Significant Insignificant Moments

My freshman year of college began sometime late in the last century, which shows my age even more then the widening bald spot on top of my head. As most new freshmen do, I trekked over to the school's basketball arena for the freshman convocation. After a boring wave of speakers, we were finally allowed to exit, free to roam the free events and grab all the goodies and free food we could want for the rest of the evening. Upon exiting the Bryce Jordan Center (Penn State's arena), me and the 2 friends I was with noticed a stage set up across the street - a free concert. Cool, we thought...maybe we'll check it out later. Few people wandered into the field that had been roped off for the concert, and, also like most freshmen, we simply went where the majority of the crowd was headed. Very sheep-like.

We ended up back at East Halls, the 70's-style dorm mega-complex nearly all PSU freshmen call home. At times it felt like the Dharma Initiative barracks, minus the baby blue vans, gender-neutral jumpsuits, and horrifying monster lurking behind the sonic fence. The campus had lots of random events set up in Dharmaville, but after meandering our way around we found ourselves bored and looking for something else. The concert!, we remembered, and decided to trek back over. By the time we arrived the music had stopped, the stage was being torn down, and the tables around the periphery were surrounded by people packing up boxes of giveaway items, flyers, and contact cards.

We must have looked the part of ungainly freshmen - wide-eyed and zit-faced - and before we were even there 2 minutes a tall, friendly-looking upperclassman greeted us. His name was Brooks. In our eyes he was a heroic figure. A junior condescending to converse with 3 lowly freshmen! This would never happen in high school! We probably talked to Brooks for less than 5 minutes, but for the rest of that school year he was, for us, the face of Campus Crusade for Christ. The concert was a Crusade-sponsored event, and we may have ended up as the last group of freshmen to fill out a contact card before they were all boxed away. Brooks, being the hero he was, made sure we got them.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, the 5 minutes I spent at that already-finished concert would change the course of my life forever. The contact card I filled out ended up in the hands of another upperclassman, who called and invited me to a Bible study and to Prime Time (what Cru meetings were called in the olden days). He also paid my friend Justin, who was with me that night, a visit, and shared the Gospel. Justin and I got involved in the Bible study and started attending Prime Time - keeping our eyes peeled for our new hero Brooks, of course - and both of us would receive Christ within a year and a half. New life sprung in our dead hearts. And now, 12 years later, I'm on staff with Crusade, serving God full-time amongst college students. It all started with a 5 minute interaction with a guy we only talked to once or twice more in our entire college career, and with the scribbling of a name and phone number on a contact card.

Why do I tell you this story? For 2 reasons. First, these first 2 weeks of college are full of these moments I like to call significant insignificant moments. A flyer or card is handed to someone. An awkward introduction is made at a campus-sponsored event. A canned conversation (Where are you from? What's your major? What dorm are you in?) happens in the dining hall. Often we have no idea how eternally significant these brief interactions can be. I came to Christ as a direct result of one. And as we go out on campus this week - handing out thousands of flyers, inviting passers-by to a BBQ, telling people on our dorm floor about Cru, standing at a table asking students to stop by and fill out a survey - we'll have thousands of them. Thousands of insignificant little interactions that could have great eternal significance.

I hope the thought of that inspires you to force yourself through the awkwardness and anxiety of initiating with strangers. Every interaction could change someone's life entirely. And that's why we press forward, publicizing, inviting, introducing, even when it seems that we've done in enough already. You never know who you may talk to next. Could it be an atheist who becomes a bold witness for Christ? Could it be a future pastor? Missionary? Could it be a person who's deeply hurting and looking for a place to find hope?

Let's be expectant, faithful people, knowing that God is using even our briefest interactions for great purpose and for His glory.

Secondly, I want to encourage and challenge you with the thought that you will become the face of Cru to those you meet. For me, Brooks was a larger-than-life figure. He was Cru. In hindsight I knew nothing about him - whether he was a leader, just marginally involved, or if he flaked out and fell off the deep end soon after our little conversation. But since he was the first person I met, he was the first thing I thought of when I thought of Cru.

It's a bit sobering to think that you could be another person's Brooks. As soon as you tell a freshman about Cru, they'll think of you every time they think of it. More importantly, since Cru is a movement dedicated to sharing Jesus with the campus, they'll link Cru with Jesus, and subsequently link you with Jesus. Wow. No pressure, huh!

To me, this is great motivation to be a positive face. To walk in righteousness and godly conduct. To be edifying and encouraging in my speech. To act in love. To be mindful of the image I project and the substance behind it. The bond between holiness and evangelism is a tight one.

So, all you faces of Cru who read this, I encourage you to live in a way that honors God, take steps of faith and initiative to make conversations with freshmen, and pray that God uses you in some significant insignificant moments this week, even if you aren't even aware of it.

--Jason

Prayer

I'm sure if I asked you the question "how important is prayer in ministry", the answer you'd give would be "very important". But if I asked you to examine how that is reflected in your ministry, you'd probably end up at the honest conclusion that it isn't. We all know how important prayer is, we can't change people's lives on our campuses and we don't have the wisdom and insight to make all the right decisions on how to minister to others - we desperately need for God to guide us and to do His work. But prayer is something we easily neglect and fail to emphasize. We forget to pray, we find it boring, we'd rather "do" than stop and pray, etc, etc. There are lots of excuses, and at one time or another I've been guilty of them all.

I want to take this time to briefly introduce you to a book that I think every Christian college student should read, called Fireseeds of Spiritual Awakening, by Dan Hayes. You can find it for a few bucks here. 

I've read this book twice now, once as a student and again about 2 years ago. Both times it inspired my prayer life and desire to see student-led prayer movements take root. That's why I want to point it to you. Chances are you could list off many reasons why prayer is so vital, but sometimes we need to be reminded of those reasons and inspired at a heart level to actually get down to business and pray.

The book basically chronicles various revivals and awakenings (revival meaning a dramatic transformation of faith in the church; awakening meaning a dramatic outpouring of salvation among the unsaved) throughout the last 300 years or so. It shares story after story of these revivals and examines the consequences surrounding their beginnings. And time after time it's college students or college student aged people who are the sparks, and their persistent prayers that precede these events. It also looks at some biblical revivals, like that of Josiah in 2 Chronicles 33 and 34 (good story, it's worth a look).

What the author finds in his study on revivals and examination of Scripture, is that there are 5 "prerequisites" that are our part in seeing revival happen. God ultimately is the only one who brings revival, it's a move of His Spirit in power and only He can make that happen. But He often waits for faith and obedience to be present among His people before bringing revival. It's a bit of a mystery, how and why He chooses to act in the way He does, but we can play our part by seeking to meet the 5 prerequisites. Then maybe He'll choose to move in an amazing way in our midst. Here's what they are, my comments in italics:

1) God's people must recognize that there is a desperate need for spiritual awakening. Any objective look at culture or your campus would drive that point home - the things people say, do, and believe, and the emptiness and brokenness so many live in, all show the simple truth that people need Jesus desperately.

2) God's people must humble themselves before Him. God is God, and we are not. How often we fail to recognize that fact! We need to see ourselves rightly before Him - broken and deeply sinful and flawed, but dearly loved, forgiven, and empowered because of Christ.

3) God's people must confess their sin and repent. Sin not only hinders our fellowship with God, but also short circuits our effectiveness in ministry. Confession and repentance allow us to experience the forgiveness and freedom we already have in Christ.

4) God's people must continually and earnestly pray. Jesus taught the value of persistent prayer in Luke 11:1-13. We're invited to keep knocking on the door of Heaven until God gives an answer. In prayer we plead for God to intervene, knowing He's the only one who can change lives.

5) God's people must call others to join them to meet these prerequisites. There's something special about people joining together in Jesus' Name; in Matthew 18:19-20 Jesus says, "...if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them".

All these prerequisites are found in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, a passage you've probably heard many times before: 

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

There are some of you who already have a passion for prayer and want to see a prayer movement take off on your campus. Maybe this book can fuel that passion and encourage you in spurring on others. For those who struggle with your prayer life, whether it be with motivation, persistence, consistency, or whatever - maybe this book can give you a jump start. For all of you, I think God can use it to cause you to dream about what He can do on your campus, and spur you to pray expectantly for it to happen. Prayer needs to be the backbone of our ministries, and we as a staff team want to help you develop movements of prayer on your campus. Without it, we won't have more than just fleeting ministry success.

So I strongly encourage you to pick this book up and read it - it's short and you can read it in one or two days, and it's under 10 bucks, definitely worth the cost. Make it a summertime read.

Also - if you read this in time, tonight (Friday) at 8pm, there is an event called "One Cry", a gathering of college students to seek God for forgiveness, revival, and renewal on the college campus. It's held at Times Square Church in NYC, and you can link in via video to join in the event. Click here to sign up, get a password to link to the event, and participate. Gather some friends together and join in the evening! Sorry it's so late in inviting to this event, I just found out about it yesterday!

--Jason

The Beginning...

The first 2 weeks of school are absolutely crucial for incoming freshmen.  Research shows that it is during this time that students create their social life for the coming year and often for the next four.  It's become the cultural norm that the party scene is the social scene - it's what's portrayed in movies and other media, and even on the news as what "college life" is.  So thousands of Christians who were involved in church or youth group through high school bury their faith in the closet and run into the party lifestyle, many thinking that it's just what everyone does.  And lots of non-Christians students dive into the party life too, even though many (most? all?) are dissatisfied with their choices and empty inside.

So where does that leave us, people involved with Cru?  It means that the first 2 weeks back are the time for ministry, the most important 2 weeks of the year.  We have the opportunity to help Christians find true meaning and purpose for their college years, and help non-Christians see that there is a meaning beyond the emptiness of the party scene.  This is why we have so many events through the first 2 weeks - we're seeking to connect with as many people as we can.

What we offer Christians is an opportunity to be a part of an authentic community of believers, growing together and impacting the lives of other students for eternity; a college career full of meaning and growth.  Some of the freshmen we meet may become missionaries, Christian leaders in government or business, or someone who influences thousands in some way for Christ.  Connecting with a body of believers at the start of college is a huge step in whatever path God may have for them.

What we offer non-believers is an opportunity to escape the empty, depressing, dissatisfying life of partying, broken relationships, and addiction.  We offer them hope for their souls, forgiveness, and eternal life.

Our influence and opportunity is huge!  It's corny, I know, but that quote from Gladiator, "What we do in life echoes in eternity", comes to my mind when I think about this stuff.  And it's true.  

So, my encouragement to you as you get ready to come back to school is this: be ready.  Spend some time with God, ask Him to fill you up and prepare you to be used by Him on the frontlines of the first 2 weeks.  Pray for the freshman coming to school.  Dream big and think about what an amazing impact you can have in people's lives.  And when you get to school, make the most of those 2 weeks.  Meet people, love them, build friendships with them.  People on your floor, in your classes, in the cafeteria, wherever.  Invite people to come with you to Cru stuff.  And take opportunities to tell them about the hope you have in Jesus.  I'm convinced that if people see the quality of the relationships we have in the body of Christ, they'll desire more, and God will use it to draw them to Jesus.  Isn't it cool that we can be a part of it?!

I'm excited, and getting prepared.  How 'bout you?

Can't wait for school to start,

Jason