“Boring!”

This is how many young people describe church.  They are not always wrong.  Yet, with the help of several authors, this article makes the case that the word “passion” can fit better with “church” than the ‘B’ word.

Just don’t always expect passion to come to you at church.  Rather, you can bring it with you!  Bring your own passion for sermons, songs and prayer.  Above all, bring a passion for salvation.

The presence of God is anything but boring.  Sermons, songs and prayers can sometimes seem boring but if God is there, something purposeful and wonderful is going on.  Your job is to be one of God’s spies and figure out what He is up to.  Translate the passion of the Christ into your passion for his church and her mission on your campus.

No matter what you do or become after college, as a believer, you will always carry a torch for the church.  I, for one, am grateful for the 2,500 Sunday morning worship services I have attended in life and my torch burns on.  If I can do it, so can you.  The insights below will help! 
[From the editor]

When Paul wrote, “I am compelled to preach.  Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16), he placed himself in good company.  Jeremiah had a difficult message to give and often wished to simply be silent.  “But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones.  I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” (Jeremiah 20:9)  Very good company!

Jesus, Himself, said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God… because that is why I was sent.” (Luke 4:43)  Very good company, indeed!

Are we in that passionate company?  When preaching first stirred my heart, I was told, “Don’t preach unless you have to.”  I had to!  But we all should feel this fire in our bones.  Each disciple has been given the “good news of the kingdom.”  Proclaiming that news is why all of us are sent and in doing it passionately we are in magnificent company.

Timothy W. Kelley is the preaching minister at the Chico Church of Christ in California. He holds two degrees from Pepperdine University and has been preaching full-time since 1974.

In our complex world, things often get muddled, especially our faith and how to go about expressing it.  I love watching my three children play soccer.  I also enjoy how soccer enables me to meet more families in our community.  This past season, it struck me that I have not once invited a soccer family to my church or shared my faith!  With new resolve I was determined to make this season different.

I share my faith on campus with college students many times over.  And my experience overseas with LST, whose motto is “sharing Jesus… sharing ourselves”, could easily be applied on the soccer field!  And yet, something about sharing in my own backyard seems different.  Thus, I remind myself that someone had to share their faith with me twenty years ago before I could begin my faith journey.  This reminder inspires me to share Jesus by sharing myself.  It really is that simple.  And after soccer, there is always T-ball!

Kim Lambert has worked with Let’s Start Talking Ministries for the past twelve years. She and her husband Scott minister to the young adults at Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA. Visit the LST website at www.LST.org

We often associate passion with desire, emotion, or emotional outbursts. When it comes to prayer passion, it is less about emotion and more about faith.  Being passionate in prayer is about believing that our Father in Heaven has the power to enact change in the world and that He cares enough to do it!

Does He care?  Well, God’s Word tells us that we are worth more than a tiny sparrow, that His Son died for us and that His Spirit is deposited inside each Christian.  Does He have the power?  Well, the sea has been parted, the sun has stood still and the grave of a carpenter from Nazareth is empty.

Two blind men came to Jesus asking for their sight and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe...?” (Matthew 9:27-30). Indeed, faith the size of a mustard seed can cause a mountain or a mulberry tree to be thrown into the sea (Mark 11:23, Luke 17:6).  Jesus went on to say that if you ask for something and believe, you will receive.

This is where the emotion comes back in.  If you really believe God listens and has the power, you will be on your knees begging Him to respond to the situations around you.  The plight of the lost, the sick and the needy is met with greater hope in your heart.  A belief in the power of God will drive us to our knees with the force of a mountain being cast into the sea!

Randy Schilling, is the Campus Minister at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.  He has served in Campus Ministry since he became a Christian as a graduate student in 1982.

Singing is one of the first forms of communication we gain and the last we lose.  Some moms sing to their babies before birth.  I know a stroke victim who lost her speech but can still sing hymn after hymn with you, as tears stream down her cheeks.  Hymn selections are often the highest priority for planning a funeral.  Your passion for singing may hide sometimes, but it can rise high in your heart when you need it most.

As a teen, Isaac Watts (1674-1748) complained to his father about church singing.  His father challenged him to come up with better songs.  He did!  “Joy to the World!”  “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross!” and “We’re Marching to Zion” are a few of Isaac’s gems that we still sing today.

Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915) was blind but managed to write over 9,000 hymns.  Her passion for singing ran deep.  The world‘s greatest understatement is inscribed on her tombstone in Bridgeport Connecticut. It says: “She hath done what she could.”  No kidding!

Joel Mark Solliday, M.Div., minister of the Brooklyn Center Church of Christ in Minnesota. A Pepperdine graduate, he later worked in their Campus Life Office and at ACU as a Missionary in Residence. He is the editor of Campus CrossWalk.

Service to others flows from what we have received from Jesus Christ our Lord!  The world teaches us to look out for our personal needs and desires, but Jesus calls us to die to ourselves and show God’s love to others.

Jesus is our supreme example of service.  He was God’s Chosen Servant whose duty was to suffer for us (Isaiah 42 & 53).  He willingly and painfully went to the cross; a service that only He, a sinless servant and a perfect sacrifice for sin, could offer.

A young Christian friend once asked me for advice on how to reach his parents with the gospel.  “Fired up” for Jesus, he had already told them of their need to take up their cross and follow Jesus daily (Luke 9:23) and give everything up for Jesus (Luke 14:33).

I reminded my friend that he had already taken a good long look at Jesus before he understood those passages.  I asked him what sort of evidence he thought his parents had seen in order to base their faith in Christ.  He replied, “I guess only what they have seen in me.”

“Your parents want to see if you’ve really changed,” I suggested.  “When was the last time you washed the dishes or cut the grass without them asking you to do it?”  He began to realize how service to others validates the gospel.

Jesus taught that whoever wants to be great must become a servant (Mark 10:43).  Who is the greatest in your campus ministry?

Mike Buckley is one of the campus ministers with the Christian Student Center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  He became a Christian as a college student and has worked in campus ministry since 1981.