Nothing can be worse than seeing a guy running around naked. This isn’t a frat initiation. John Mark’s record tells of a guy who was insane, naked, violent, strong, dirty, yelling, and worst— night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. (Mk.5:5)
This guy’s demonized.
I am speaking tomorrow at the Every Nation School of Campus Ministry in Manila. So much to say, but I finally narrowed it down to the 10 things you must know in order to succeed in campus ministry long term. Here they are:
1. You must know that God loves you & accepts you because of who he is & what he did for you, not because of who you are & what you do for him.
2. You must know that God called you to do campus ministry, no matter what other opportunities are offered.
3. You must know that God will provide.
4. You must know that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, otherwise you will resort to all kinds of goofy & powerless ministry gimmicks designed to attract people to meetings.
5. You must know how to forgive. The longer you do ministry, the more opportunities you will have to practice this one.
6. Because you will face endless needs & countless open doors, you must know how & when to say NO. Knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do. Focus is necessary for success.
7. You must know how to ENGAGE your culture & community. You had to know that one was coming, and the next three also…
8. You must know how to ESTABLISH biblical foundations, or your disciples will be temporary.
9. You must know how to EQUIP believers to minister, or you will end up doing all the ministry, resulting in either burn out or very little fruit.
10. You must know how to EMPOWER disciples to make disciples, because that is the whole point of being a campus missionary.
In summary: honor God & make disciples
Why the campus?
70 % of our generation is below 30 years of age.
The fact presented in the diminishing age of salvation says 19 out of 20 who become Christians do so before they reach the age of 25.
50 % of our nation’s population is under 20 years of age, 30 % are under 30.
The composite of youth in our nation shows that 10% are out of school, 25% are ‘ruined’, while 65% are in the campuses.
Should we reach the campuses? I’d be silly to say no.
A repost from a past blog dated Aug 2010. It’s still worth sharing.
Being out for a couple of months, I asked my friend to give me a pulse of the campus for me to understand and in a way strategize entry points for ministry.
The lengthy conversation had its peak on e awful situation of the new and upcoming students in the univ.
The concern is that the students are no longer spiritual as they ought to be. And the sole goal is to bring back that spirituality among them. So I’m asked to come in to complement on that aspect. I asked him if this is all that we want to see–a certain level of spirituality. Accordingly yes, that’s the goal.
Our conclusion:
No wonder we’ve lost the spirituality because that’s all that’s required of them.
If the whole goal is spirituality the solution would be so simple. It can just require anyone to at least show up-show up in church, sing praises, show up in small groups, show off in prayers and the likes. Students can feel spiritual doing that. It’s actually simple and easy; yet dangerously superficial and shallow (and this is what we reap so this is what we will change).
We can offer them far more than spirituality. We can teach, coach, disciple the students to live out biblical christianity.The two are different because the former requires us to just show up but the latter invites us to live a life of obedience. spirituality is simple and easy, Christianity is simple but not easy. But it is the real deal. By now we have to end the sight of seeing students being in church but seemingly powerless against sin. We have to see a generation who knows what it is to take up their crosses, what it entails to be a Christian, what joy it brings when they make decisions for God, and what glorious rewards and blessings obedience brings.
There’s gonna rise a generation who will hear, read, and obey the Word of God and we are discipling them now.
At the moment, we have:
9 campus victory groups in 3 university campuses lead by 13 leaders.
A total number of 49 students attends those groups and 60% aren’t attending services yet.
There is also a good 150 students attending our services.
The numbers aren’t bad. The challenge lies in discipling the students and discipling them well.
Kudos to our student leaders!
Check out ignite.ph
Don’t miss this conference!
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