Privilege of Serving Christ

Yesterday was a long day, but full of purpose and promise. On Mondays, myself and a few others fast and pray for our campus at SFA. I prayed for my own heart, that I would not be captivated by this world, that I would not cling to any temporary home or possessions here. I prayed that I would look forward to heaven, to my home and eternal life with Jesus. Then I prayed that men at SFA would come to know Christ, follow Christ, and live their lives for Him and not for this world.

This afternoon, I spent an hour with three fraternity guys, one of my favorite times of the week. Last semester we were able to start this Bible study and we’ve had anywhere from 1-8 guys show up. I love spending time with these guys because they want to grow closer to God, but they don’t fake spirituality. If they are struggling with something or if they have a particular sin that’s tearing them down, they’re honest about it. A few guys say it’s the only time of the week they sit down and talk about their relationship with Jesus. By the end of the Bible study they are lobbing questions at me about God’s view of alcohol, homosexuality, and God’s creation of mankind. I’m praying this group will grow and some of these guys will really begin to pursue Christ wholeheartedly.

Last night, we were able to put on a program for Hall 16, the last true guys dorm on campus. About 35 guys showed up for free Raising Canes and to answer focus group questions on subjects ranging from purpose of life, to sex and dating, to Jesus. At the end of the program, I hand everyone an index card and I ask them to write down one question they would like to ask God. Then I give them the option of writing their name and number on the card if they would like to talk more about that question or anything else. Eight guys wanted to get together and talk more. Some of the most heartbreaking questions came from guys that didn’t put their name or number. “Why did my mom have to die?” “If I died today am I going to heaven?” “If I’m gay, does that keep me from going to heaven?”

As I drive home from campus most days, I think of that which frustrates me about students or all the areas where we aren’t reaching students, or wishing we had more money and resources for our ministry. Yesterday was different, I drove home thinking how privileged I am that God allows me the opportunity to reach college students with the gospel.

Top Ten Outreach Ideas

These are outreach ideas I would like to try. I have no idea if they will work, so if you try and fail, I will not take any responsibility.

1) A dunk contest with the goal set at 8 or 9 ft. (so regular guys could dunk). I would like to do this on a Friday afternoon in front of our student center. We have a large open area in front of our student center, and it’s a high traffic area, so I think we would catch a lot of students just stopping to watch. We would just have to be really intentional about getting students that are watching to fill out contact cards.

2) On a hot day, so I guess this couldn’t happen until the Spring, but set up a Slip-n-slide in front of a specific dorm. Advertise at that dorm all week. Make sure we have a few students that will be the first to try out the Slip-n-slide, then have at it. We could serve hot dogs, burgers, or ice cream and ask students to fill out contact cards.

3) Set up a table with Soularium and a table next to it with Perspective Cards in a high traffic location. See if students will stop and talk through the surveys pertaining to both those tools. (credit for this idea goes to our staff and students)

4) Another one for the Spring. A cookout at one of our baseball games. I’ve been saying we are going to do this for a long time, but we’ve never pulled the trigger. Our baseball stadium is set up for students to back up trucks (we’re in East Texas), and watch the game from their tailgates. This usually draws a pretty big crowd, especially if the weather is good. Would be great way to meet students we probably wouldn’t normally come into contact with.

5) Triathlon! We did this several years ago and had pretty good success, about 40 students participated. Interest in these have gone up over the years, might be worth bringing it back out.

6) Movie Discussion. The student center theatre shows two movies on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. If the movie has some meaning, so no Will Ferrell flicks, we could set up a table outside the theatre and ask students what they thought of the movie with a survey designed around the theme of the movie. We’ve also thought of just setting up a Soularium table between showings of the two movies.

7) Camcorder Outreach. On Friday afternoons, we gather as staff and students and initiate spiritual conversations on campus with students that are just hanging out. I’d like to use the same tools we always incorporate but let people know we’ll be videoing the conversations. Seeing us walk up with a camcorder can either be intimidating or it can cause students to light up and engage you more because they think it’s going to launch their acting career.

8) Habitat for Humanity. Spend a Saturday working with the local Habitat for Humanity, helping build a house. Advertise this opportunity on facebook and in our university’s newspaper, and invite students to join us.

9) Coffee and Donuts during Finals. This would require very low expectations because you wouldn’t be able to follow up with any of these students, but could make us more visible on campus and just be a good way to serve the student body.

10) You fill in this one. I’d love to hear your ideas on what you think would work on our campus at SFA, or any campus for that matter.

Campus Time

Credit for this post goes to Brian White, who had the quote of the week at our Missional Team Leader conference a few weeks ago.
“I know that if I’m at the office, I’m not going to run into too many students.”

Although he meant it half-joking, it’s one of the things that stuck with me. I can be guilty of hanging out at the office working or at least pretending to work on a talk for our weekly meeting, or a Bible study I’m leading, or planning for discipleship, but actually I spending time there because it’s easier. Plus, I can “take breaks” from working on a weekly meeting talk to listen to the latest news on Cam Newton or check out the possible coaching candidates for the Cowboys job (which after yesterday could be Jason Garrett’s job to lose). Then the next thing I know, I’ve been on espn.com for an hour and haven’t accomplished anything.

Appointments with students I’m discipling and new students I’m meeting fill a good portion of my schedule, but if I’m honest there is some flex time in there I don’t always use very well. Thanks to Brian’s comment, I’m actually trying to plug in a few ideas in order to make sure some of that flex time is spent on campus seeing current students and meeting new ones instead of reading a list of the Houston Astros top prospects (Jordan Lyles gets my vote, 90’s plus fastball, good movement, great change up for his strikeout pitch…sorry I just got carried away).

Here are some of the ideas I’ve either put in my schedule or I’m in the process of adding.

1) On Monday mornings at 8am, I spend about 30-45 minutes prayer walking our campus. This gets me on campus at a time I’m usually not there, draws my attention to God, and helps me to pray for what we’re dreaming about as a movement.

2) Going to campus at least once, maybe twice a week, with a set amount of time to just walk the quad and student center and have some spontaneous conversations with students. (thinking maybe an hour or two a week)

3) Take a book that I’m reading and sitting down in a high traffic area of campus to read. I did this a few weeks ago, and I saw four students I knew, had a great conversation with one, met a new student, and then introduced a guy on the fringe of our ministry to one of our leaders. That was only about 30-45 minutes out of my week, but it turned out to be productive, at least socially.

If you have a movement of 300 students, you’re schedule may be too full for this. But if you’re like me and you have a movement of less than 100 students, maybe this is helpful.

Five Cool Links of the Week

Here's a great question to wrestle with. Would you be happy in heaven if Christ were not there? Tim asks how this should effect the way we present the gospel.

http://www.timcasteel.com/2010/11/would-you-be-happy-in-heaven-if-christ-were-not-there/


I once had someone tell me, "If Thursday night is party night at SFA, and your meetings are on Thursday, then make you meeting the best party on campus." Not exactly sure how we do that without beer, but I do think we could probably make our meetings a bit more fun. If I were a new student walking into our CRU meeting at SFA, would I walk away thinking that was a good time. Benson poses that question here.


http://exploringcollegeministry.com/2010/11/10/the-good-time-evaluation/


Some of the words and phrases in this one are a little over my head. We don't use big words like "research" when you major in kinesiology. However, I always enjoy reading an article that reminds me of the reliability and validity in the Bible. Yeah, I had to look up both of those words.

http://theresurgence.com/2010/11/12/why-fast-company-sam-harris-need-to-do-their-homework

This is probably my favorite of the week. Its a video expressing all thats happening in Ethiopia. I had the opportunity to spend a week there in Spring '09, and was amazed at what God's doing and the zeal of the believers. If you're a student at SFA, you can go see all this first hand this summer with students from Arkansas and Oklahoma State.

http://onleadingwell.com/2010/11/11/video-studentled/


Great story on how Athletes in Action and FCA are partnering together to reach the Athletic Department at NC State with the gospel.

http://www.athletesinaction.org/news/post/2010/09/28/FCAAIA-Ministry-Thriving-at-NC-state.aspx

Plus, SFA started their basketball season with a win last night and our football team pretty much assured themselves of a playoff spot with a blowout win over Southeastern Louisiana. Great Week!

Best Ministry Ideas - Pancakes

So often, as a college ministry, we brainstorm ideas and talk to other campuses about what works best for them. Then sometimes you discover a great idea almost by accident. A little over a year ago, my wife and I thought it would be fun to invite students over to our house on a Friday night for dinner. As we tried to figure out what to serve, it needed to be something cheap that we could churn out in bulk and fast. Pancakes! Students loved it. Seeing the energy on these nights and the community building that takes place is amazing.

Tonight we had 30-35 students in our home, which is about all that our house can hold. They were loud, laughing, and having great conversations. I guess there’s just something about a home cooked meal and being able to just hang out with friends off campus that creates great connection among our students. We even have students involved in our ministry that tell us the first event they were invited to was pancakes at our house. Pancake night has become a staple for our ministry; we now have it about once a month. If we miss a month, students start asking why we haven’t had pancakes in awhile.

So if you're looking to build community, start with pancakes.

Torrey Honors Institute « Biola University

As I’ve been trying to add a few classics to my reading list, I came across the Torrey Honors Institute located at Biola University in LaMirada, California. The institute doesn’t have a major or minor but some of the classes help meet the general education requirements at the school. The classes involve an extensive reading list that students discuss and write about. I’m trying to pick and choose a few of these to try and read next year.

Check out the list. What We Read « Torrey Honors Institute « Biola University

The goal of the institute is to “equip men and women to pursue truth, goodness and beauty in intellectual and spiritual community, enabling them to be strong Christian leaders. Thinking how great it would be to read and discuss great books and thoughts with others who would also process all this within the context of following Jesus.

Earlier Post - Reading to be Challenged

http://lumberjackland.blogspot.com/2010/10/reading-to-be-challenged.html

Next Generation Leader - Coaching

Our staff team is reading and discussing the book Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley. This morning we spent time processing the section on coaching. Stanley talks about the need we have for coaching in our lives and how we can be a coach in the lives of others.

As a team we had a few takeaways from our time that I thought were really good, and some which probably need more think time.

1) We want to coach to the potential of each student, not comparing them with other students. To unpack this, it means that some students may have potential to engage and build relationships, share the gospel, and lead other students very naturally. Another student may be taking great steps of growth by simply serving others more consistently instead of being “up front”.

2) Our coaching should inspire students to accomplish more than they thought possible, to accomplish that which will cause them to depend upon Christ. We should not just be satisfied with trying to get them to “do something” for our ministry.

3) Reverse Coaching. Could we travel and spend time on campus with another staff team and observe what they do, how they lead, how they spend their time, how they’re trusting God, how they’re leading students that we could apply here at SFA. Football coaches do this all the time. If a coaching staff wants to run the spread offense, they may travel and spend time with a coaching staff that already runs that system.

4) Jesus led by serving. What are the needs of our students here at SFA and how can we adapt our coaching to meet those needs?

5) We could ask students how we’re doing in the area of coaching. We might be surprised by the things we’re doing well and the things we’re not doing so well.

The next section is on character. Can’t wait to tackle that as a team.

Romans 1:1

Romans 1:1-2 "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.

Paul has been called to be an apostle. Christ sought him out. He was not called to a position for pride but one of service, the context is that of an immediate attendant or a steward of the house. However, we are not servants or slaves with no intimacy with our master because Christ also calls us his friends (John 15:15)

Set apart for the gospel of God. The Pharisees, which Paul had been, considered themselves set apart for the study of the law. Paul had been set apart for something different now, a gospel Pharisee. He had been set apart for devotion to the gospel of God which had been set up by God not by man.

God called Paul to a specific office or role, that of an apostle.

If you are a believer in Christ, God has set you apart for this same gospel and has given you a specific office or role.

May we fill that role with the same zeal as Paul.

Praying for SFA

This is my school. I've been here either as a student or staff for 15 years. Most of my time is spent here during the week. Most of my prayers focus on the students that call SFA home.

I pray that more students at SFA would know Jesus.
I pray that more students at SFA would really care about living for Jesus.
I pray that more students from SFA would be sent to reach the World with the Gospel.

I pray that God would turn lost SFA students into Christ-centered laborers reaching the world for Christ.

Evangelism and Momentum

Over the last 3-4 weeks, our movement has seemed somewhat stagnant. Not much energy. Some might say that’s normal, after the first six weeks of really working hard in the Fall, for things to slow down and have a lull at that point. That’s probably true, but it shouldn’t be lasting this long.

Last Friday, we had an outreach with about 10-12 students going out on campus using soulariums and perspective cards for conversations with students hanging out on campus. Each group of students was able to have at least one good spiritual conversation with someone. Then a few hours later I received a call from one of our staff telling me about the conversation he had with three students, including one who considered himself agnostic. The guy really liked the perspective cards and wanted to get together again this week.

Even though it was just an hour or so of evangelism on a Friday afternoon, I felt encouraged and excited about our movement. We hadn’t seen anyone begin a relationship with Christ but I felt like we were actually engaging students with the gospel.

As I think through most of my time in ministry, it seems we have the most momentum as a movement when we are actively sharing our faith (duh). Whether we see students place their faith in Christ or not, we gain from stepping out in faith and trusting God.

If we want to gain momentum and energy in our movement we have to make sure staff and students are sharing their faith with friends and new students we meet. We may not necessarily see the attendance at our weekly meeting and small groups grow, however they probably will, but we will be encouraged and excited about what God is doing in our lives through evangelism.

Philemon 1:6 “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.”

Baseball and College Ministry

Wish I would have come across this before baseball season ended this past Monday, but Benson Hines has three great posts comparing the Texas Rangers with great college ministries. I know for Rangers fans this brought out some "amens". Of course it would be better if he had compared them to the Astros, but its still good.

why the 2010 Texas Rangers (and maybe any good baseball team) would make a great college ministry

Knowing Scripture

This year I've taken on an improbable task. I am the games director for the Awana program at our church. Basically, my job is to make sure the kids are able to expel some energy and give the other leaders a break so they don't beat anyone's children.

For those of you who grew up in church, Awana may or may not bring back good memories. If you didn't grow up in church, this is basically a program that helps kids memorize scripture and rewards them with candy. Yeah, we're bribing them, nothing works better.

It's been fun to watch my kids learn their verses and caused me to think, "Wow, I know very few of these".

Just a few weeks ago, a friend of mine challenged me to memorize 2nd Peter chapter 1. It's 21 verses long and I have about 15 verses commited to memory so far. This process has led me to make this a part of my spiritual discipline. I have an accountability system already set up because I don't want my five and six year old kids to know more scripture than I do.

If this is something you've never thought about or as you think about it you're like me and feel guilty because its not a part of your life. Here are a few articles to encourage you.

This is from Jason Hayes about his desire to incorporate scripture memory into his life. Jason is the Young Adult Ministry Specialist at Lifeway Christian Resources.

Scripture Memory: A Missing Discipline Articles SmallGroups.com

Of course the Navigators have great resources for this.

http://http//www.navigators.org/us/articles/items/How%20to%20Memorize%20Scripture

Then, here are just some practical tips.

http://http//www.scribd.com/doc/6102178/52-Scripture-Memory-Tips

Brian Wilson's Story

If you've been following the World Series, you've seen Brian Wilson (the guy with the crazy dyed beard) closing out games for the now World Champion Giants. When Wilson gets the last out you may have seen him make a cross and point to the sky and think he's doing that to show up the other team or draw attention to himself. So many sports stars seem to have dances, routines, and gestures that become their signature way of saying, "Look how great I am".

That's not the reason for Brian Wilson's gesture at the end of games. Wilson became a believer in Christ in 2005, and this is his way of honoring what God has done in his life.

Here's the story, as he tells it, on Fellowship Day at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco this season.

Christy Mathewson - Integrity

First let me apologize that so many of my posts revolve around baseball, but it is the World Series. I’ve been thinking of Biblical leadership and examples in baseball. I know you never thought you would see those two in the same sentence, but there are Christians that play baseball and lots of connections to spiritual life in the game itself.

One example is that of Christy Mathewson, pitcher for the New York Giants. Yes the same Giants in the World Series, before they moved of course. This guy would make Tim Lincecum look like a 12 year old…wait…Lincecum does look like a 12 year old. Anyway, Mathewson was one of the first great American sports heroes, before Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and other great athletes. He was a part of the first class of inductees into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Amid all his accomplishments, one thing that Christy was known for, on and off the field, was his integrity. He was often called “the Christian Gentleman” by his fellow teammates and opponents.

Here’s an excerpt from the New York Herald-Tribune the day following his death.
“While Mathewson’s record in baseball will stand while the game lasts, it was not his prowess as an athlete that made him the idol of American manhood young and old. It was the character of the man…He played for all that was in him, he fought the good fight and the clean fight. He was the incarnation of all those virtues with which we endow the ideal American.”

The greatest demonstration of this took place on the last day of the season in 1908. Mathewson’s team, the Giants, were facing the Chicago Cubs for the chance to play in the World Series. Winner takes all.

In the bottom of the ninth with the score tied 1-1, with 2 outs, Harry McCormick was on third and nineteen year old rookie Fred Merkle stood on first base. Al Bridwell lined a hit into right center and McCormick scored. Merkle didn’t bother touching second base after seeing McCormick score. The Giants and their fans rushed the field at the Polo Grounds in New York, everyone was in full celebration. Except for Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers, who yelled for centerfielder Solly Hofman to toss him the ball. Evers knew that if he stepped on second base it would be a force out of Merkle, and the third out of the inning and McCormick’s run wouldn’t count.

At first both umpires said they didn’t see if Merkle touched second or not, but later that evening Home plate umpire Hank O’Day ruled that Merkle was out and so the game was still tied. At this point it’s too late to resume the game. No lights. Its 1908, remember. The Giants are fighting mad, so they appeal the call. At this time there was no commissioner for baseball, instead a board of directors ruled over the game. The board took affidavits from every player and coach involved. You can imagine what that was like, every Cub said Merkle didn’t touch second, every Giant said he did.

One affidavit stood out, Christy Mathewson’s. Christy was the one Giant that said Merkle didn’t touch second, and He would know, He was coaching 1st base and ran to Merkle between first and second to hug him as they celebrated their apparent trip to the World Series.

The board ruled in favor of the Cubs, the game was replayed and the Giants lost. Mathewson sacrificed a lot; a trip to the World Series, more money, and probably the friendship of some of his teammates. But one thing is for sure, no one could question his integrity when he passed away at the age of 45.

In the Bible, 1st Samuel 12:1-5, the prophet Samuel was able to stand before the Israelites and say, if I have wronged anybody tell me and I will pay restoration for it. No one could bring anything against him and they said, “You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man’s hand.”

How great would it be to lie on your death bed and send out a facebook message, tweet, text, smoke signals, or whatever, and say if I have wronged anyone then speak up so I can make amends with you. And you hear nothing but silence. You have lived your life in such a way that your integrity can’t be questioned.