An Excerpt from The Fuel and the Flame
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Let me describe one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in ministry. I would choose a guy to help spiritually, pull him aside and meet every week in my basement or at Denny’s to “disciple” him. Each session was packed with my latest nugget from the Word or keen illustration I could draw out on a napkin. And then after several months, I would deem him ready to learn a gospel presentation, which meant several more weeks to memorize and practice it. The day finally came when we would actually go out and share it with a friend of his, only to hurry back to our den of discipleship to debrief about the spiritual pilgrimage we just completed. Proud of my disciple’s performance, I could then check off the box on my training objectives sheet for him, marked “knows and shared gospel presentation.”
What’s wrong with this picture? When water flows into a pond, but no water flows out, it is just a matter of time before the smell becomes unbearable. God made us to be conduits with water flowing in and out at the same time. We Christians are like manure; if you pile us up we really stink, but spread us around and we can do a lot of good! Doing some occasional evangelism (just to stay “sharp”) in the context of ongoing discipleship can get real stale─real fast! Jesus was very clear in Matthew 4:19, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” I spent a few months of my quiet times one semester studying all the “I will” statements Jesus made in the gospels. Guess what I found? Every time Jesus said, “I will,” He did! If that’s true, than this verse must mean that if we’re not fishing for men, we’re not following Christ because Jesus promised to make us fishers if we would only follow.
A 24/7 Walking, Talking Classroom
Study and gather principles sometime from Luke 10 and Mark 1-3 to understand the Campus Outreach ministry’s emphasis upon doing discipleship in the context of evangelism. Jesus called His disciples to be “with Him” as He traveled from town to town, crowd to crowd, teaching and ministering as they went. Yes, occasionally He drew them away for some debriefing, prayer or rest together, but for the most part, He was always on the go, preaching and reaching the masses. His goal was to provide His men with a real, live, walking and talking twenty four hour a day classroom, full of object lessons for life and ministry. He was influencing many, and in the process, training a few, and thus, providing dynamic discipling to His men in the context of aggressive, ongoing evangelism.
I will warn you though, this kind of emphasis on evangelism has a way of attracting the right kind of students and repelling the wrong kind of students. Growing Christians that really want to be used of God to make a difference will immediately be drawn to you and your ministry as they observe the initiative and boldness you take. Others, though, that were just looking for a safe haven to hang their religious hat during their college years, will be frightened off by this radical and intrusive brand of Christianity. On their way out, as a defense mechanism, they might even attack you as being exclusive, insensitive, or unloving.
As you start or develop your ministry, it’s fine if different Christian students want to come along side you to help launch the ministry, as long as they’re willing to join you in an ongoing outward focus of reaching the lost on your campus. While finding it difficult to motivate some of the mediocre “life long” Christians, you might discover the most fervent believers on your campus are those that came to Christ during their college years. Sometimes they’ll take the same zeal and enthusiasm they had as a “campus hellion” and rechannel it into bold and daring steps of faith and outreach. Bottom line: if you focus on reaching the lost, the hungry Christians will find you.