The Full Story
Sometimes it takes a challenge for us to see what is broken. Back in 1961 when the
Green Bay Packers were having struggles and seemed to be hitting a brick wall,
Lombardi took them out to the field and brought them back to fundamental basic
principles, as he famously stated, "Gentlemen, this is a football." For the church, we too
hit a wall when we were faced with a pandemic that shut down many churches and
halted the way we served and reached others with the love of Christ. We had to resort
to social distancing, zoom calls, and social isolation for long periods of time having
major stress and impact on our mental health and relationship with God. Through all of
this however, people more then ever seemed to have a greater hunger and thirst to
know who God was personally for themselves; especially college students. This gave an
opportunity and a challenge at the same time for the church to rise to the challenge and
adapt to the need. Here on the public campus it forced us to reevaluate how we
encountered people and spoke with them. Before Covid we had 3 thriving campus
ministries at UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, and UW-Stevens Point. When Covid came it
shut us all down and left one ministry small, but surviving, at the UW-Stevens Point
campus.
At the Stevens Point campus we were forced to rethink everything we did and caused us
to rediscover the basics of how Jesus impacted people. We started focusing on
Discipleship, individually meeting with students and journeying with them as they
learned the basics, a few of those being how to read the Bible, how to find the books of
the Bible, how to pray, how to navigate friendships and find good community, and how
to share their testimony. In a time of uncertainty this gave students stability as we met
with them. We started to see growth on our campus at a time when many church’s were
shut down. For the first time during Covid, a student was baptized and stable small
group community began to be established. We started to realize that the way we were
seeing growth on campus is an excellent model on how our church can engage the
secular world. Here was some of our findings:
1. Pray and find one person who wants to get to know Jesus for themselves. Then take
them with you as you live life and show them what following Jesus looks like. As
they learn from you, encourage them to look for someone they can start walking
alongside.
2. Be present with people and be a friend as the goal of the relationship. They are not
an object or part of your agenda.
3. As a church, the more involved we are in our community and go to them, the more
they will be curious about us. We went to the students, playing volleyball with them,
eating with them, and being there when they went through hard times. They were
hungry for that type of community and they saw how it brought peace and hope to
their life.
4. Be faithful with what you have. Zechariah 4:10 says that we should not depise the
day of small things. This means investing in one person, then focus on building a few
small groups, etc. Things will build naturally as you are faithful
5. Lift up Jesus first and foremost. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw
all people to myself.” John 12:32 ESV. We first introduce students to Jesus and how
to follow Him on a daily basis, preparing their character’s for His soon return. It is
only in the second semester that we go into deeper topics. This is crucial because as
Peter says, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow
thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” I Peter 2:2-3 NKJV. If
they don’t know Jesus, the Sabbath, State of the Dead, etc. will mean nothing to
them and they won’t understand the significance of it.
6. Always be willing to learn and adapt. Listen to the Holy Spirit and the still small
voice.
7. Support and raise up sustainable leaders to shepherd and disciple students to
influence the campus. Dr. Ron Pickell a Christian pastor has done research in this
area as well, showing that it is imperative that staff are raised up and supported to
raise up “church plants” as it were on campus. Being a critical mission field, this
requires a full time job for full time impact! We have been able to provide this
through a generous grant foundation that is set up to financially back public campus
ministry.
8. Have campus houses that provide an atmosphere of what living like Jesus looks like,
a training base for staff and students, and a place to house staff. We have had a
campus house at the UW-Stevens Point campus for 9 years that has been doing just
that. Recently, Dr. Ron Pickell again has come to the same conclusions in his
research advocating Christians to “Create campus houses that model daily life in
Christ”. Just this spring, our local Stevens Point church had a creation vs. Evolution
conversation at our Campus House! We’ve also had Saturday bible studies,
leadership training, and food night for students.
We wanted to expand what we found at Stevens Point, but how? I prayed earnestly for
how this project would be launched, and after much prayer and God’s guiding, many
new campus ministries have been raised up! We now have chapters and presence at,
UW-LaCrosse, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Oshkosh, and UW-Stevens Point. In
addition, we have staff that have been discipled for each of the campuses that have
caused new chapters to open on campus and have a strong sustainable foundation. It
has created an environment for the students on campus to know Jesus and be directly
connected and involved with the local church.
There are so many stories that I could touch on of young people whose lives have been
changed. One of them that shows that God can change and do anything is what He has
been doing on the football team by taking a student from drugs, to spearheading a
football small group and becoming part of student government on campus. Impact has
reached further to other campuses from multiple small groups and leaders being raised
up in Milwaukee involving multiple Christian students, to students coming to Bible study
weekly at Madison with students coming to church, to personal impact of students at La
Crosse and growing small group community, to faithfulness on the Oshkosh campus, it’s
been humbling to be a part of.
College students are just looking for someone to walk alongside them, listen, and be
there for them. Someone to provide them the space to ask questions, grow, and learn
about God as they navigate adulting. Eventually many of these youth are selected by
society to be leaders in various industries such as business, nursing, finance,
government, etc who will have a lasting impact on the world and invest in God’s
kingdom. Our church’s mission is to take the everlasting Gospel to the entire world.
Public Campus Ministry is a necessity if we are going to see that happen.
Covid shut down churches, hurt many lives, caused social isolation, and took much
hope out of young people’s future. While it may have shut down the building, it didn’t
shut down the people. It taught us a more practical and personal way of doing ministry
that is turning the tide on this generation from darkness to light.
If you would like to partner with us on this mission your help would be greatly appreciated.