A spiritual movement is not just about reaching your campus
with the gospel. To be a real movement
which God can use effectively year after year means that you include a few
other components. Let’s look at Jesus’ instructions
in Matthew 28:18-20 to find out what those components should be:
Then Jesus came to them and said,
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the
age."
The priorities that Jesus laid out in Matthew 28:18-20 is a
great plan for your ministry: submit
yourself to His authority and rule over you and the world through Prayer,
go out and tell the gospel to all (Evangelism),
Disciple those who
become believers and help them to grow in understanding of God’s Word. (It is important to help them to get
connected to a church where they can be obedient to God’s command to be
baptized.) The last part of verse 19
says that we are to teach them to obey all that God has told us. What has He just told us to do? Look back to the first part of verse 18 and
19: go out to tell others about Jesus,
disciple others, and Send them out to do the same.
The great promise is that you aren’t alone even if you are
the only one who is faithfully sharing the gospel and believing God to reach
your campus – Jesus promises to be with you every step of the way. Mt.28:20 promises: “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age!” He gives us His power in the presence
of the Holy Spirit working in our lives!
A simple way to follow God’s plan for the mission He has
given you is something we call a “strategic plan”. It is simple and it is visual. It will help you to keep focused on the
important things God has entrusted you to do.
It basically looks like this:
If you focus on these 4 areas (prayer, evangelism,
discipleship and sending out), you can bring great glory to God on your campus
when you work through His power. Why not
take some time to pray right now and ask God to help you work through a simple
plan like this for your campus? Here is
an idea of what a sample Strategic Plan
could look like. Print out a Strategic Plan Template to use as a guide to
plan for your campus.
IMPORTANT ADVICE: Writing out a plan for reaching your campus
should always be done in prayer,
seeking God for His plans for your campus.
- Start by asking God to show you what He envisions your campus looking like as you are engaged in making Him known there. Ask Him to give you “snapshots” of what it could look like if you really saw God work thru your mission & our plans. This will be part of your “Vision” section.
- Then, brainstorm some ideas under each category of “Prayer,” “Evangelism,” “Discipleship” and “Send.”
- Think about the lost students on your campus and try to figure out what might interest them to cause them to think about their relationship with God. It may be different for each campus.
- Now, think about the students who are committed to helping you. What talents or skills or interests or abilities do they have?
- What other resources are available to you? Some ideas could be:
§
people you know who are gifted in speaking to
non-believers,
§
writers who have an ability to communicate
challenging thoughts about God to others,
§
perhaps you know of someone who has a big
dacha/home outside of town that they would offer for retreats,
§
a meeting place you could use,
§
someone who has a VPU and a large collection of
movies,
§
access to a gym,
§
good hiking places,
§
etc.
Think through how you might be able to use these resources that God has
already provided for you.
- Ask God to direct your thinking and help you to pick a few of these events or ideas based on the interests of non-believers on your campus and on the abilities of those involved with you and on the availability of other resources around you.
In general it is best to write down just a couple of things
you can do in each category (especially if there is a small group of you). That way you can focus on doing a few things
well and not burn yourself out by trying to do too many things which are not
done well. Why not start with writing
down 2 things to start with under each category?
- Write down 1 thing under prayer that is something you can do to pray as an individual (such as pray 10 minutes daily for your university), and then write down another thing you can do in the theme of prayer that involves someone else (such as ask for prayer in your church or ask someone else to come on campus to pray with you each week).
- Do the same with evangelism: write down one thing you can do in evangelism by yourself (such as share the gospel with each of your group-mates before the end of the semester) and one thing you can do with someone else (you could host a Focus Group together and then afterward, in the next few days, go together to continue to talk with each student who attended the Focus Group).
- Discipleship: decide to do one thing you can do to help you grow in Christ (such as work through some of the materials in the “going deeper” sections of this web site) and one thing you can do to help someone else grow (such as help someone else understand the foundational truths of the Christian faith or start a Г3).
- Send: here you could go to a new part of your campus to share the gospel, try to find out about unreached people groups around you and start to pray for them or try to share the gospel with different nationalities on your campus, or go on a summer project with New Life, or summer mission trips through your church or other groups.
- (If you know of no other believers on your campus right now, your plan will focus mostly on prayer and talking to people about Christ. Your plan might be as simple as the students’ plan in Indonesia from the first page of this site: they decided to meet one new person everyday – if that person was not a believer, then they shared the gospel with him or her; if the new person was a believer, then they invited him or her to join their movement.)
Action point: take
some time in the next few days with other believers who want to join with you
to glorify God on your campus.
Prayerfully plan your next steps together for what you can do this month
or this semester or this year to help to reach your campus for Christ.
