Revisiting The Great Commission On Campus

Jesus tells us in Matthew 28 to make disciples. We practice that well through church and ministry activity but often times we forget the one embedded assumption in the text. That assumption by Jesus is that we are to make disciples of non-Christ followers. We are to follow Christ as He sought to “seek and to save the lost.”  So how are you doing with our Lord’s Great Commission?

By this time in the semester your students are busy…very busy with papers, quizzes, tests, and work. In addition, you are probably feeling the demands of coordinating Bible study groups, preparing weekly talks, giving tons of personal council, meeting with leadership teams, and doing just about everything except regular engagement of students with the gospel. Think about that. The life-changing gospel of Christ is what we are about. So, can I encourage you to revisit your work in light of the Great Commission?  If so, like a syllabus to keep you on track, here are five key ways to keep the Great Commission “GREAT” in your ministry.

Plan to evangelize.

1. Schedule times for students to share their faith and chase the details. Lay out specific methods of engagement. Plan to lead them in it as you create open forums, Soularium encounters, prayer corners, etc.
2. You will need to do some training. Whether it’s spiritual laws or through personal story, students need training in the elements of the gospel and how to present it relationally. Don’t assume they know…they don’t.
3. Seek out specific people to help and hold you and your ministry accountable to the Great Commission on your campus. Ask a pastor to help in the training and to coach students. (As a sidebar, getting a pastor involved will really help in your church relationships).
4. Hold weekly meetings about how you are fulfilling your evangelism plan.
5. Seek to make the gospel part of your ministry DNA. Work at it so that you “feel” the lostness on your campus. You need to let this sink into you as a leader, so ride the campus shuttle for an hour each week and just sit and think about the riders who need Jesus.
6. Blog, talk, and highlight it in your meetings and don’t forget using good PR.  You cannot overdo this. Make signs and posters about the gospel, put a BIG 0 on a wall until someone trusts in Christ and have students give open testimonies about their relationship to the gospel.
7. Plan to use an evangelistic testimony site like www.whycard.net to keep conversations going. Ask non-Christians to view the site and meet up to discuss it. Too many good spiritual discussions end after one encounter.
8. Shift your remaining budget to make your plan work. You spend tens of thousands of dollars on overseas missions so why wouldn’t you do the same for the thousands of lost students on your campus?

Plan for times of prayer.

1. Have a weekly time of prayer with your students to reach their friends and campus for Christ. Ask them to pray daily for specific students and groups of students.
2. Make sure your students know YOU are praying for the opportunity to lead a student to Christ. YOU set the pace, after all, you’re the leader.
3. Secure a prayer board where students can post about their prayers.

Plan to leverage your evangelistic activity.

1. Use it to advance your projects, events, and church relationships. It’s exciting to hear stories about gospel presentations.
2. Look to develop your students. Many, and perhaps most, cannot articulate the gospel well so use this to strengthen their faith. Teach them about the Trinity, holiness, integrity of the Scriptures, etc.
3. Be certain to specify how you will do follow-up and make disciples.

• With those who are or have fallen away.
• With those who are willing to continue the conversation.
• With those who want another look at Christ later in the semester.
• With those who convert and need to secure their faith.

Plan to review, redo, and reset your methods, activity, and plans.

1. Establish a regular review process asking for feedback and insight. Evaluating the process is as important as physical results. Gauging your ministry process is a much more effective means of measurement than decisions, baptisms, meeting attendance, etc.
2. Keep records of your experiences. This includes stories and testimonials. It’s important for the next leaders to be reminded of the importance of keeping track of their activity on reaching students for Christ.
3. Track your process and numbers. As mentioned, process is important but numbers can be used to evaluate activity too. If non-Christian students don’t show up at certain events or activity, you need to acknowledge it and change the plan. If God does not seem to have his hand on an activity, then acknowledge it and stop doing it.

Celebrate your evangelistic efforts.

1. Every effort has value and you need to rejoice that it took place. Cleaning up from an activity is tiring but not when you are celebrating.
2. Make sure everyone knows when you have seen gospel decisions or positive responses to your efforts. Record it in some manner. Change the 0 on the wall to 1.
3. Here is a weird but good idea—celebrate failure. Following Google’s admission that the Wave was a failure, they celebrated their efforts. Attempting great things for God is worth celebrating. Get some cake!

Some of the 5 points discussed above may help you in your collegiate outreach.  Because most college ministries have much in common, you may want to help others by commenting about 2-3 outreach matters that stand out to you?  What would you like to add?

=================

Mark Lydecker is a former pastor, missionary, and campus minister and is now a Collegiate Evangelism Coordinator with the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, GA.  You can reach Mark at mlydecker@namb.net

[Back to the Real Life, Real Faith page]