Understanding Campus Outreach

Those in our “spheres of influence” are the first to notice the changes in our lives as God works on us.  That creates a hunger in those friends for what we have. Evangelism is hard to avoid here.  We need to see that we reach the masses one person at a time. 

Many people may have been given wrong concepts of evangelism. 

The word can conjure up many negative ideas for many young people: “Bible bashing.” “being a holy Joe” and, at the end of the day, losing their friends! On the face of it, it could be regarded as a bad deal—but, on the contrary, evangelism is about making friends, not losing them!  This does not minimize the many thousands of people who have come to Christ through contact evangelism or big events. However, we must tap into the potential of friendship.

There are often three stages of understanding that many pre-Christians need to go through before they are ready to become Christians.  The first stage is...

God is good and Christians are okay

If you ask the average pre-Christian what he thought of God or the church, you would get some colorful answers. 

If you ask him what he thinks Christians are like, probably one of his nicer replies will be, “Boring!” To ask such people to give their lives to Jesus would seem to actually be saying, “Give your life to an uncaring monster and join the most boring club in the world!” 

They need to be convinced that God is good and Christians are okay.

"A person must get to know 5 believers before they become                                           open to the claims of Christ."

—Laurence Singlehurst,  Cell UKMinistries

That happens in normal social contact, having fun together—not just having bible-study sessions.

Ideas:

• Plan a “friendship dinner” or “friendship picnic” and invite your unchurched friends to join you.

• Invite your friends to come with you if you are going out with others from the campus ministry or church. Through that, they will become a natural part of the group.

• Plan an event that strategically targets a specific segment of the campus (i.e. internationals, athletes, your T.A.s, etc.).

• Use movies or television events like the "Grammy's" to bring Christians and pre-Christians together.

Try to do two to three intentional activities that include five to seven people outside your normal friendship circle.  This could include a hiking trip, game night, concerts).

In this kind of atmosphere, wrong beliefs our friends have can come out, and lies the enemy has sown can be challenged as we talk. Our friends are being discipled before they ever become Christians.

Be listening for opportunities to pray for our non-Christian friends over the concerns they tell us about.   As our friends ask more questions about God, we must be ready and alert for a chance to share the Gospel.

Building Blocks for Campus Outreach - Prayer

The more consistant our individual prayer times, the more energized our corporate prayer will be.  There are many wonderful helps out there but I have created a simple format for personal prayer that has been used by hundreds of students over the years:                                                                                                                                                                  

the Daily 7-up*

"seven ultimate priority" minutes with God

This 7-minute structure is strictly a guide to help you develop a consistent and meaningful quiet time with God. This is not meant to inhibit or suppress spontaneity but to enhance it. 

“If you have to make a choice between praying and doing, choose to pray. You will accomplish more, and then achieve more by your doing, because you did.” —Ralph Neighbour, Jr.

30 seconds—Invite the Holy Spirit to instruct you 

2¹/₂minutes—Read the Word and underline key verses

• Start in the book of Galatians

• Read systematically through the New Testament

• On average, a person can read 15 verses in 2 1/2 minutes; mark your spot, then read and p.r.a.y. from there tomorrow

4minutes—P.R.A.Y. the underlined verses back to God 

Example—“Paul, an apostle – sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ…” —Galatians 1:1a

Praise—“I praise you as my commander & chief …” (Gal. 1:1)

Repent—“Forgive me for being fearful of man’s opinion of me…” 

Ask—“Give me boldness to stand up for you today, Lord…” 

Yield or Listen - Just be still and allow the Holy Spirit a moment to speak to your heart. 

I recommend that you buy a can of 7-up. Put the can somewhere in full view to remind you to spend at least seven ultimate priority minutes with God everyday.  My prayer is that seven will extend to seventy.

(*All rights reserved)

Building Blocks for Campus Outreach - Prayer

To start living out a missional lifestyle, we should start by praying for our non-Christian friends.   Prayer IS evangelism. It gets God working in people’s lives.  Prayer should become a normal part of campus outreach. Through prayer, God can change our friends’ hearts and minds, because the real battle is spiritual.

It is as we pray that God can create faith within us.  We can begin to believe that He is working on people and that they can come to Jesus. That’s faith. Heart preparation is more important than lesson preparation. 

Who do we choose to pray for?

We need to understand we have “spheres of influence” or respect and “spheres of concern.” 

Some of the people we know are influenced by us and our lifestyle. Others are more like acquaintances. We may desire to see them come to know Jesus, but they’re not as quickly influenced or impacted by our lives.  Every believer should see themselves as a "secret pastor" with a "secret congregation,"  with a group of pre-Christian friends for whom they feel concern and personal interest.

The individuals to focus on in our prayer time are those in our “spheres of influence.”  By praying for your pre-Christian friends in this way you can be sure that the Lord will expose them to diverse opportunities to here and see your witness lived out. 

We can still pray personally for those in our “spheres of concern”— that we might have opportunity to get to know them better. Eventually those people may become part of our “spheres of influence.” 

Why do we pray?

1. To invite the presence of God into what we are doing.

2. To protect others                                                                              

3. Providence                                                                                  

4. Historical precedent

—Highland Baptist, Reaching College Students Through Cells

A church or campus ministry and its members must be proactive and intentional about loving those outside the Christian community. It is easy to become absorbed into the Christian "ghetto" and lose touch with the needs of the campus community. Many Christians, in an attempt to become more missional are intentionally taking on positions of influence within their campus communities to increase their impact and broaden their spheres of influence.

Mobilizing triad prayer teams within the church or campus community is one productive way to help facilitate intentional prayer for those who don't know Him.

Triad Prayer:

1. Identify 3 "spheres of influence" who you are committed to praying for.

2. Join with two other people in your community who will do the same.

3. Commit to pray for each of those names a minute every day.

4. Pray for these 9 names together once a week (i.e. 20 minutes on your own or at a cell.

5. After 30 days or longer invite them to an informal get-together where they will meet other Christians. (preferably not a formal church/campus ministry sponsored event) 

Love your pre-Christian friends and college by actions and prayer!

Building Blocks for Campus Outreach - Community

Community is an important part of being Christians together.  Acts 2:41-47 shows what the results were of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit—people living, working and sharing together. This is the kind of community that we want to be creating in our colleges—communities where relationships are supportive, open and vulnerable; places where people can grow and become more like Jesus because God is at work in them, breaking through from where they have been stuck, in hurts and strongholds to a place where problems are not hidden but are brought to light in a shared community.

A.  Community cannot be achieved easily in:

      • large groups 

      • groups more interested in bible-study than relationship (don't get me wrong; i don't have anything against bible study:-)

      • a hurry - community takes time; trust must be earned

B.  Build community by:

      • praying for each other and fighting together for the lives of your friends 

      • helping members identify values that destroy community and correcting members when necessary

      • facing conflict together; forgiving quickly, standing up for each other

      • making sure no one feels left out

      • meeting outside the formal small group or large group sessions

The result is an alternative, inclusive community that is attractive to those outside the church.

NOTE: Look up these scriptures that pertain to Christian community: Romans 15:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Romans 12:10; Ephesians 5:21; Ephesians 5:8b; John 15:12. 

Make time for one another and arrange to go out to Starbucks or have meals together.  Invite your unchurched friends to hang out with you.  Help them to feel comfortable around other Christians.

Evangelism is a shared experience.  As small groups of believers unite to fight the evil forces of this world and reach the lost for Christ, close and intimate community will naturally take place.  This kind of community will be attractive to pre-Christians.

Much of the community building Jesus did was in the relaxed atmosphere of someone’s home. Have fun and relax together.  Community will take time to build and it is also something to be shared with friends.  Those inside and outside the church.

Dreams Do Come True

In Luke 1:13 we see Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, faithfully attending to his duties as a priest and burning incense in the temple.  He and his wife Elizabeth were quite up in years and childless.  During that fateful night he is startled or may we say, "freaked out," by an angel appearing to him and saying, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah (easy for him to say); your prayer has been heard.  Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son..." 

There are a couple things I take away from this passage.  The first thing is that God doesn't just 'answer prayer' he often over-answers prayer.   Not only did Zechariah get word that God was going to provide him with a son but he also becomes the first to know that the Messiah,  centuries of faithful Jews had been waiting for,  was about to appear on the scene.  Furthermore, it would be quite enough just to know that God was providing me a miracle child but to also get in on my sons purpose/destiny and direct role in the Messiah's coming.  Dude!

The second thing that sticks out to me in this verse is the challenge to never let your dreams die.   How many times had he entered the same old building, doing the same old duties, burning the same stinky, smokey incense.  You get the picture.  Only to go home to his wife knowing the same old outcome of a childless and quiet home awaited him.  Yet it had to be a dream of his.  To have a child, a son to carry on the family name and tradition.  

What an upheavel.   What a God way of doing things.  In his time and way but none the less supernatural. Let's take a great amount of hope and courage in the Angels statement, "...believe my words, which will come true at their proper time."