Discipleship in a busy time
In about a week, students will return to the University of Illinois and Parkland College. This is an exciting time of year filled with lots of events and different things going on. But in the middle of the excitement, it feels fitting to remember the opportunity that comes with Fall Move-In. During this time, thousands of students will be moving to Champaign for the first time and thousands of other students will be returning to the Champaign area. These students are part of one of the most powerful missionary opportunities that we have as Christians.
College Ministry has distinct seasons to it. The summer for instance is a quiet season, while the month after students move to campus is one of the busiest seasons of the year! Time is spent meeting students, building relationships, beginning to share the Gospel with students, and discipling students who already know Jesus- empowering them to reach their friends. In the midst of all of this, the busyness and the idea of growth can become the main focus.
It is easy for the main focus of Fall to go from seeing the Gospel spread to becoming about numbers and different events. The events in some ways are more exciting if we are honest. But the events are rarely where lives are transformed. Instead, transformation seems to happen most often in smaller groups and in intentional times where relationships are prioritized. I think we see this in Jesus’s ministry.
Jesus goes around doing miracles, and he feeds the 5,000 and the 4,000, but he does not only do that. Jesus also takes time to teach the disciples. It is not glamorous but that form of discipleship is very effective. Effective discipleship is built less on events and numbers and is instead built on relationships and time that is invested.
The feeding of the 5,000 is a great example of this. In Mark 6, we see that Jesus feeds the 5,000, and then as Mark 6:45 says, “Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.” Jesus goes off by himself and prays after dismissing the crowd. Then, Jesus rejoins the disciples by walking on water!
Even Jesus needed a break from events and business. But at the same time, Jesus took advantage of these opportunities to teach large crowds about the truth of the Gospel. Matthew 4:17 tells us that Jesus preached and would say, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Immediately after Matthew 4:17 and the beginning of Jesus’s preaching ministry, Jesus went and called disciples who He trained on a more personal scale.
There is a clear example here and it applies to college ministry. Events and outreach programs are great and are necessary. But, the bulk of effective ministry with any age group, but in this case college students, happens in more personal settings. It happens in Bible Studies; it happens over lunch or coffee; it happens in conversations on Sunday mornings.
So, practically, as we get ready to kick off the fall with some outreach events, let me encourage each of us to remember that college ministry is built on relationships rather than events. Students are worth our investment because as we invest, we will get to see lives transformed by the power of the Gospel and that is our vision as a Church! Would you join us over these next few weeks both physically and in prayer?
Pastor Daniel