Here are some highlights of the students poems from an outreach we did recently. The talent was unbelievable, and again, it was one of the most engaging outreaches I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t just one guy talking to the audience it was many people talking to many people and the reality of Christ shown brightly! If you want to host this outreach, visit Phil Long’s site here.
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Thoughts on evangelism; skepticism and proclamation.
We want to see the campuses in this city transformed. To do that we share our faith a lot. Along the way a couple issues have surfaced for us that we’re doing our best to deal with.
- There is a general sense of skepticism here that was not present in my last location (Montana). It’s not that students won’t talk to you…they’re just skeptical (especially of Christians). For them, Christians are judgmental and overly political. This means more trust has to be built, more rapidly. One of the best ways to do that is to value the people we’re engaging with. This is where body language, listening skills and tone matters. They must know that I care about them and value them and their thoughts.
- This environment can become deadly suffocating when it comes to actually proclaiming the Gospel. If our team wasn’t careful, we could default to have amazing conversations for hours on end that never bring anyone to a point of understanding about who Christ is. We could easily let cultural norms overtake bold proclamation of the Gospel.
- Teaching a student to share their faith here is tricky. Because of the complexity of many of the conversations, modeling an evangelistic opportunity often ends up with Suzy Freshmen wondering if she could ever be skilled enough to share her faith.
Out of these realities has come some action points for me….
- Get Biblical about evangelism. Before I bow to any sort of cultural pressure (or CCC staff pressure) I have to ask myself what the Bible says about it. I’m starting with a look at a few verses on evangelism in context (thanks Keith Davy)…John 1:35-51, Acts 8:26-40, Acts 17:16-35
- ’100% Try’. A while ago I heard someone say that every conversation they’d have with someone they would try to share the Gospel and bring someone to a understanding that they need to make a choice about Christ. Of course, sometimes God would close conversational doors, but they would try. They called this the ‘100% try’. That’s what I want my life to look like.
Any push back? What about your context? What are you learning?
Newspaper ad’s for outreach? Ugghh.
Recently we had an innovative outreach at Portland State…a 
Poetry Slam. You can read about it on the CruPress Green site here.
One of the biggest mistakes we made in advertising for the event was putting our ad in the school newspaper for two editions. Exactly 0 people indicated they found the event via the newspaper. $430 later I feel a bit snookered.
But what do you do? You have to leave no stone unturned when sponsoring a campus wide event right? Maybe times are changing. What do you think?
Our Adoption Story!
I was in Seattle last week with other Campus Crusade leaders from the northwest region and there were lot’s of questions about the recent adoption of our son Isaac. My smok’n hott wife has nicely recapped our story, so if you’re interested here are the links.
I don’t think everyone is called to adopt, but I do think everyone should ask the Lord if it’s for them.
Important Links this week!
A couple of interesting links you might want to take a look at.
- I blogged on the CruPressGreen site about our recent outreach…a Poetry Slam of all things. We’re learning a lot about evangelism in Portland. Check out the recap here.
- The ReThink Blogference is hosting a resource drive. The idea is to have local field staff share the best resources they’re using and save us all from having to recreate the wheel. I’m all about sharing the wealth and would love it if some of you would weigh in on the discussion there! Check out Brian’s thoughts below.
Teams sending teams.
Last year I left a thriving ministry at Montana State because I caught a vision of launching new movements on the campuses in Portland, Oregon. This year I was reflecting back on how cool it was that our staff team at MSU was thinking beyond the edges of our campus, and was trusting the Lord to send teams of staff/students all over the world.
I look forward to the day when our team in Portland is sending missional teams all over the world. Our vision isn’t just to change the campus, it’s to change the whole world!
Here’s a recent video of Mark Gauthier (National CCC Leader) talking about what’s going on at MSU this year!
Presence not Presents
A serious post on Friday? How can this be? Oh well, it’s what you get.
It’s been an intense season of life and ministry for me lately. It’s no excuse, but it sure surfaces the reality that I easily care more about what God does in our ministry than just being with Jesus.
The story of the women who annointed the head of Jesus in Mark 14 resonated with me yesterday. She cared more about being with Jesus than the cost of the perfume. She would do anything to be close to him. Everything else was secondary, including her iPhone.
I like to say that all I do is win, but the truth is…I fall short. Miserably short.
But the story doesn’t end there, mired in my personal failure. There is hope. Like any good story you have to walk through conflict before reaching the sweet peace of resolution.
Hebrews 4 beckons us to draw close to the throne of grace. Jesus tells me to draw near and find rest and peace in him. So thankful that in my weakness I can draw near.
Hhhmmm, guess I’m preaching the Gospel to myself again. Hope that’s cool with you.
Most viewed posts from October
Here are the most viewed posts on my blog last month…if you care. Interestingly, 2 of the 4 posts are really old.
Evangelism: What’s working, what’s not. The current reality of the Campus Crusade for Christ experience in evangelism in Portland. This reality stretches my thinking.
Social Media in Ministry Seminar. A little lesson for new staff on how to make social media fuel building spiritual movements in their context.
Top 6 quotes from Tribes by Seth Godin. An old post.
The Valley of Insight. An even older post getting some hits.
I just wrote a blog post about blog posts. How cool am I? Oh, and I only posted 4 times in October.
Initiating vs. Responding
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about building our Campus Crusade staff team here in Portland for the future. Other than a soft teachable heart, the most common characteristic I want people on our team to have is the ability to be initiators. It’s not the end all and we recognize our staff develop over time, but we want you to be an initiator not just a responder.
A while back Brad Lomenick wrote a couple posts that put into words what we’re thinking as a team.
Favorite quote…
Make sure you have a team of leaders who initiate at their core. It’s much easier to slow down a racehorse by having to pull back on the reins vs. having to spur and kick and get out the whip in order to move forward.
Where have you seen the value of being surrounded by initiators rather than responders?
Photo courtesy of Malkov
