What are we trying to do in pioneering student outreach?
This post was originally written to summarize our purpose for IFES workers in Eurasia and the Baltics after the Soviet Union fell. But it’s attached here in the hope that it can still provide a good summary of what pioneering student outreach is intended to do…
Our goal is to foster the growth of indigenous student groups that will build up the church by making disciples within the student community, as the missionary arm of the churches on campus. There are two strategies for us in this: one is direct evangelism, and the other, mobilising others to evangelize…
1. Helping mobilise student evangelists
We haven’t set out on this to do all the work ourselves! The best evangelists to students are other students. We have an important task in sharing a vision for this ministry with students who are potential evangelists to their friends. We can we do that by…
* asking the Lord to help us get to know such people
* getting acquainted with believing students and praying for them
* building friendships with them; listening and learning from them, to understand where they’re at
* sharing our passion for evangelism, praying with them about it
* sharing the biblical vision – why the gospel is so important, God’s love for the world, God’s power in us
* sharing why reaching students – this unique segment of the population: so open today, so influential tomorrow – is so important
* sharing news of student evangelism in other cities (and where you come from)
* being an example of someone passionately committed to reaching out – even if (especially if) you’re not `good at it’!
* helping them discover specific moves forward in their own life of prayerful outreach, and praying together about them
2. Equipping student evangelists
Like us, there may be some of our friends who will need help in getting started in sharing the gospel with their friends. Some areas they may need help in – in your conversations, maybe in your Bible study together or the group’s teaching programme, by the books you lend them, and by your prayers – are…
* Evangelism training:
– what is the message of the biblical gospel? how can they express it?
– how can they explain their own story or `testimony’ in a way that will help a not-yet-Christian friend understand the gospel?
– how do we develop loving friendships with not-yet-believers, where we can really share the gospel?
– how do we study the Bible with a not-yet-Christian friend?
* apologetics: why should an intelligent person believe?
* facing our fears – using them as stimuli to faith rather than to paralysis
* claiming the daily fullness of the Spirit’s power in us
* being serious about knowing God and (therefore) His Word; in other words, developing the habit of daily Bible study, so that they really have seen the glory of the God they want to talk about
* `jumping in at the deep end’: getting over the emotional barrier of witnessing for the first time by doing it with you (evangelism in a dorm? standing together at a booktable?)
3. Direct evangelism
There is no single universal, stereotyped `method of evangelism’. But biblical evangelism is likely to include the following; how are they happening in your situation?
* Prayer – claiming God’s power to break through the supernatural blindness that Satan has put on people’s hearts (2 Cor 4:4), by persevering intercession, fasting, praying for friends specifically by name
* friendship – developing real, normal relationships where not-yet-believers can get to know us and see that the things we say are trustworthy, and that the life of the Spirit in us, while not perfect, is something real. (Just `being yourself’ as a child of God.)
* evangelistic Bible study – reading the gospels with a group of friends so that they come face to face with Jesus as revealed in God’s own Word
* proclamation: an ongoing group strategy of regular events where the fruit of our friendships and EBSs can be harvested – where our friends can hear the challenge of the gospel preached and the issue brought to climax; starting the year with a strong `new students’ outreach’, and probably including well-planned Christmas and Easter celebrations, etc.
In addition we may well want to ask:
* How can our group introduce not-yet-believers to the sense of the Spirit’s presence in the community of Christians? (Evangelistic supper parties? Maybe an evangelistic camp?)
* How can we make more friendships and contacts to begin Bible studies with? Door-to-door visiting in the student dorms (to set up Bible discussion groups) and booktables are two methods that have proved particularly helpful. Other possibilities include questionnaires/surveys, arranging evangelistic concerts, street preaching/singing, eyecatching posters, drama…
4. Helping disciples grow
Young believers grow by encountering Christ in various different ways. We want to make sure our friends can grow through…
* learning the habit of regular daily `quiet times’ of personal prayer and Bible study
* involvement in a good small-group Bible study – with a good leader and good questions to study.
* involvement in a good large-group teaching meeting, with a well-thought-out programme of topics
* involvement in serious commitment to prayer in partnership with other students
* increasingly active commitment to the community of the student group, and of the local church.
`Discipling’ can be a dangerous idea: we can see our relationships patronizingly as where we instruct and the other person just absorbs. However, God will often lead us to deliberately develop relationships with particular younger believers where He will enable us to help them grow…. and enable them to help us grow!
As we pray about the one-to-one relationships we’re in, these are some of the areas we may want to pray especially about, to sense how God would have us help our friend move forward…
* personal Bible study
* personal prayer
* personal evangelism (discipling should always include a strong focus towards empowering the witness of both of you)
* local church involvement (including baptism)
* worship – a deepening sense of the glory and love of God, the wonder of Christ and His cross
* deepening submission to the lordship of Christ, reflected in increasing holiness (Christlikeness)
* increasing sense of vocation – of the relevance of discipleship to every area of life
* increasing faith – learning in practice the power of God’s Spirit, willingness to take risks in the service of God
* increasing exercise of gifts God is developing in them for His service
* healthy relationships with family, fellow-students, the opposite sex
* increasing sense of mission – of the needs of the country as a whole and the world as a whole
(All these are areas we may want to pray over in our own lives!)
Our goal is to make ourselves unemployed!- to work ourselves out of a job, passing on all we know until the other person can do it all better than we can – and is already passing it on to others (2 Tim 2:2), and we can move on to the next assignment from God…
5. Mobilising student leaders
The history of IFES has shown repeatedly that, longterm, the most effective student outreach is that led by the students themselves, who are nationals of their own country, through which they develop the gifts that will be of service in their churches and to their country throughout the years to come. IFES is committed to student responsibility, backed up by staff support. In pioneering situations, perhaps we must take initiative to find ways of doing effective evangelism. But as a maturing student group develops, it must be student-led. Our role may be to ask questions, make suggestions, remind of possibilities, lend books, brainstorm ideas… but as soon as possible it must be the student leaders’ job to take the final decisions and give the up-front leadership.
Developing indigenous student leadership includes…
* seeking to involve students in our work from the beginning; not doing things they can reasonably be expected to do instead
* sensitively `stretching’ them: always encouraging them to attempt more than they thought they were capable of, in an atmosphere where they are safe to experiment and make mistakes
* lots of interaction, encouragement and affirmation
* sharing hopes and dreams; helping them think through three areas particularly:
– how can we witness effectively – in evangelistic Bible studies and in proclamation? What training might be needed?
– how can we improve our small- and large-group activities, and so help each other grow?
– how can we be more serious in collective prayer?
* exposure to means of growth; prayerfully selecting helpful books for them to read, looking out for training or evangelistic opportunities (eg summer outreaches with local churches) that will broaden their experience
* `stepping back but staying in touch’: the process where – even if (i) you did the job and they watched you, as soon as possible (ii) they do the job with you present, having thought it through carefully with you beforehand; until (iii) they do it (with a younger believer) and tell you afterwards how it went
6. Moving on to Samaria
`You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem… Judaea… Samaria’: where is the next frontier to pioneer? How can we begin to set up work in a nearby city? The process is roughly the same as before:
* Has the Lord indicated His calling to us by giving us ways of linking in with local believing students? Do the students in our group have friends in the city (can they come with us to see them?)?
* Visit the local evangelical churches. Explain our dreams; show them our literature. Explain that we always want to work in partnership with, and build up, the local churches, and will want their blessing and commendation – and, as needed, their correction. Do they have students who we could help to evangelise? (Unless you can find – or lead to Christ – believing students locally, it will be very difficult to do anything lasting.)
* Are there ways you could be of service to the local colleges (eg, a lecture on some speciality – maybe your faith, or even your country) – that will help you get to know students there?
* Focus on potential leaders among the believing students. Get them to lead studies and meetings as soon as possible. In your visits, concentrate on time with them, sharing with them ideas and possibilities. Make sure you have everybody’s various contact details.
* Help them think about the work…
– how can we witness effectively – in evangelistic Bible studies and in proclamation? What training might be needed?
– how can we as believing students help each other grow? (In some countries, IFES workers have started groups in new cities by offering a course on discipleship)
– how can we be more serious in collective prayer for our fellow-students?
* Think of ways in which your visits can help develop a sense of group community and commitment.
* Take student leaders from your city’s group with you. Their vision will probably come across far more effectively than yours…
`You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem… and in all Judaea… and Samaria… and to the ends of the earth!’ (Acts 1:8).
