us are exempt. We are not called to merely surivive, but to follow Jesus wherever He leads-and He is always leading us into the fields, where the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
As God's people are re-awakened to the plight of the lost, to the heartbeat of God, to the Awesomeness of God, to the Great Commandments and the Great Commission, to our absolute need for Him in all things and for all things (giving up the illusion of independence and self-reliance)...we can do nothing but fall on our faces in prayer and realize that God has called us to far, far more than being 'safe' and 'comfortable.'
The church in America has not flatlined. We are in dramatic decline. Years of formulas for 'church growth' has created a church culture of spectatorship and consumerism. Years of in-fighting over 'worship wars' and 'who is in control?' has left many churches 'dead in the water'-stagnant, drifting, their sails no longer set to the Holy Spirit. In many ways, the church in general has been asleep.
And while we were sleeping, the culture changed. Our world changed. The church is awakening to find itself marginalized, on the fringes of life, seen as irrelevant by most Americans. They drive by our churches and never think twice about who we are or why we gather. Inside our facilities we wonder why all of those outsiders are not coming inside. Didn't we put 'everyone welcome' on our church sign?
While we were arguing over worship styles, while we were politicking over control issues, while we were filling our calendars with activities, the world around us changed-and the world around us is turning to anything and everything but the church for answers.
We sure need an Awakening. We cannot program one. We cannot control God. We cannot create new 'techniques' to make ourselves more interesting to the lost.
But we can do some very important things: We can humble ourselves before God and confess our apathy to the lost. We can repent of our sense of self-reliance. We can cry out to God to 'renew His works in our days.' We can re-examine our understanding of community and mission in light of the Scriptures, and in doing so, re-examin what it means to be God's people on mission together.
We walk among the living dead daily. We converse with people daily who are headed towards a Christless eternity. We are surrounded by the stench of spiritual death...and we must stop focusing on our own felt needs. Jesus calls us to far, far more.
He calls our community of faith to communitas, and as we follow Him, we will experience far greater things than we can possibly imagine. This is the adventure. This is where obedience intersects with faith and humility. This is where love grows-love for the family of God, love for the lost. It's not a 'safe' place, or a 'predictable' or 'comfortable' place, but it is a great place to be. It is the place where the Spirit of God does His most amazing work in and through us. It is the place where we are absolutely dependent on Him for all things-together.
May you and your community of faith hear His call, and together, experience the bonds of communitas as you go to the very edge on mission together.
Person # 1: "We need to be more evangelistic."
Person # 2: "We need to take better care of our own members. We need better fellowship"
Person #3: "How can we do both well at the same time?"
This conversation, or a variation of this conversation takes place in churches across the U.S. If a church begins to grow, long time members may feel threatened in a sense. Their community is changing. Their sense of what it means to be in community is being challenged. People do need to feel that they have strong connection points in the church, a sense of community. A church can be so focused on reaching new people that existing members are lost in the shuffle.
On the other hand, when a church focuses so much on the 'sweet fellowship' of the members, the congregation becomes ingrown-so focused inwardly that any sense of being on mission is lost amidst potlucks, socials, committee meetings and church functions. Evangelism is something that is done by pastor and staff, and any new additions that take place in the church seem more accidental than the natural result of being intentional in reaching the lost. If there is 'growth'-it is more likely to be transfer growth.
Is being "missional" contrary to building stronger community within the church?
Absolutely not. In fact, a right understanding of community involves the people of God being on mission together. Community is strengthened by being tested, by the community journeying together for one common purpose, by being tested.
Alan Hirsch describes "communitas" as (my paraphrase) the strengthening and deepening of a community that in faith journeys into the liminal zones (the outer edges). In other words, when a community is on mission together, something much stronger is forged than mere 'sweet fellowship.' For community to truly grow in depth, the community must be forged in the fires of faith, testing, being on mission together.
And perhaps this is where the breakdown occurs for many churches: Spectatorship is either encouraged or enabled. Fellowship is defined as simmply getting together and enjoying each other. Mission is something that is defined in terms of a trip, service is something scheduled on the church calendar from time to time. Prayer is something we meet to do once a week, and largely the prayer time is focused on membership. I could go on. You get the idea.
God calls us to something far greater than insulating ourselves from the outside world. He calls us to engage lostness. As salt and light, we are His plans for preserving and flavoring and illuminating the world. For the salt to be effective, it must get out of the salt shaker. For the light to be meaningful, it must shine outside the walls of the church facility.
For communitas to be formed, the gathering of God's people must be on mission together. It is in that 'being on mission together' that stronger, more authentic relationships are formed, community is enhanced, bonds grow stronger as God's people live, love, serve, share...together, on mission.
What will this look like in your church? Every church has a different 'personality' and each church has it's own strengths and weaknesses. A good starting place is for the community to prayerfully go through the Scriptures to understand what it means to be on mission together. None of us are exempt. We are not called to merely surivive, but to follow Jesus wherever He leads-and He is always leading us into the fields, where the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
As God's people are re-awakened to the plight of the lost, to the heartbeat of God, to the Awesomeness of God, to the Great Commandments and the Great Commission, to our absolute need for Him in all things and for all things (giving up the illusion of independence and self-reliance)...we can do nothing but fall on our faces in prayer and realize that God has called us to far, far more than being 'safe' and 'comfortable.'
The church in America has not flatlined. We are in dramatic decline. Years of formulas for 'church growth' has created a church culture of spectatorship and consumerism. Years of in-fighting over 'worship wars' and 'who is in control?' has left many churches 'dead in the water'-stagnant, drifting, their sails no longer set to the Holy Spirit. In many ways, the church in general has been asleep.
And while we were sleeping, the culture changed. Our world changed. The church is awakening to find itself marginalized, on the fringes of life, seen as irrelevant by most Americans. They drive by our churches and never think twice about who we are or why we gather. Inside our facilities we wonder why all of those outsiders are not coming inside. Didn't we put 'everyone welcome' on our church sign?
While we were arguing over worship styles, while we were politicking over control issues, while we were filling our calendars with activities, the world around us changed-and the world around us is turning to anything and everything but the church for answers.
We sure need an Awakening. We cannot program one. We cannot control God. We cannot create new 'techniques' to make ourselves more interesting to the lost.
But we can do some very important things: We can humble ourselves before God and confess our apathy to the lost. We can repent of our sense of self-reliance. We can cry out to God to 'renew His works in our days.' We can re-examine our understanding of community and mission in light of the Scriptures, and in doing so, re-examin what it means to be God's people on mission together.
We walk among the living dead daily. We converse with people daily who are headed towards a Christless eternity. We are surrounded by the stench of spiritual death...and we must stop focusing on our own felt needs. Jesus calls us to far, far more.
He calls our community of faith to communitas, and as we follow Him, we will experience far greater things than we can possibly imagine. This is the adventure. This is where obedience intersects with faith and humility. This is where love grows-love for the family of God, love for the lost. It's not a 'safe' place, or a 'predictable' or 'comfortable' place, but it is a great place to be. It is the place where the Spirit of God does His most amazing work in and through us. It is the place where we are absolutely dependent on Him for all things-together.
May you and your community of faith hear His call, and together, experience the bonds of communitas as you go to the very edge on mission together.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
How May We Serve You?
BSM is committed to reach not only our campus, but to be a blessing to area churches. We are here to serve-and if we can bless you or your congregation, please contact me at 210.823.4166.
Areas of giftedness: Disciple Now's; Youth Rallies; Back Yard Bible Clubs.
I also am available to consult with your college and or youth departments. I am available to speak to your college students, youth, or preach in your church. My passion: Calling the people of God to flesh out the Two Greatest Commandments-and to move towards being missional congregations. I also train groups to think missionally, and how to develop strategies for reaching the lost.
We are here for you. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to be of service to you or your congregation. You matter to us! More importantly-you matter to Him!!
Grace and Peace,
Kevin
Areas of giftedness: Disciple Now's; Youth Rallies; Back Yard Bible Clubs.
I also am available to consult with your college and or youth departments. I am available to speak to your college students, youth, or preach in your church. My passion: Calling the people of God to flesh out the Two Greatest Commandments-and to move towards being missional congregations. I also train groups to think missionally, and how to develop strategies for reaching the lost.
We are here for you. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to be of service to you or your congregation. You matter to us! More importantly-you matter to Him!!
Grace and Peace,
Kevin
BSM Mission Trip-Returning To Los Angeles
In May, BSM will be returning to Los Angeles to continue the work we started there last year. The connecting church is Mosaic Church (Erwin McManus, pastor), and we will be serving in some very challenging places and contexts.
It was interesting to go through this process of discerning where God wanted us to go. At the beginning of last year, I had a very clear sense: Go to LA. Interact with Mosaic, learn from them, serve in that city.
This year, I fell into the trap of thinking we had to go to some "new" place-concerned the students would want a 'new' experience. I prayed and sent out so many 'feelers' to see where we were supposed to go...but never had a peace-even though there were several possibilities-and new experiences.
One day I was reading an article. The title was "Short-term missions=spiritual tourism?" The title grabbed me. The article talked about how churches and student ministries tend to go from one place to another each year to keep students 'interested' (or entertained)-as opposed to committing to one place over the long haul. In other words, missions being prostituted by the longing for new experiences.
We prayed about that as a group-and talked about it. It soon became clear, our "Samaria" is Los Angeles. We contacted Mosaic, and they welcomed us back-and we are returning this year again. Some of the students at first wrestled with the idea-because lets be honest-we all want to see the world...but I am so proud of their maturity-they prayed and talked and it became clear to them as well that we should invest in one place outside of San Antonio as opposed to using missions as a disguise for tourism.
Now there is peace.
We will spend one day taking a spiritual tour of Los Angeles-learning about the spiritualities that are influential in Los Angeles. We will re-visit the Scientology Celebrity Centre (seriously-Scientology is very influential in Hollywood and in Los Angeles), as well as visiting the largest Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles.
We will be working with Union Rescue Mission and the Dream Center-two agencies that serve Skid Row-and the 90,000 homeless in Los Angeles. One thing that gripped us last year was this "city within a city" of thousands upon thousands of homeless.
We will be serving with Adopt a Block-working in some of the rougher areas of Los Angeles-to serve families and children in need-to demonstrate and declare the Gospel.
We will be working with MetroKidz-another inner city ministry that focuses on bringing hope to inner city youth by sharing Christ and His love.
We'll also be working with School on Wheels, an organization that provides tutoring and education to homeless children and teenagers.
We'll also be working with Hope Gardens, a transitional community for women and their children. These women were homeless, have gone through job training and spend 9-18 months in this special place as they are getting on their feet. We will be ministering to the women as well as to their children.
We may also be working with Hollywood street kids (homeless young people who have turned to prostitution and are in bondage to many other things).
God has put together quite a trip-a hard trip-but a wonderful time to serve, grow, be stretched and to continue investing in that area.
Finally-we'll be helping Mosaic (doing the grunt work of clean up, set up and tear down) for at least 3 services: William Carey, the Mayan, and either Beverly Hills or South Beach).
Please pray for the following:
1) Pray for those God will call out to go. The trip last year stretched and grew us immensely and helped shape our culture and view of missions, service and evangelism on campus. Pray that our students will be open and receptive to His call.
2) Pray that our schedule will flow well. We will be working long hours every day-and it is important that we schedule wisely. There will not be much in the way of 'down time'-so also pray for grace and strength.
3) Pray for those we will be ministering to and with. Pray that God would use us to bless and glorify His Name. The ministry contexts are very tough. It's hard ground. But God is working there. Mosaic is also a wonderful community of believers. I've never seen a church so effectively model loving the 'outsider' as we experienced last year. We learned a lot about loving the lost and reaching out to the lost through our time with Mosaic. We are trusting that our continued relationship with them will be used by God to contnue shaping us into a missional community-a community of people who go to the edge of lostness. For more on this-see entries below!
4) Pray for provision. Last year God provided wonderfully for our students. The actual cost per student was initially just under $1,000.00. God provided through churches and individuals and as our students raised their support...the actual cost was just at $350.00 per student-a remarkable blessing since that included air fare, car rentals, housing and meals for a week. Please pray that He would superabundantly provide for us. Economic times are tough-but God is bigger. We are trusting Him for all we need. Please join us in praying for provision.
God has something special for us on this trip. We ask for your prayers-and will keep you posted as we continue to prepare. We are hoping to take around 25 students, which would be 10 more than last year. We know that as students have this shared experience of serving together, sweating, working, crying, praying, laughing and worshiping together in this 'strange land,' they will come back to San Antonio better equipped to be missionaries on campus-and their vision of the Kingdom will be profoundly expanded.
It was interesting to go through this process of discerning where God wanted us to go. At the beginning of last year, I had a very clear sense: Go to LA. Interact with Mosaic, learn from them, serve in that city.
This year, I fell into the trap of thinking we had to go to some "new" place-concerned the students would want a 'new' experience. I prayed and sent out so many 'feelers' to see where we were supposed to go...but never had a peace-even though there were several possibilities-and new experiences.
One day I was reading an article. The title was "Short-term missions=spiritual tourism?" The title grabbed me. The article talked about how churches and student ministries tend to go from one place to another each year to keep students 'interested' (or entertained)-as opposed to committing to one place over the long haul. In other words, missions being prostituted by the longing for new experiences.
We prayed about that as a group-and talked about it. It soon became clear, our "Samaria" is Los Angeles. We contacted Mosaic, and they welcomed us back-and we are returning this year again. Some of the students at first wrestled with the idea-because lets be honest-we all want to see the world...but I am so proud of their maturity-they prayed and talked and it became clear to them as well that we should invest in one place outside of San Antonio as opposed to using missions as a disguise for tourism.
Now there is peace.
We will spend one day taking a spiritual tour of Los Angeles-learning about the spiritualities that are influential in Los Angeles. We will re-visit the Scientology Celebrity Centre (seriously-Scientology is very influential in Hollywood and in Los Angeles), as well as visiting the largest Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles.
We will be working with Union Rescue Mission and the Dream Center-two agencies that serve Skid Row-and the 90,000 homeless in Los Angeles. One thing that gripped us last year was this "city within a city" of thousands upon thousands of homeless.
We will be serving with Adopt a Block-working in some of the rougher areas of Los Angeles-to serve families and children in need-to demonstrate and declare the Gospel.
We will be working with MetroKidz-another inner city ministry that focuses on bringing hope to inner city youth by sharing Christ and His love.
We'll also be working with School on Wheels, an organization that provides tutoring and education to homeless children and teenagers.
We'll also be working with Hope Gardens, a transitional community for women and their children. These women were homeless, have gone through job training and spend 9-18 months in this special place as they are getting on their feet. We will be ministering to the women as well as to their children.
We may also be working with Hollywood street kids (homeless young people who have turned to prostitution and are in bondage to many other things).
God has put together quite a trip-a hard trip-but a wonderful time to serve, grow, be stretched and to continue investing in that area.
Finally-we'll be helping Mosaic (doing the grunt work of clean up, set up and tear down) for at least 3 services: William Carey, the Mayan, and either Beverly Hills or South Beach).
Please pray for the following:
1) Pray for those God will call out to go. The trip last year stretched and grew us immensely and helped shape our culture and view of missions, service and evangelism on campus. Pray that our students will be open and receptive to His call.
2) Pray that our schedule will flow well. We will be working long hours every day-and it is important that we schedule wisely. There will not be much in the way of 'down time'-so also pray for grace and strength.
3) Pray for those we will be ministering to and with. Pray that God would use us to bless and glorify His Name. The ministry contexts are very tough. It's hard ground. But God is working there. Mosaic is also a wonderful community of believers. I've never seen a church so effectively model loving the 'outsider' as we experienced last year. We learned a lot about loving the lost and reaching out to the lost through our time with Mosaic. We are trusting that our continued relationship with them will be used by God to contnue shaping us into a missional community-a community of people who go to the edge of lostness. For more on this-see entries below!
4) Pray for provision. Last year God provided wonderfully for our students. The actual cost per student was initially just under $1,000.00. God provided through churches and individuals and as our students raised their support...the actual cost was just at $350.00 per student-a remarkable blessing since that included air fare, car rentals, housing and meals for a week. Please pray that He would superabundantly provide for us. Economic times are tough-but God is bigger. We are trusting Him for all we need. Please join us in praying for provision.
God has something special for us on this trip. We ask for your prayers-and will keep you posted as we continue to prepare. We are hoping to take around 25 students, which would be 10 more than last year. We know that as students have this shared experience of serving together, sweating, working, crying, praying, laughing and worshiping together in this 'strange land,' they will come back to San Antonio better equipped to be missionaries on campus-and their vision of the Kingdom will be profoundly expanded.
Praying for Internationals
God has blessed us by allowing us to develop relationsihps with five amazing young people. Joseph is from Morocco. "Ricky" is from China. Ken and Shiori are from Japan. Margaret is from Khazikstan.
There is a large international community at UTSA, and sadly, few know Jesus. Sadder still, Christian organizations as a whole have not done well in reaching out to internationals.
Jesus' heart is for the nations, for "panta ta ethne" (all the people groups)-and we realize that the students He has brought here, to UTSA, matter-and who better to be missionaries to their own people than these young people once they come to Christ?
We are gathering (Our BSM Staff) Friday with these five international students to plan an international party-a bridge event to develop relationships with internationals for the sake of the Gospel. The international students are planning most of it. We had a meeting last week and heard their hearts-and they are very excited and very open to doing something for their international friends!
Our own students (BSM) are willing to be conversation partners with internationals (a great need for students learning a new language)-to serve them in this way. Our students want to serve and bless international students and are trusting that God is going to use those relationships and provide opportunities to share the Gospel.
Please pray for our international students and for our BSM students-and staff, as we seek to share Christ with young people who have little to no access in their country of origin to the Gospel.
There is a large international community at UTSA, and sadly, few know Jesus. Sadder still, Christian organizations as a whole have not done well in reaching out to internationals.
Jesus' heart is for the nations, for "panta ta ethne" (all the people groups)-and we realize that the students He has brought here, to UTSA, matter-and who better to be missionaries to their own people than these young people once they come to Christ?
We are gathering (Our BSM Staff) Friday with these five international students to plan an international party-a bridge event to develop relationships with internationals for the sake of the Gospel. The international students are planning most of it. We had a meeting last week and heard their hearts-and they are very excited and very open to doing something for their international friends!
Our own students (BSM) are willing to be conversation partners with internationals (a great need for students learning a new language)-to serve them in this way. Our students want to serve and bless international students and are trusting that God is going to use those relationships and provide opportunities to share the Gospel.
Please pray for our international students and for our BSM students-and staff, as we seek to share Christ with young people who have little to no access in their country of origin to the Gospel.
Bowling With Atheists and Fugitive Nights-Students Being Intentional
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...?
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...?
An Encouraging Word For Those in Ministry
I ran across this story in Leadership Weekly. John Ortberg has something encouraging to say about "evaluations" in ministry. Having served in the local church for over 21years and in ministry for 23 years, I appreciated Ortberg's words. I think they will be an encouragement to many of you.
Enjoy:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/currenttrendscolumns/leadershipweekly/howamidoing.html
It's a two page article-so make sure you go to the next page to finish the story!
Blessings,
Kevin
Enjoy:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/currenttrendscolumns/leadershipweekly/howamidoing.html
It's a two page article-so make sure you go to the next page to finish the story!
Blessings,
Kevin
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