“Let’s Go!”

Have you ever watched a college basketball game where a player hits a big 3 pointer, dunks the ball over the defender’s face, or just does something to shift the whole momentum of the game? You hear the previously mellow crowd roar and can feel the adrenaline rushing through the TV to your living room, and then they zoom in on the player’s lips as he’s beating his breast or bumping chests with the guys on the bench. You watch his lips, and what is he saying, “Let’s GOooooo~!” 

Maybe this is just the basketball player in me, but that’s the perfect analogy for how i feel right now about ministry. Last night at college group, instead of the normal teaching and breakout into discussion, we brought up all the students and interns who were leading groups and ministries out of the college group. It was an awesome time for students as well as future staff like me, to see the whole picture of all the different things God is doing through normal people. I think the greatest thing though was having each person, myself included, briefly share their heart and focus of ministry. It made all the talk about reaching the campus a reality. I think that it was good for students to see people actually doing something, hear about the principle and biblical foundation driving them to do it, and see that there are thousands of other affinities on campus that need missionaries and people just living out the gospel.

For me that means Asian American students and International Asian students. I was able to share my heart for that and how this ministry is a natural extension of who i am and what i love to do. And in the next sentence, i was able to say without a second thought, “This is me and what God’s called me to. It’s different for everybody, but you can do the same thing.” That is, more or less, what our college ministry is about. When we talk about starting movements, we’re talking about building relationships with people in places where we are inclined already to go, and taking the life and message of Jesus into that subculture–whether it’s a Wednesday International Student Lunch i go to, led by the secular SAO club, the Greek system Stuart is a part of and trying to start brushfires in, or the streets full of homeless people where Kyle is going to be leading mercy ministry.

It’s having those movements, but then being able to replicate into more movements of similar and totally dissimilar nature. One of the ways we do that is by doing what we did wednesday night, having people simply share who they are and what places God’s called them to be missionaries in, AND then making it clear that EVERYONE can and should do this, and it’s one of the most exciting things to be doing with Jesus and the gospel! We do that up front on a wednesday night and a student sitting in the room listening starts seeing practical examples of what it means to be a missional college student, and then he or she starts thinking, “Hey, i could do that kind of thing with _____________” And then they have a network of staff and students who they can talk to, lean in to for training, ideas, and support, and then go back out to their friends and the culture they love, doing life with people and sharing Jesus with them. 

That’s a wednesday night, casting the vision broadly. But that’s a bigger group and you can’t hash out a lot of the questions and concerns a typical student has when they think about filling in the spaces of what it would mean for them to go out and follow the missional model their peers are living out. So we do other things like TFC (Theological Fight Club) on tuesday nights, from 9-11pm. You get about 10-12 guys who have leadership potential and love Jesus, and sit around a table for two hours talking through systematic theology, life, and starting movements on campus. And they in turn are able to get up front on a wednesday night and share their heart and vision, and how they are practically doing that, so that another student sitting out in the crowd can catch a vision from the Lord and go out to do the same. When this happens, a DISCIPLE CYCLE has occurred. And when this is done successfully, more and more people are reached with the hope, joy, and life of Jesus.

The only problem at this point, is that Matt is the only staff. We have all this stuff about to explode potentially, but not enough staff to meet the needs of the students, our people. Our budget is running in huge deficit–i wasn’t sure about this until i saw the budget report and the reality of the numbers a few days ago. The church is growing leaps and bounds and tithing has more or less stayed the same. College ministry does not rank among the highest budget needs in a church, at least in my estimation. As a result, we are, as Matt told me the other day, “Reaching a people who can’t afford to be reached.” If only someone would meet with them and work through all the junk in their life and their struggles, and help them grow in understanding what it means to be a Christian and live a life loving Jesus, and plan and provide community and training for them, then they would go out the 6 days of the week they aren’t in church as effective missionaries to a whole city of young people who desperately need Jesus–they just don’t know it yet.

That is why i’m doing what i’m doing–raising support. Because i get up front on a wednesday night, but more importantly, sit in the crowd and listen to my friends–and i am in high school again jumping around screaming out, “let’s go!”–except this time, a win is a person being saved by Jesus and falling in love with Him forever. It’s not good enough for someone to tell me that our church has a lot of people who are just terrible tithers. i know we are, and it’s wrong, and i’m praying hard for the Holy Spirit to sanctify us of this sin–fast. But in the meantime, that’s not a good enough excuse. God’s doing crazy stuff in our college ministry despite our inabilities and lack of just about everything, and i want it to keep going and to be a part of building up our body of college students. We are literally in the Corinthian church, not just in terms of immoral lifestyle and pagan culture, but also in the sense of giving (see 2 Corinthians 8-9), and i am going out as a laborer looking for people who are like the Macedonian church, who gave on top of what they were already faithfully giving so that Paul could reach the Corinthian church free of charge.

I love support raising because it allows us as the Church of Christ to say, for the sake of the gospel and the joy and glory of Christ, “That’s not good enough. We’re going to keep pushing the Kingdom forward, even if a church is dropping the ball on faithfully giving…” Or, as i think is more the case for us, they are just not used to the idea of money belonging to God because they have literally never been in a church before, and it’s going to take them a little longer to understand this and let go of their earthly possessions and treasures. But in the meantime, our heart, my heart, is to keep reaching more and more people with the gospel, riding the immense tidal wave of God’s work through the Holy Spirit–because at the beginning and end of the day, and every moment in between, there is no growth or bearing of fruit unless God makes it grow (1 Corinthians 3:7)

And then…tonight i randomly ran into Paul, who is from Australia and has been working for free over the last three months as an intern at Mars Hill, trying to learn anything and everything about church planting. Turns out that God is starting to put the idea of staying in Seattle and coming on staff in the college ministry into Paul’s heart. Yeah Paul has to pray about it and there’s every rational reason for him not to even consider staying, but i know that he would be a HUGE HUGE benefit to building up the college ministry and selfishly i want with all my heart for God to open up a way for him to stay. The problem though, is that Paul has literally no more than a handful of people here as his network, non-Christian parents back home in Australia, and the juggernaut of trying to go back home to Australia to cast vision for those people to support him to go live in the most churched country in the world where it’ll cost about twice as much to live. And yet, if you just listen to him for five minutes, you want to jump on with him and be a part of his vision for making the ministry a place where we do heartfelt community and fellowship around Jesus and the Bible. But dreams and passions and callings cost money. And so he too is in need of some Macedonian Christians who will step up beyond the call of duty to fund this mission to a people who can’t afford to be reached. Why? Because they love Jesus and the good news of the gospel, and they want to invest their money in things that will last, namely the eternal salvation of real souls, real people, real students. 

So that is, more or less, where we’re at. I’m excited out of my mind and so glad Jesus opened up this door for me to be a part of what is in many ways a church plant, and undoubtably, the birthing stage of what could in a few years be a huge movement infiltrating the University of Washington, and then spreading out from there to other college campuses.

I’m nervous and scared because i think about the huge amount of money i need to go out and raise, and i honestly don’t have any idea how it’s going to come, except that it’s coming from God. But i’m growing more and more confident in the Sovereignty of God, who Proverbs 21:1 says can turn anybody’s heart to support me and others in our calling to make disciples. I also know though that God will provide through my hard work and diligent obedience to meeting with people, sharing the need and vision of my ministry, and asking them to join in what we are doing through prayer and financially supporting me. God has been gracious enough to give me the encouragement and challenge of great men of faith like George Mueller, who was famous for the enormous money he prayed in and the immeasurable works he did with those funds. He was famous for this line, which has become the foundation of my work ethic and ultimate trust in God alone: “Work with all your might; but trust not in the least in your work.”

I pray that God allow you to be a part of His amazing work like He’s so mercifully allowed me. Truly, i cannot think of a greater thing or place or mission i would rather be a part of. 

By Grace Alone,

Steve