“Leadership teams” for a small group of believers

A few weeks ago I sent some ideas about forming a leadership team of students who will take ownership of giving direction to the local student movement.  I also mentioned that I know that some of you are students at universities where there are just a few students who are trusting God to bring the gospel to their campus.  The idea of having a number of students to choose leaders from is not realistic in their situation.  They may only know of 1 or 2 other believers on their entire campus.

If this describes your campus, then here is a ‘leadership team’ idea more suitable for your situation.  Even if this doesn’t describe your situation, keep reading because G3s work when there are few believers involved or when there are many believers involved!

This small team is called a “Group of 3”, or a “G3”.  Keoke King and the San Francisco Metro Team gave thought to the question of “what is the smallest group of people that can still have the dynamics of discipleship and growth?”  The answer they came up with was “three.”  Thus, the idea of “Groups of 3” was born.  This video gives an overview of the G# group or, click here if you prefer to read an article.  

Ultimately a G3 consists of 2-3 people who meet together about once a week for the purpose of prayer for their campus, sharing what they are learning from the Bible from their times with God and for some ‘mini-strategizing’ for sharing the gospel with students at their school.  It is basically a time of prayer, “Bible study” and planning all done in one small 1-1 /2 hour meeting.  This is good for those of you with few believers around and with few people to share the responsibilities of preparing a prayer meeting and a Bible study.

G3s are perfect for places where there are only a few believers.   It’s a good place to start.  But the ultimate goal is to have tens and even hundreds of G3’s on one campus (this is what we would classify as a real “movement” for God!).  What kind of effect do you think God could have through you if there was a G3 in every study group on campus?  What if every corridor of every floor of every dorm at your campus had a G3 where students were praying for their campus, sharing what God is teaching them and planning on ways to tell others about the greatest news that they would ever hear?!  Can you imagine the effect believers on fire for Christ could have who are gathered in G3s everywhere on one campus?  Just think of what God could do through you!

WINTER BIBLE CONFERENCE:

The location for this year’s Winter Bible Conference will be in Krasnoyarsk!  I will send you more details in a few weeks, but I wanted to let you know so that you can start praying for God to provide the finances for you and a group of your friends to travel to sunny Siberia.  The cost of transportation will be higher than usual for many of you, but thank goodness that God is not going through the same financial crisis that the rest of the world is going through!  He is more than able to provide for you to get to the WBC.

As a poor student I always had to trust God to provide money for me to go to conferences and summer projects and He always provided.  Most of the time He provided the financial support I needed through the people I asked to sponsor me.   Check out for more helpful information on raising support for conferences.  This information is also very helpful for you to trust God in raising the funds needed for your campus movement. 

Planning ideas

I was reading again in Luke this week and was really struck by what Jesus reminded the disciples of in Luke 10:1-20.  Jesus sent the 70 out to go to cities He was planning on going to in order to get people thinking about the Kingdom of God.  The disciples returned later and were excitedly sharing with Jesus the things that they saw happen in ministry (v.17).  Jesus rejoiced with them (v.18), but reminded them of what was the more important thing:  don’t get so caught up in the activity of ministry that you forget that it’s your relationship with Jesus that is the most important part (v.20).  My prayer for you this week is that you remember your First Love always (Rev.2:1-7).

Last week we talked about how to form as a group of leaders who are trusting God to reach your campus with the great news of salvation through Jesus Christ.  This week I want to share some ideas of how you can plan together to build a movement for Jesus on your campus.

Matthew 28:18-20 is a good model for what should be included in a plan: 

1)      PRAYER - one way you can acknowledge that Jesus has all authority is through your dependence on Him expressed through prayer.  You also acknowledge His authority by completely relying on His power, the Holy Spirit, to minister to others.  Knowing His Word helps you to know His plan for building a movement on your campus.

2)      EVANGELISM – He has sent you out to tell the gospel to everyone.

3)      DISCIPLESHIP – He has called you to help others to grow in their knowledge of Him and in their willingness to obey His commands.

4)      SENDING – He sent the disciples out to share the gospel and to make disciples of all the nations – you can’t make disciples of the nations unless you are sending people out to make those disciples.

(NOTE:  the sacrament of baptism is something that is part of being involved in a local church – please make sure to emphasize to those involved in your movement how important it is to be involved in a local church!)

This video from CruPressgreen.com gives a good overview on the idea of Strategic Planning and here is an article that goes into more detail on the idea on strategic plan. 

One last piece of advice:  there are many, many good activities you can do that will help you to reach your campus.  The difficult thing is knowing which activities to choose.  This is why you must go through this planning process in an attitude of prayer, seeking God’s guidance.  This is the best advice I can give you to know how to choose.  I would also encourage you to limit your activities to those which are the most strategic and requires the least amount of effort.  Try to choose just 1 or 2 things to do in each section for this semester. 

If there are just a few of you in your group, why don’t you plan to do 1 “group activity” in each section and 1 activity which you can do individually?  For example:

PRAYER

• individually you could plan to pray for the campus every day as you walk back and forth to campus;
• as a group, you could meet once a week on your campus for a time of group prayer. 

EVANGELISM

• as individuals you could commit to sharing the gospel with each of your group-mates by the end of the semester;
• as a group you could meet together once a week to hand out planners or do evangelistic surveys together to try to start conversations that lead to the gospel.

DISCIPLESHIP

• as an individual you could commit to having daily quiet times with God (this is more like ‘personal growth’ than discipleship, but some of you are on campuses where you are the only believer – it’s sort of hard to have a discipleship group of one!),
• as a group you could meet together each week to talk about what God is teaching you in your quiet times and/or go through some Bible study material.

SENDING

• as an individual you could find a way to receive training in ministry skills or ask God who you can help in starting a spiritual movement on their campus;
• as a group you could plan how to invite others to the Winter Bible Conference or challenge them to go with you during a break to help reach students in another city.

Leadership team ideas

“…but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:60)  God reminded me this morning as I spent time with Him in His Word that the task that He has invited me to join in with Him is to take the gospel to the world.  It is a very straightforward and clear task.  He leads me in this task (“and lo, I am with you to the ends of the earth.” Mt. 28:20) so I don’t have to be overwhelmed.

I was recently in the Caucuses at a student retreat.   It was so much fun to be with believers from other parts of Russia.  The Lord’s presence was evident.  While there I had a great conversation with one of the student leaders and we talked some about their need for putting together a leadership team.  Perhaps others of you are also at this point and may be interested in knowing what we talked about.

1. The student listed on a piece of paper those who were currently coming to student meetings who had a strong desire to share the gospel on their campus and who were committed to giving time and prayer to starting a movement at their university.  These were potential members for the leadership team.

2. She next was going to invite these students together and speak about her vision for being a light for Christ to lost students. 

• Connected with this was a time where they were going to look at some passages of Scripture that talk about what Jesus has sent us to do (look below for ideas of which passages tell us of the task He has set before us). 

• The rest of the group could share their vision for reaching their campuses. 

• They will then spend some time praying for their campuses. 

• She would end this initial meeting by asking the potential student leaders to take some time to ask God if He was leading them to make a commitment to become part of the leadership team for this year and let her know in a few days.  Those who were able to make this commitment would become part of the leadership team.

3. It would be helpful for the team to meet again and spend some time in prayer, asking God to lead them in a time of planning for the semester.   Any planning should be preceded in extended time in asking God what He would have you do to make His name known on your campus.  It would be good to begin now to ask God to place His plans on your hearts and to unite you together in that plan (Philippians 1:27-28).

Next week I will send you ideas of how you can make a plan for reaching your campus which will give some “next steps” to those of you who would like a little more direction.

A sampling of passages that speak about the task God has called us to:                                                 

Matthew 28:18-20

Mark 16:15

Luke 24:46-47

Luke 9:60

Acts 1:8

2 Corinthians 5:11-21                                     

Ephesians 3:8-12                             

Philippians 1:27-28

Colossians 1:28-29

You feed them...

Today I was reading about how Jesus fed the 5,000 in Luke 9:11-17.  They were outside of town where Jesus was teaching the crowd about the Kingdom of God and was healing them of their diseases. 

Evening was approaching and the disciples were worried that the people were getting hungry.  There were no stores or cafes where the people could buy food.  No one was there to cater the meeting.

When the disciples asked Jesus to tell the crowd of people to go away to find food in the nearby towns, Jesus responded with an interesting answer:  “You give them something to eat.”  The disciples thought this ridiculous because the most they were able to find was 5 loaves and 2 fish.  It never even dawned on them that they had access to the unlimited resources of the Lord Jesus Christ to draw on!

As we read the rest of the passage we find out that the meager “dinner for 2”, all that the disciples had to offer, was multiplied by Jesus into dinner for about 15,000 people (including women and children) with plenty left over!  The disciples simply needed to ask God to provide a way for them to minister to the people given the resources they had. 

In The Believer’s Commentary we read: 

The five thousand represent lost humanity, starving for the bread of God. The disciples picture helpless Christians, with seemingly limited resources… The Lord’s command, “You give them something to eat” is simply a restatement of the Great Commission. The lesson is that if we give Jesus what we have, He can multiply it to feed the spiritually hungry multitude.

Perhaps you are in a situation where you feel like you are alone in trying to bring the gospel to your classmates, or perhaps there are just a few of you daring to believe God that He will work through you. 

You are aware that there are cities with more resources than you have available, such as full time Campus Crusade for Christ staff or a bigger group of believers or money for ministry.  But God has specifically placed you in your city without staff.  He has placed you at your university and given you all the resources you need to do what He is asking you to do! God wants you to ask Him to work through you to start a ministry for Christ to bring the gospel to lost classmates at your university! 

In Jesus you have all the resources you need to do what He has called you to do.  Just lift up what you have and ask Him to bless it and multiply your meager resources into something that glorifies Him and brings students at your university to a saving relationship with Him.

Click here for a ton of evangelism ideas!