Looking for Dark Places

As a staff team we are reading and processing Andy Stanley’s book, Next Generation Leader. In the second section of the book Stanley addresses the issue of courage in the life of a leader, that if we stick with the status quo we will not only miss out on opportunities, but our organization/ministry will begin to die. I would say that it may not die, but it will cease to be relevant.

Stanley asks the question, where in your ministry are people perched on the mountainside, staring down into the valley wondering and wishing but not initiating? (He had just used the illustration of the army of Israel looking down at the valley when Goliath would challenge them; and their inactivity instead of carefully and prayerfully seeing this as an opportunity to trust God.) In your ministry, there are opportunities that have not yet been exploited because no one has had the courage to go first. What are they?

One of the things that continues to challenge me on campus is the realization there are places at SFA where the gospel is not going. Even though we have target areas, offer Bible Studies on campus, and spend a good deal of time meeting with students, we are still a come and see ministry. “You should come to our weekly meeting.” “You should check out this event.”

What are the areas or pockets of campus where the students don’t know someone who truly follows Jesus? What areas of campus are without someone purposely seeking to share the gospel? It’s quite doubtful that God will give us the type of vision He gave Paul in Acts 16. The Macedonia man saying, “Hey Paul, come over here and tell us about Jesus.” God can do whatever He wants, but so far that hasn’t happened, so I’m thinking He actually wants me to engage students, pray, and trust Him to lead me into the Judea and Samaria of our campus. If you’ve been to SFA, you would probably say we must be the end of the earth Jesus was talking about in Acts 1:8.

I don’t have answers to these questions but I have ideas. I’ll try and share those over the next several days, but it is the baseball playoffs so…