Things are moving right along in the campus ministry world, and going well. This semester we started a new sermon series called "Living in the Word." We decided that we would pick a few books of the bible this semester to go through as a community and preach from. The first one we did was Mark, which we just finished last week. Now we are starting Romans. Each week we've had the students read a chunk of the scripture on their own time and then at our Thursday Night Fellowship we have a sermon over that section of scripture with the purpose of teaching a logical way to process what it is saying: considering the author/audience, time period, culture, context, etc, and then relating it all back to us and how we should take it as disciples. I have gotten great feedback from this; our students are in the Word more, and understanding for themselves how to look at and study scripture. Be praying for that!
I just started reading a book called College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture. It has been very enlightening thus far and I am praying that God will give me direction in how these truths can play a role in making our own ministry better and more glorifying to God. He stresses that campus ministries are mostly reaching Christian students or those already inclined to Christianity, but that the other 90% of our college students are remaining untouched by the gospel. Yikes! He says mission and outreach has become something that we "do" not something that we "are." Mission is who we are, it's our very identity in Christ!
"As God's gospel-transformed and sent people, we orient everything we do to God's mission, which is to reconcile and restore God's fallen creation to himself through his son Jesus Christ. This is what we mean by "missional."'
That's exciting to me! I think "outreach" and being "missional" has become this negative and scary thing in our minds. I think that's from Satan. Working alongside God on his mission is one of the most exciting and rewarding things we get to do. We get to help reconcile and restore! All things! Wow, what an honor! Please join me in praying that our ministry be that way and provide that for our campus; also join me in striving to be that personally.
God is good!
Bri
