2008 December « The Overflow

Dec 30 2008

We’ve made it

And the fog is so thick you could get lost in your own back yard (that is, if anyone in San Francisco actually had a back yard).

The Woodell family touched down in SF around 4pm Pacific standard time, and the next few days will be extremely busy as we have to buy a vehicle as well as furniture for our new home.

I’ve already met one of my neighbors – an older lady who I believe is an art professor at SFSU. I also attempted to meet a couple of college students who live close by, but I think they were a bit too drunk to be coherent. I actually banged on their window to get their attention and the music was so loud they didn’t even notice. Did I mention I yelled too?

Hopefully that won’t turn into some kind of sick metaphor in the future :p

I had a good reason to speak with them besides wanting to meet them. As Paul and I were unloading his van to take my luggage inside, somebody clipped the car parked on the street in front of the college student’s front door. I was thinking it might have been one of theirs, and thought I’d be sweet and give them a description of the culprit.

Too bad for them if it was their car.

Anyway, I’m typing this from Paul Fletcher’s house. We’ll have the net hooked up at Woodell pad in a few days.

Until then … please keep us and our future ministry in your prayers!

Blessings

Tagged Moving day, Yelling at drunk college students

Dec 29 2008

The Big Day is Here

Its our last day in Florida – we leave at 8am for the airport to catch a flight to San Francisco, only this time we’ll be arriving there as residents.

Airiel and I have been praying for this to happen every day for three years.

Thanks to everyone who’s made our move and future ministry possible – we covet your continued prayers!

We’ll likely be without internet service at home for a while, and this blog may go dark for a week or two.

For you regular readers, take some time to visit the links posted on the right side of this page under the headline “Worth A Look.”

In addition to what’s written on this website, we’ll be sending out a monthly printed newsletter via snail mail to update friends and supporters on the progress of our work. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list for that newsletter, please send your mailing address to WesWoodell@Gmail.com and I’ll make sure you get a copy.

Blessings – and happy New Year!

Dec 28 2008

Into All the Ethnos: The Case for Evangelistic Campus Ministry Plants

by Wes Woodell

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

-Jesus, Matthew 28:19-20

Ahhh, the Great Commission – one of my favorite scriptures. These words capture the final marching orders of Jesus Christ – instructing believers to make disciples among the lost peoples of the world. This particular scripture has been used as the theological basis for foreign mission work for generations, and rightfully so.

But there’s more to this command than meets the eye in most modern translations of the Bible. The Greek word, ethnos (ἔθνος), normally translated “nations” in the New Testament, can also be translated “a people,” or “a large group based on various cultural, physical, or geographic ties.”^{^[1]} Ethnos is a sociological term used to refer to sociological groups, and while nations are included, so are the various people groups that make them up.

In our country, states as well as the cities and towns found within them should be considered. The gay and lesbian community, the Hollywood crowd, the inner-city, individual neighborhoods – even social cliques like a group of elderly men that get together for breakfast, or the groups that make up the social structure of your workplace should be noted. Each represent a different ethnos, and each separate people group falls under the umbrella of the Great Commission.

Implicit in the Great Commission is a responsibility to intentionally focus efforts to reach every ethnos we encounter, and there’s one I’m particularly concerned with today. That, my friends, is the ethnos of the university campus, and you should be concerned with it too.

Why Effective Campus Ministry is Vital

Bill Bright[2] was known for saying: “Change the campus today and change the world tomorrow.” There isn’t a mission field in existence today poised to shake the foundations of global spirituality like the university campuses of the United States. Today’s students are future world leaders. Future doctors, lawyers, teachers, and professors – future journalists, counselors, businessmen, and businesswomen – future military officers, company executives, media professionals, and government leaders – all are found on the university campuses today.

This is the time in life when their worldview will be shaped. They’re seeking answers to questions like, “How did I get here and why do I exist? Is there a God? Does life have a purpose? Should I be religious? Are all religions the same?” For their sake and the sake of the people their lives will influence, truthful answers must be provided, and the only real source of truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must make it our mission to be among them to provide these answers!

The need is greater today than ever before – a strong case for this can be made just by examining the numbers.

Campus Ministry: The Need According to the Numbers

In 1965, a Houston area preacher named Wes Reagan made a presentation at the Abilene lectures entitled, “The Lost Frontier” (later printed in 20^th Century Christian[3]). This presentation emphasized the urgent need for evangelistic work to take place on university campuses in the United States. When Reagan initially presented his speech, a little over four million students were enrolled full-time in American universities.[4] Today, enrollment is at a record-breaking 17.5 million, and that number is expected to increase another 13% by 2015.[5]

At the time of Reagan’s sermon, if we had converted just one out of every 1,000 international students in our country, we would have produced 100 new missionaries to be sent home facing no language or cultural barriers in spreading the gospel.[6] If we did the same thing today, efforts would produce over 550 new missionaries annually[7] – this would greatly exceed the current missionary efforts of all of our brotherhood universities combined.

In 1965, our people were active on 80 campuses out of a possible 2,120 (mainly as educators – not evangelists).[8] Today, we are active on less than 150 campuses[9] out of a possible 4,100.[10] That means over 97% of the colleges and universities in the United States lack an effective Church of Christ campus ministry!

When you consider the fact that almost every great spiritual awakening in the United States had its beginnings among students on a university campus,[11] and that 77% of Americans who become Christians do so before the age of 21,[12] you have a very powerful case for why our fellowship must make a concerted effort to plant effective, Jesus-loving, gospel-sharing campus ministries.

Youth ministries are common nowadays, and more youth ministers are being trained by brotherhood universities than there are jobs available. It is time to stop overlooking campus ministry. Effective ministries must be planted!

“Effective Campus Ministry” Defined

A ministry should not be termed “effective” if the salvation of the lost isn’t a top priority. Jesus stated the primary purpose of His earthly ministry in Luke 19:10 – “to seek and to save what was lost.” In Matthew 20:28, Jesus preached that He “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Jesus’ ultimate act of service – suffering and dying on the cross – was to pay for the salvation of the lost.

In Matthew 22:36-40, when asked by a Pharisee which was the greatest commandment in the Law, Jesus responded by saying in verse 37, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Then He shared the second greatest commandment in verse 39: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In summary, Jesus taught that our main concern is to love God with every fiber of our being, and love the people around us. You can’t have one without the other, and what greater way is there to love someone than to bring them closer to the source of love – to know Love Himself (i.e. God embodied in Jesus Christ)?

It is God’s will that we be in the disciple-making business, and when defining “effective campus ministry” this fact must not be ignored. A campus ministry is not effective if the unchurched remain, not only unreached, but untouched altogether.

Shortage of Effective Ministries?

In March of 2006, Campus Ministry United (CMU) staff members conducted a survey among Church of Christ campus ministers. They were asked to share the number of conversions that occurred as a result of their ministries in the 365 day period between 2005 and 2006. What we found was alarming. Over the course of a year, nearly half of the ministries surveyed witnessed just one conversion (many had zero) as a result of their efforts. A full 75% had three or less. I could count on one hand (even without a thumb) the ministries whose conversions numbered in the double digits.

Two or three baptisms per year may sound good to some readers (and I rejoice over these – please don’t misunderstand), but when you consider the fact that most of these ministries are situated among campus populations numbering well into the thousands with some into the tens of thousands, it is obvious there’s room for improvement. That’s not to say that these ministries are worthless! They have no doubt blessed the lives of many who have been a part of them. However, our primary concern must be to reach the lost and unchurched on our campuses if we are to make a lasting difference among the ethnos of our universities.

Effective and highly motivated evangelists are vital to this mission, which is why the organization known as Campus Ministry United was formed.

Campus Ministry United – www.CampusMinistryUnited.com

The organizational body of Campus Ministry United formed in 2005; our board is made up of missionaries, educators, evangelists, and evangelistically-minded campus ministers. CMU’s purpose includes providing ministry-enrichment materials for existing campus ministries, assisting churches sponsoring new evangelistic ministry plants, and providing training and mentoring to empower future campus ministers and ministry planters to be effective.

Each year we organize and sponsor a ministry-enrichment workshop on the campus of Harding University with a heavy emphasis on practicality and contextual relevance. The workshop usually takes place the weekend after Independence Day, and the 2008 meeting is scheduled for July 10-12. To access the content from our previous workshops (including audio recordings and lesson outlines) visit the audio/video section of our website.[13] Currently, all materials produced by CMU are available to the public for free.

Campus Ministry Degree Program on the Horizon

CMU recently partnered with Harding University’s Center for Advanced Ministry Training to develop for-credit and non-credit programs to train future campus ministers. The difference between the two or tracts is this: those enrolled in the for-credit program will be required to complete online Master’s level courses accredited through Harding University, while those in the non-credit program will not.

In addition to the availability of online courses, what sets our program apart from others is this: both tracts will include one- to two-year apprenticeships in some of the most evangelistically effective campus ministries in the country. We firmly believe that if we are to teach future campus ministers to be effective evangelists, then they must be mentored under effective evangelists.

This is the model we see in the scriptures – consider Jesus with the twelve or Paul with Timothy and Titus. How can we expect a new campus minister to be evangelistically effective if they’ve never even seen an evangelistically effective ministry in action – much less worked within one?

In Closing

CMU exists to serve and empower – not to control. If you’re a church or ministry leader interested in effective campus ministry, or a person interested in training, we would love to make our knowledge and resources available to you. Feel free to visit our website at www.CampusMinistryUnited.com or send an email to CampusMinistryUnited@Gmail.com.

[Originally published in Church Growth Magazine]

^{^[1]} Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.) (GGK1620). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[2] Founder of Campus Crusade for Christ

[3] Reagan, Wesley. “The Last Frontier,” 20^th Century Christian. Nashville, TN: Williams Printing Company, September 1967, pp. 11-12

[4] National Center for Education Statistics, “Total fall enrollment in institutions of higher education and degree-granting institutions, by attendance status, sex of student, and control of institution: 1947 to 1997,” July 1999. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d99/d99t175.asp (accessed February 2008).

[5] National Center for Education Statistics, “Digest of Education Statistics: 2006,” July 2007. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d06/ (accessed February 2008).

[6] Reagan, p. 11

[7] Institute of International Education, “U.S. Sees Slowing Decline in International Student Enrollment in 2004/2005,” November 14, 2005. http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=69736 (accessed February 2008).

[8] Reagan, p. 12

[9] According to the 2008 CMU Study (NOTE: the article in print says that there are “roughly 200″ Church of Christ campus ministries – further research done later revealed the actual number is less than 150.

[10] According to the Association of American Colleges and Universities, there are 2,618 accredited four-year colleges and universities in the United States. If you count two-year colleges, that number rises to over 4,100.

[11] Ma, Jaeson. The Blueprint: A Revolutionary Plan to Plant Missional Communities on Campus (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2007) p. 35

[12] The Barna Research Group, “Most Christians Were Young When Saved,” The Barna Update, October 11, 2004. http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=172 (accessed February 2008).

[13] http://www.campusministryunited.com/av.html

Tagged Campus Ministry, Campus Ministry Training, Campus Ministry United, Case for Campus Ministry, Church Growth Magazine, Evangelism, Great Commission, Into all the ethnos, Outreach

Dec 24 2008

4 Comments

Missional Living, Outreach, Personal Growth, Teaching, Theology

That sinking feeling

Have you ever had that sinking feeling?

I have, and I’ll be you have too if you’re old enough to be reading this.

I remember when, as a six year old, I decided to shoot my neighbor’s storm window with my new B.B. gun. I didn’t think I’d get caught, but I did, and when I knew what was coming next (i.e. a bottom dusting from my mom) I experienced that sinking feeling.

I remember when I was ten my neighborhood buddies and I decided to leave freshly fallen pine cones in the bird bath all day long (so they’d get nice and waterlogged). When the evening came, we took our arsenal and hid in the bushes near the road and pegged the first couple of cars that drove by. When a hot-headed driver screeched to a halt, got out of his dented car, and began yelling obscenities at us, our carefully planned escape routes were forgotten. Our gang of mischief makers were supposed to have run through the woods AWAY from all of our houses, but instead everyone ran straight to my back yard in full view of the angry man. It wasn’t long until he was pulling into my driveway and knocking on the door to my house. That sinking feeling again … I knew what was coming!

I remember when I was a twelve year old 8th grader at CAC (where I was later on the state champ baseball team with this guy), my 2nd period English teacher (Miss Moss) had me leave class to pick something up for her from the main office. On my way back I passed a classroom chocked full of students facing the doorway so they could see out. Coach Jeff Daniels was lecturing on American History with his back turned toward the hallway, and as I passed by every eye in the classroom was on me. Seeing a couple of my football buddies on the front row, I decided to do the reasonable thing – grin widely and flip them off. Little did I know that my football’s coach’s wife had come around the corner at the other end of the hallway with a clear view of the birdy I was waving. When she approached me and grabbed my arm to lead me back to the office – you guessed it – that sinking feeling fell upon me. I knew what was coming!

QUICK SIDENOTE: Believe it or not, Russell Quattlebaum - CAC’s dean of students in 1992 - could really swing a paddle hard! I remember watching his feet while bent over grabbing my ankles. He actually pivoted and put his weight into his swings (just like I did when I swung my baseball bat) and absolutely tattooed my behind. I cried so hard my nose bled (abuse)!

But those are just kid stories, and kind of funny now.

I could tell you plenty of other true stories of times in my life where facing the consequences of my own stupid actions have caused me to experience that sinking feeling in such a way that those silly stories I just shared are just that – silly stories.

I’ve been to jail more than once. I’ve battled a fierce addiction to illegal substances. I’ve battled depression, and I’ve destroyed relationships. I’ve watched people’s lives literally fall apart before my eyes due to the destructive habits I’d helped them nurture, and have wept while experiencing their pain by proxy.

Regardless of a person’s background, if you’ve lived on this planet in human form you’ve likely done something really stupid – really horrible - and had to face the consequences of it as a result. I don’t know what’s worse – actually experiencing the consequences, or that sinking feeling you get the first moment you find out you’re going to have to face them.

This train of thought began for me after reading Acts 2 with fresh eyes last night. For quite some time now, I’ve been meditating on the idea of Christ-centered community. Acts 2:42-47 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture because it paints a picture of what a truly Christ-centered community looks like.

Check it out:

Acts 2:42-47
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
(NIV)

Wow. How different of a picture does that passage paint than what most people experience with “church” today?

I love this – I want to be part of this – I want to help this come into being. The “this” I speak of is what this passage describes – a community of believers devoted to all the right things – to God, to one another, and to seeing the world changed for the better.

I want to be part of a church where I can take my shoes off – where Pharisees are few and fellowship is frequent – where being devoted is a delight and consumer-Christianity is minimal if present at all – where sacrifices are made, needs are met, and praise for the Savior has a permanent home on the lips of the people. I want to be part of a true, Christ-centered community.

I’ve experienced this type of community before and am sure I will again, but I’ve also been part of faith communities where certain aspects from the latter part of Acts 2 were noticeably missing (and no, I don’t plan on naming names :p).

As I pondered this last night during my Bible study, a profound truth from Acts 2 struck me. The events leading up to the formation of the community were very special – very special indeed.

In verse 17 Peter begins preaching the first recorded sermon following the ascension of Christ into heaven to the crowd in Jerusalem. While there are people in the crowd from all over the world, the majority of those listening were Jews (hence Peter says “fellow Jews” in v.14 then makes a reference to the Pentecost fast that wasn’t quite over in v.15).

As I read last night, I tried to put myself in the place of the Jews as they listened to Peter. Each time I think about the crowd Peter is addressing, in my mind’s eye I go back to the scenes from the movie The Passion of the Christ surrounding the trial before Pilate, subsequent beatings of Jesus, and demands for His crucifixion.

That crowd, led by the Pharisees, demanded Jesus’ life be snuffed out in the most horrific way possible, and that same crowd – many, the same ones who demanded Jesus be crucified – were the ones Peter addresses in Acts 2.

Put yourself in their shoes for a moment and listen to what Peter has to say:

Acts 2:22-36
22 ”Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

“Jesus was God’s man. In your heart you know this because what mere man could heal the blind? Who else has helped a lame man up to his feet and urged him to take a stroll down the road? Who else has raised the dead?!? You know in your heart Jesus was God’s man.” This was the beginning of that sinking feeling for the Jews in the crowd.

23 This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

“The Lord of all creation gave this man – His man – to you, but instead of welcoming Him with open arms you beat Him, spit on Him, ridiculed Him, and tortured Him until he died! But guess what – He’s alive again!” That sinking feeling is getting more intense.

25 David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope,
27 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’
29 ”Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.
30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.
31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.
32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.

Quoting David – the most revered king in Jewish history who brought Israel into its golden age – would have had special significance to the listening Jews. God had promised King David that He would establish his throne forever by placing someone on it whose rule would be everlasting. Scriptures like 2 Samuel 7:13 and 7:16, Psalms 89:36, and Isaiah 9:6, 7 were well known to the Jews. They’d been expectantly waiting for this new king descended from David to come for over 1,000 years – this warrior king who would rescue them from their oppressors and bless the world with His presence. To make the connection here – that Jesus was this Davidic king promised long ago – would have completely changed their perspective on the crime committed. Before, they’d simply killed a man unjustly, but now they’re finding out they’d killed the very one they’d been praying God would send them – the promised Messiah! The One who would save the Jews – the one one whom their future rested – there was just one major problem … they’d killed Him! Is the entire future of their nation now in jeopardy because they’d severed their lifeline?!? At this point, they were experiencing that sinking feeling quite unlike any other …

33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand
35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ‘
36 ”Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
(NIV)

… they weren’t just fearing for their lives – they were fearing for the very future of the Jewish nation. They were fearing for their children’s lives and their children’s children.

37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

They were “cut to the heart.” Reading over this quickly it’s easy to miss what this statement means. There is no fear quite like the fear of God’s impending wrath, and the Jews in Acts 2 were experiencing it as intensely as a group of people ever had up to that point in history. Their lives were over! They felt that sinking feeling like none had ever experienced that sinking feeling, and the question they asked (“What shall we do?”) was not asked casually – it was a question born out of desperation and hopelessness!

A better way to read it would be, “What shall we do!?!”

My intuition tells me that they were expecting to hear something like “wild dogs will invade the city, eat your children before your eyes, then eat you” (or something equally as vicious) and they were notexpecting to hear what Peter said next, so can you imagine their surprise at Peter’s response found in the following verses:

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off– for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Then in verse 41:

41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Are you still thinking the way the Jews in this situation would think? For those 3,000, can you imaginethe feeling of gratitude they were feeling at this point? The intensity of their gratitude would have equally matched the intensity of that sinking feeling they’d woefully experienced just before, and this beautiful picture of Christ-centered community was born out of this magical feeling.

That’s what I’d missed before. That’s the profound truth that struck me last night. Genuine, Christ-centered community has its roots in gratitude to God!

When a person understands how lost they were, how hopeless they’d become, and what a gift they’ve been given in Jesus joy follows! It overflows and manifests itself in devotion, in praise, in miracles, and in fellowship.

For those communities I’ve been a part of where it felt the least like what’s described in Acts 2, gratitude toward God for salvation was missing. Most of the people making up the community had grown up in the church. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – only that I believe they’d might have taken for granted what God had done for them.

In the communities I’ve been a part of that felt the most like what’s described at the end of Acts 2, gratitude for God was ever present because most of the people making up the group were newly saved (relatively speaking) and we were constantly seeing more saved. We weren’t just hearing stories about God changing people’s lives, we were witnessing them first hand!

That sinking feeling our hopeless lives helped produce had been transformed into intense gratitude that was ever present on our hearts and minds and frequent in our conversation. That’s what it looks like when you’re part of a ministry that is making contact with a lost world – when you’re impacting the lives of people who so desperately need a Savior – when Jesus makes that sinking feeling go away by forgiving your sins and promising you the brightest future imaginable!

The gratitude born out of the transition between being purposeless, hopeless, and lost to being purposeful, hopeful, and gloriously found – that’s the root of Acts 2 community.

Without it, you’re just a social club.

Merry CHRISTmas.

Tagged Acts 2 Community, Acts 2:42-47, Communitas, That sinking feeling

Dec 23 2008