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Written by: CampUs4 5/16/2011 10:13 PM
Back to the Basics (Campus Evangelism) By Tad Klein As Christians, we sometimes suffer from impatience when it comes to evangelism. We want to jump into calculus before we learn basic algebra. We want to be Michael Jordan before we learn to dribble a basketball. We want to be hosting Billy Graham crusades but haven’t yet learned how to talk to people about Jesus. I’m convinced that effective and powerful evangelism can be done on campus, but the heart of effective evangelism is not well-tuned mass campaigns, clever programs, or weeklong revivals. The heart of evangelism is learning to simply share the good news about Jesus. There are a multitude of issues to address for effective evangelism on a college campus: apologetics, worldview training, cultural analysis, etc. However, none of this will avail anything if we don’t master the basics. Evangelism is a matter of message and response and must always be framed within a context of discipleship. Without the message, the response is empty. Without the response, the message has not changed the hearer. And without the disciple, people will never hear and experience the gospel. Students on our campuses today are well dosed, even if they don’t know it, in the various manifestations of secularist life-is-about-the-here-and-now philosophy. Materialism, hedonism, relativism, and atheism fill minds and hearts that have been created to be filled by Jesus. The apostle Paul writes that the gospel message is a powerful remedy to the ills brought about by the human philosophies of the ages (1 Cor. 1:17-20). It is the very power of God! There is no more important first step in evangelizing our campuses than training our students to know, understand, and share the content of the gospel message. Students should be able to share that our salvation is made possible only in Jesus, that the core message of the gospel is that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was resurrected on the third day (1 Cor. 15), and that God has made him Lord (Acts 2:36). It is Jesus, not the world (or the church for that matter), who gave himself for us and requires our allegiance. It is vital to get this point down. The response is empty if it doesn’t involve receiving Jesus. A baptized materialist who doesn’t trust Jesus alone for his salvation, who doesn’t know and respond to the gospel, is just that – a baptized materialist. It is the Spirit working through the gospel that transforms the materialist into a child of God. Even so, we recognize that without response the gospel call has gone unheeded. It is hearing that produces faith, but it is faith that responds. Students need to know how to teach people to receive Jesus. And we can’t sugar-coat either the gospel or the response. If the gospel at its center declares that Jesus is Lord, then the response at its center involves submission to his rule. In baptism, people who believe the message confess Jesus as both their Savior and their Lord, receiving salvation based on his free grace. They surrender the right to live as if they were still materialists or relativists or atheists. The goal of the gospel was never to fill pews or get people wet. It has always been to produce disciples. Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples. This involved baptizing and teaching people to obey everything he had taught them. At its heart, evangelism has always been relational. People tend to ‘catch’ Jesus from people who embody him. Jesus says his disciples will be known by their love. We must emphasize that baptism is only the beginning of the believer’s new life of discipleship. Jesus’ disciples, who have taken up their crosses, are the ones through whom God will transform the world. This brings me back to our campuses. Do we want to evangelize our campuses? Let us not waste any time planning big events or bringing in celebrity speakers until we have trained and equipped our own students to be disciple-makers, spreading the love and truth of Jesus across their own ever-widening networks. In short, let’s make sure we’ve mastered algebra. Tad Klein leads Vintage Christian Fellowship at Northern Arizona University. He is a graduate of that university and is continuing his education through Fuller Theological Seminary.
As Christians, we sometimes suffer from impatience when it comes to evangelism. We want to jump into calculus before we learn basic algebra. We want to be Michael Jordan before we learn to dribble a basketball. We want to be hosting Billy Graham crusades but haven’t yet learned how to talk to people about Jesus.
I’m convinced that effective and powerful evangelism can be done on campus, but the heart of effective evangelism is not well-tuned mass campaigns, clever programs, or weeklong revivals. The heart of evangelism is learning to simply share the good news about Jesus.
There are a multitude of issues to address for effective evangelism on a college campus: apologetics, worldview training, cultural analysis, etc. However, none of this will avail anything if we don’t master the basics. Evangelism is a matter of message and response and must always be framed within a context of discipleship. Without the message, the response is empty. Without the response, the message has not changed the hearer. And without the disciple, people will never hear and experience the gospel.
Students on our campuses today are well dosed, even if they don’t know it, in the various manifestations of secularist life-is-about-the-here-and-now philosophy. Materialism, hedonism, relativism, and atheism fill minds and hearts that have been created to be filled by Jesus.
The apostle Paul writes that the gospel message is a powerful remedy to the ills brought about by the human philosophies of the ages (1 Cor. 1:17-20). It is the very power of God! There is no more important first step in evangelizing our campuses than training our students to know, understand, and share the content of the gospel message. Students should be able to share that our salvation is made possible only in Jesus, that the core message of the gospel is that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was resurrected on the third day (1 Cor. 15), and that God has made him Lord (Acts 2:36). It is Jesus, not the world (or the church for that matter), who gave himself for us and requires our allegiance.
It is vital to get this point down. The response is empty if it doesn’t involve receiving Jesus. A baptized materialist who doesn’t trust Jesus alone for his salvation, who doesn’t know and respond to the gospel, is just that – a baptized materialist. It is the Spirit working through the gospel that transforms the materialist into a child of God.
Even so, we recognize that without response the gospel call has gone unheeded. It is hearing that produces faith, but it is faith that responds. Students need to know how to teach people to receive Jesus. And we can’t sugar-coat either the gospel or the response. If the gospel at its center declares that Jesus is Lord, then the response at its center involves submission to his rule. In baptism, people who believe the message confess Jesus as both their Savior and their Lord, receiving salvation based on his free grace. They surrender the right to live as if they were still materialists or relativists or atheists. The goal of the gospel was never to fill pews or get people wet. It has always been to produce disciples.
Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples. This involved baptizing and teaching people to obey everything he had taught them. At its heart, evangelism has always been relational. People tend to ‘catch’ Jesus from people who embody him. Jesus says his disciples will be known by their love. We must emphasize that baptism is only the beginning of the believer’s new life of discipleship. Jesus’ disciples, who have taken up their crosses, are the ones through whom God will transform the world.
This brings me back to our campuses. Do we want to evangelize our campuses? Let us not waste any time planning big events or bringing in celebrity speakers until we have trained and equipped our own students to be disciple-makers, spreading the love and truth of Jesus across their own ever-widening networks. In short, let’s make sure we’ve mastered algebra.
Tad Klein leads Vintage Christian Fellowship at Northern Arizona University. He is a graduate of that university and is continuing his education through Fuller Theological Seminary.
4 comments so far...
Re: Back to the Basics (Campus Evangelism) I would like to recommend using the Alpha Course (Campus Version) for getting more students involved in personal evangelism. Campus Crusade director, Pat McLeod says, "I am very impressed at how God uses this approach to evangelism. At Harvard I have never seen God use any form of evangelism as powerfully as I have seen God use Alpha." A student involved in an Alpha Course at Baldwin-Wallace College in Cleveland, OH. recently said, “Not only has the Lord worked through Alpha to affect the lives of the non-believers who started coming, he has also used Alpha to transform the lives of the believers who facilitate, serve at, and attend. By entering into deep meaningful conversations with people who have a worldview that differs from your own, you encounter their brokenness face to face… So, the Lord has used Alpha to develop us into more compassionate Christ followers.”I would encourage any one who is interested in mobilizing a greater percentage of their students to be involved in evangelism to seriously look at using Campus Alpha materials and resources. http://www.alphausa.org/campustalks
Re: Back to the Basics (Campus Evangelism)
I would like to recommend using the Alpha Course (Campus Version) for getting more students involved in personal evangelism. Campus Crusade director, Pat McLeod says, "I am very impressed at how God uses this approach to evangelism. At Harvard I have never seen God use any form of evangelism as powerfully as I have seen God use Alpha." A student involved in an Alpha Course at Baldwin-Wallace College in Cleveland, OH. recently said, “Not only has the Lord worked through Alpha to affect the lives of the non-believers who started coming, he has also used Alpha to transform the lives of the believers who facilitate, serve at, and attend. By entering into deep meaningful conversations with people who have a worldview that differs from your own, you encounter their brokenness face to face… So, the Lord has used Alpha to develop us into more compassionate Christ followers.”I would encourage any one who is interested in mobilizing a greater percentage of their students to be involved in evangelism to seriously look at using Campus Alpha materials and resources. http://www.alphausa.org/campustalks
Re: Back to the Basics (Campus Evangelism) Very good writing. While it's true that we need to make sure people know how to evangelize I also think we need to teach them to trust God and be about His mission. Many use the excuse of now knowing enough and never get around to doing. It does not take a lot of training to Plant and Water (and that's all our job is). The most effective college-age students I have met at evangelising have been the ones who were just recently converted and "knew" the least.Thank you Tad for addressing this topic.
Very good writing. While it's true that we need to make sure people know how to evangelize I also think we need to teach them to trust God and be about His mission. Many use the excuse of now knowing enough and never get around to doing. It does not take a lot of training to Plant and Water (and that's all our job is). The most effective college-age students I have met at evangelising have been the ones who were just recently converted and "knew" the least.Thank you Tad for addressing this topic.
Re: Back to the Basics (Campus Evangelism) My start to becoming a Christian was when a freshman had the courage to ask me to come to a bible study that was conducted in his dorm room. He wasn't well versed enough to study with me but he could reach out to me for the sake of Jesus and that is what he did. A campus minister and several other Christians reached out to me and encouraged me to read the scriptures and to do the best I could to become what I read. I saw them doing the same thing. After repenting and being baptiized I was encouraged to study more and to develop deep Christ based realtionships. In time I too became engaged in seeking and saving the lost. I was trained to share God's word with others. I saw those around me using the training they had received and effectively reaching the lost. Paul told Timothy "watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers" I Timothy 4:16Evangelism is indeed relational. Evangelism done with love for the sinner and love for the truth does sacrifice God's word on the alter of tolerance. To do so would not be love at all. TR4SCHNELL@AOL.COM
My start to becoming a Christian was when a freshman had the courage to ask me to come to a bible study that was conducted in his dorm room. He wasn't well versed enough to study with me but he could reach out to me for the sake of Jesus and that is what he did. A campus minister and several other Christians reached out to me and encouraged me to read the scriptures and to do the best I could to become what I read. I saw them doing the same thing. After repenting and being baptiized I was encouraged to study more and to develop deep Christ based realtionships. In time I too became engaged in seeking and saving the lost. I was trained to share God's word with others. I saw those around me using the training they had received and effectively reaching the lost. Paul told Timothy "watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers" I Timothy 4:16Evangelism is indeed relational. Evangelism done with love for the sinner and love for the truth does sacrifice God's word on the alter of tolerance. To do so would not be love at all. TR4SCHNELL@AOL.COM
Re: Back to the Basics (Campus Evangelism) Tad, What does your campus ministry look like? Is it made up of kids who grew up in the church? Kids won from the world, a mixture? Thanks,Kerrykerrymcox@gmail.com
Tad, What does your campus ministry look like? Is it made up of kids who grew up in the church? Kids won from the world, a mixture? Thanks,Kerrykerrymcox@gmail.com
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