GYC 2014: At The Cross

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Making Your Campus Ministry Thrive

David Shin

1. Power to Change the World

This message was presented at the GYC 2014 conference at the Cross in Phoenix, Arizona.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity that we have to learn more about campus ministries and how to effectively minister to those on the secular university campuses.

We pray that you would speak through me, hide me behind the cross, and may Jesus be uplifted and seen.

All right, how many of you are, this is just feedback here.

How many of you are associated with a campus ministry or near a university?

How many of you are not associated with a university?

Okay, well this is a very niche seminar talking about the campus ministry potential and also some practice that we're going to be covering as well.

And Just to tell you a little bit about myself, I am the senior pastor of the University Church in East Lansing, Michigan.

And we're located about 2 blocks from Michigan State University, which has 45, 000 students.

And I've been there for 7 years and our program is by no means perfect, but we've seen souls won to the kingdom as a result.

And I'm going to be sharing some of the stories and experiences that we've been having.

So this First 1 I'm going to be doing like a broad sketch and we're going to talk a little bit about some of the experiences and then share a little bit about the philosophy of campus ministries and then in our second session we'll go into more of the practice and then third session will be practice as well.

So philosophy, practice, practice, That's the way we're going to go.

Pastor Israel Ramos is supposed to team teach this with me.

He was supposed to take the second set of 3.

Keep him in your prayers because his brother passed away, his older brother.

So stick with me if you can through the first 3 and then after that there's a lot of other good seminars to go to.

So that will give you a little bit of the outline of what we're doing.

So first 3 seminars I'll be doing, Pastor Israel's not here because of the death of his brother.

So, and the first seminar is going to be more philosophy and the general sketch and the second and third is going to be more of the practice as well.

This is a quotation I was actually sharing with a gentleman during lunch.

He is the former UN Secretary General and he says, change the university and you change the world.

Change the university and you change the world.

This is an evident reality that when you reach people at a university, these are some of the brightest minds, and the potential that you have of impacting whatever society they are a part of is quantified.

When would you rather have someone become a Seventh-day Adventist?

You think about all of the compound time that they would have lost.

Now don't get me wrong, I would love to baptize anyone at any age, but when I baptize someone at 50, I recognize that they come with a lot of baggage.

They have all those neuro pathways and those lifestyle habits.

Maybe they're divorced, maybe they have multiple marriages, maybe they have stepchildren and they have a lifelong, just a lifelong lifestyle that they have to fight against.

But if you get someone at 20 and you baptize them, then you have their whole life, just not counting just the tithe, but their own personal resources that they can put into God's kingdom.

All right, change the university and you change the world.

And when you look at every major revolution, you will see that it has always been associated with a university.

You look at the counter-reformation and the Jesuits, what they did to counteract the Reformation, what did they do?

1 Jesuit priest said that if you give me a child until he's 7, anyone can have him afterwards.

And what the Jesuit order did was that they went out and infiltrated into the schools of Europe, into the Protestant schools, and started to educate.

And in several generations, you can see that the counter-reformation has been successful.

He's the first Jesuit of the Jesuit order, that is the pope.

And I'm not the person that says there's a Jesuit under every bush or things like that.

But that was the philosophy and the Jesuit order was put in there to bring the Protestant churches back to the mother church.

The mechanism through how they did this was through the university.

The Counter-Reformation has been very successful.

We live in a time that is unprecedented when the churches of America are going back to Rome.

You look at the postmodern revolution, postmodernism, which we're experiencing today.

Many people don't know that in 1927, a professor, Dr.

Martin Heidegger, he was a teacher at a university, wrote a book called Time and Being and he started the postmodern revolution.

Immanuel Kant was a professor and philosopher.

You look at every major revolution, Look at what Jesus did.

He trained 12 men, turned the world upside down in 1 generation.

Education and revolution are linked together, and we have a tremendous potential as Seventh-day Adventists that are associated with a university or close to a university to make a significant impact in our world.

So change the university and you change the world.

The impact that we can make on these university campuses is something that we cannot overlook.

And I'll be telling some experiences that we've had in regards to this.

We've touched just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impact of campus ministries.

All right, let me tell you, we talk about prayer, but this is how I wanna begin, and then we'll go into some of the practice.

But about 5 years ago, at the church that I'm pastoring in, We started, we were at prayer meeting, and 1 of my members challenged me and said, Pastor, we need to pray more.

Cuz today's Adventist prayer meeting is anything but praying.

You pray a little bit in the beginning and then you have a Bible study.

It's really a Bible study and there's nothing wrong with that.

But they said, we need to have sacrificial prayer.

So I said, okay, well, let's see what we can do.

And I said, well, I'll tell you what, this Sunday morning, I'll be at the church for sacrificial prayer at 4 a.m.

And their eyes got wide and they were like, oh my, and I said look I'll be here every Sunday at 4 a.m.

Now you recognize if you get up at You know, I have to get up at 3 a.m.

And sometimes on Saturday night because of visits or whatever, church activities, I wouldn't go to bed at 11.

2. Mastering the Method

This message was presented at the GYC 2014 conference at La Crosse in Phoenix, Arizona.

All right, let's get started with our second session.

And a little bit of review from just a few minutes of our last session.

We started with a question, do you have to be a Seventh-day Adventist to be saved?

And we said that, no, you don't have to be a Seventh-day Adventist to be saved.

And then we asked ourselves, then why be a Seventh-day Adventist at all?

And this is the undergirding of why we do evangelism.

But if you don't have an understanding of why someone should be an Adventist, if you can be saved just as much being a Baptist as being a Seventh-day Adventist, then why go through the trouble of giving them Bible studies if they're going to be saved anyway?

That was the reasoning that we had followed up to this point.

And we said that if you don't have to be a Seventh-day Adventist to be saved, then why be a Seventh-day Adventist at all?

It seems like we're going through a lot of trouble for nothing.

And then we went through some reasons of why we do what we do, why we do evangelism.

And 1 of them had to do with nature of truth.

Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and a relationship is built upon truth.

We also said that truth is necessary for growth.

Truth is like the fertilizer that helps us to grow as a Christian, and it's directly proportional.

The more you accept truth, the more you grow as a Christian.

Now the last reason is probably the most compelling reason to me of why I have this burning desire to share the faith, and it has to do with the nature of truth in the end times.

And it's found in Matthew chapter 24 verse 4.

And you remember Matthew 24 is the great, what theologians call the eschatological chapter.

It's kind of like the Book of Daniel in the Gospels.

And Jesus is talking about end time events.

Remember, Jesus went into the temple, and then he walked out and he said, there's not going to be 1 stone that's going to be left upon another.

He's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and naturally disciples thought the destruction of Jerusalem would be the end of the world.

So they said, what should be the sign of that coming?

When shall these things be in the end of the world?

And Jesus answered both questions in the same chapter.

And notice the first things that come out, the first thing that comes out of the mouth of Jesus.

He didn't say, oh, look out for the time of trouble, the moon's going to turn to blood and stars are going to fall.

But the first thing that comes out of the mouth of Jesus.

Is he talking to Christians or non-Christians?

Okay, I guess you could say they were Christians.

But he's concerned about his church, okay?

The first thing that comes out of his mouth, his main concern, he says, watch out that no 1, what?

So, Christ's primary concern for his church, and later on he says the deception is going to be so great that if possible, it's going to deceive the whom?

Now, why is Christ so concerned about deception in the end of time?

Now, let me give you an example or just an illustration of the nature of deception, or the price of deception.

If you believe a lie, let's say in the 1500s, the price of that lie is not very high, But evidently, the price of the lie in the end of times is going to be a lot more.

Look in Revelation chapter 13, verse 14 and 16.

This is end time deception, and he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which were given to him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.

And he causes all, small and great, the rich and poor, free men and slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead.

All right, this is talking about the lamb-like beast in Revelation chapter 13.

Remember in Revelation chapter 13, there's 2 beasts, the sea beast and the land beast.

1 is the papacy, the Roman power, the papacy.

And the second beast is the United States of America.

And these 2 are going to be the sole superpowers in the end of time.

And they're going to enforce something called the mark of the beast.

By the way, we're living in an unprecedented time right now where you're seeing prophecy being fulfilled right before your very eyes.

I remember when I was in the seminary, there was 1 article that was put out in the 1970s by 1 of our more progressive Adventist magazines in the 70s, and they were saying, oh, you know, Ellen White's perspective that America's going to be the sole superpower is just, just so impossible because the USSR was at its prime and the Cold War.

And you read it, I mean, you look at it right now, it's prophecy.

That 5 foot 3 woman, Ellen White, was right.

Right now you're seeing America's only superpower, and the moral power in the world is the Roman Catholic Church.

Revelation 13 says these 2 are going to join together and they're going to enforce and they're going to deceive, okay, and this is what Christ was concerned about.

He's going to deceive the world to receive the mark of the beast, okay?

Now, what is the price for receiving the mark of the beast?

Revelation chapter 14, third angel's message.

If any man worship the beast or receive his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.

So, this is the price of deception in the end of time, you will lose your salvation.

Now, the nature of salvation is very simple.

Once you accept Jesus as your Savior, your name is written in Lamb's Book of Life, but in the end of time, the price of deception is going to be extremely high, which means if you're deceived into receiving the mark of the beast, you're going to be what?

So there's going to be a polarization in the end of time between those that have the mark of the beast and the seal of God, and that polarization is going to be forced by the devil.

This is it, Revelation chapter 4, 18 verse 4.

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people so that you do not share in her sins, so that you do not receive of her plagues.

And this to me is a very compelling reason to be a Seventh-day Adventist today, because we're part of that final movement that calls people out of Babylon into his remnant church with the recognition that in the end of time, the price of deception is going to be extremely high.

The prophetic context in which we're living makes being an Adventist a compelling, a compelling, compelling argument.

All right, just another little tangent here before moving on to some of the practice of campus evangelism.

Some people will say, I apologize for this next slide because it's a little bit jumbled there.

On campus ministry or associated with campus ministry, some people say don't be too extreme, be balanced.

Now I hear this a lot, not only in association with campus ministries, but in association with Adventism in general.

We have moderate, liberal, conservative, right wing, left wing, extreme, centrist, fanatic, and then everyone wants to be this, right?

Have you ever heard someone that didn't think they were balanced?

Alright, right wing, extreme, or leftist, okay, socialist, Marxist, you know, whatever you may call them.

3. Capturing the Decisive Moment

Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to be at this conference, And I pray for all of us that are here.

Pray for your spirit to bless us in this session as we seek to know how to win souls for Christ.

We pray that you would just enlighten our hearts and minds in Jesus' name.

Before we get to the heart of today's presentation, it's a very specific seminar on campus ministry.

And even if you aren't specifically involved with campus ministry, welcome.

I think earlier I had people raise their hands and there were only a few.

And we started our first session by saying, quoting from Dr.

He is the former Secretary General of the UN General Assembly, and he said, change the university and you change the world.

So there's a lot of potential at these universities.

And before we get into the heart of today's presentation, I wanted to give a couple of resources.

I mentioned this in passing in our first presentation.

And if you go to fast.st, www.fast.st, there's some great resources there.

And a gentleman by the name of Dan Viss has really, how should I say, refined the concept of small groups and implemented it.

I'm like going through these slides like something's on there.

So here's a couple resources that you can use.

If you go to www.fast.st, there's some great resources there.

And if you want to run a small group on a university campus, this is like the resource to use.

And there's another website, rightlytrained.org, that is a great website for how to do campus ministry.

And a gentleman by the name of Johnny Wong actually is doing some incredible stuff down in Australia with small groups and campus ministries and he's got some great resources there as well.

We said this is the philosophy that we want to follow in campus ministry.

Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people.

The Savior mingled with men as 1 who desired their good.

He showed his sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, won their confidence, then he bade them follow me." And we shared a few stories of where this principle worked.

This is, we told you about the story of Christian Bull.

3 years ago we knocked on his door in the southern side of Lansing and he took Bible studies and We baptized his mom, his brother, his aunt.

We're working with his dad right now, and he just graduated from Southern Adventist University, and he's going to be a pastor.

So that just shows you the potential that we have with Campus Ministries.

We told you about Anthony, Anthony Burrell.

He's the gentleman to your right, second from the right, the guy with the red shirt there.

He's son of a Baptist pastor in the jazz program, had a $40, 000 annual scholarship, and started taking Bible studies.

1 of our students gave him a study on Daniel 2, and then continued further studies.

He walked away from his $40, 000 scholarship, and now he's a Southern studying to be a pastor as well.

So you see the impact that you can make through campus ministries.

The challenge with campus ministries is that you invest in these people and then they leave, which is wonderful.

But at the same time, campus ministry, as I say, is always 3 years away from dying, because if you're not duplicating yourself, it will fade because these people are graduating and moving on all the time.

We talked about Lu Yang, and she was at a bus stop last year, not 2000, no, it's 2013, August.

And she Came to this country as an exchange student from China.

She, someone had given her a catechism and she was at a bus stop and 1 of our students approached her and saw the catechism and she started taking Bible studies and she was baptized in February of last year.

So she went from the bus stop to baptism in 7 months and came to this country as an atheist, left an Adventist.

We talked about Michelle Odima and how she witnessed to Renee, her roommate.

Taryn was baptized, and now she's a Bible worker in our church right now.

And then Taryn gave Bible studies to Elva, and we just baptized Elva in February of this year.

And we met Alva at a booth at the Michigan State Union there.

And right now, Alva is giving Bible studies to other people.

So this is just the cycle of evangelism that's taking place at the university church.

And we talked about this principle that evangelism is like a funnel.

And we said that at the top of the funnel is some of your entry activities like cooking schools or socials or even small groups.

In order to become an Adventist, you need to go through the bottom of this funnel.

And the thing that needs to happen, everyone needs to eventually go through Bible studies.

That's the only way to become an Adventist.

It's either Bible studies or an evangelistic series, which is a public Bible study.

So that's where it really needs to go through, and your events, which are important at the top, need to eventually lead to Bible studies.

If Lou had never taken Bible studies, she wouldn't be in Adventist today.

So Socials are effective in getting them connected to our church members, but at some point, they need to get Bible studies.

There were a lot of socials taking place at our church.

Lou actually, we said that, I mean, she hung out at our church all week.

Series

Making Your Campus Ministry Thrive

1. Power to Change the World

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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