“The people who were sitting in
darkness saw a great Light,
And those
who were sitting in the land and shadow of death,
Upon them a
Light dawned.” Mt.4:16
What a humbling privilege that God has given us an
opportunity to help direct students around us toward the Light of Jesus’
love. We are so encouraged that you want
to be used of God at your university. He
considers you worthy of the task He has called you to do and He will provide
His power as you trust Him in faith. (2 Thes.1:11-12)
The university year is upon us. If you haven’t already asked God what He
wants you to do at your university this year, I would like to encourage you to
spend some time before Him, asking Him to fill your hearts and minds with His
plans. Below is a suggestion for how
you can spend some time in prayer.
As you pray and wait on God to show you His plan for
bringing the gospel to your university and helping believers to grow in their
relationship with Him, write down the ideas He places in your mind. Keep your plan for the term very simple -
especially if there is just 1 or 2 of you leading the ministry. I would suggest you plan in 3 main
areas: prayer (for your campus), outreach
and a small group Bible study for believers/nonbelievers. Ask God to give you a couple of ideas in each
category - an idea for your personal ministry and an idea for something you can
do with someone else to reach a larger group.
For example:
|
Campus plan
|
Personal ministry
|
Group ministry
|
|
Prayer
|
Pray daily for the students (10 minutes on bus to
class)
|
Pray with someone else - Fridays at 4pm; pray around
each building of the university during the term
|
|
Outreach
|
Share the gospel with 1 person each week in my
university study group
|
Each believer tell their testimony in their university
study group by the end of the term; invite them to a Christmas party with a
short talk on why we observe Christmas
|
|
Small
group Bible study/personal growth
|
Quiet Time daily before first class - spend time in
Philippians this term
|
Meet each week this term with someone else to go
through the list of passages from the “6 Question
Bible Study format*”
|
*6 Question
Bible Study format
- 1.What
do
you
like
about
what
you
read?
- 2.What
didn't
you
like?
- 3.What
did
you
not
understand?
- 4.What
new
thing
did
you
learn
about
God?
- 5.What
idea
or
phrase
do
you
want
to
take
with
you this
week?
- 6.What
are
you
going
to
do
about
Keep your plan simple, but be sure to write down things that
will require you to trust God. If your
plan is full of things you can do in your own strength, then you will probably
end up relying on yourself. It’s when we
dare to trust God for big things that we see God work.
The first 2 weeks of the term are very important times in a
students’ life, especially if it is their first year at university. They are making decisions of who will be
their friends and what will be their activities while at university - which can
affect the rest of their lives.
One idea is to have some sort of ‘welcome’ activity during
the first week of the term. It could be
as simple as asking God to provide money for some sort of party. You can hand out invitations the first week
of classes where you could serve tea and cookies someplace near the university
(in your dorm room?). At the party you
could have some games or fun discussion groups, you could hand out a map of the
area around the university showing the location of places new students might
want to know (local internet cafes, photocopy places, popular cafes, movie
theaters, etc). You could give a short
introduction about who you are (basically that you are believers) and that you want
to help other students think about the spiritual aspect of their lives, then
hand out a short questionnaire (examples of questions) that asks who would be interested in talking about God or in
studying the Bible (be sure to have paper and pens handy!).
We are praying for you.
We would love to know how to better pray for you, so please send
us prayer requests!
God is waiting to work among you and show you His
power. It is exciting to think what the
Lord has in store for each of us this term as we dare to trust Him to show
Himself God on each of our universities!
Things to Pray for Your Campus
Believers
·
That Christians would want to take a stand for Christ (Matt.9:37-38). Pray
that they would avoid involvement with bad elements of campus. I Cor.5
& 6; Rev.21:8; John 17:15; 2 Cor.11:2, 3
Non-believers
·
Pray for non-Christians, that God would prepare the soil of their hearts would
be hungry to hear the gospel and ready to respond in faith. Matt.13 and 2
Cor.4:6: For God, who said, “Let light shine out of the darkness,”
made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Christ.
Your Transformational Community/Local
Ministry
·
That we'd be people who know the Lord. Eph.1:18-19: I pray that the
eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of
His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
·
That we would consider life as Christ, that we would present ourselves to Him,
that we would seek His kingdom first. Phil.1:21: For to me, to live
is Christ, and to die is gain. Rom.12:1,2; Matt.6:33.
·
That we would let the Spirit of God control and empower us. Eph.3:14-19: That
God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened
with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith.
·
That we would be people who delight in God's word. Psalm 1:2: But his
delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
·
That there would be a supernatural unity among believers so that the campus may
believe. John 17:20-21: I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those
also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as
Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the
world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
·
That we would grow spiritually. That we would step out in faith. Hebrews
12:1-3; Col.3:16; Rom.4:3; Heb.11:8.
- That God would direct our planning time; that we
would seek to do what He tells us to do and not just what seems best from a
human standpoint. 2 Chron.20:12b: …we do not know what to do, but our eyes
are on Thee; Proverbs 16:9, LB: we should make plans, counting on God to direct us; Prov.13:16 LB: A wise man thinks ahead, a
fool doesn’t and even brags about it; Prov.3:5-6, Jer.9:23-24
