The needs of a hurting world — and transformational missions opportunities to meet those needs — were set before 2,000-plus students during Collegiate Week at LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center near Santa Fe, N.M.
The gathering for collegians and adult leaders from across the country was sponsored by the Threads young adult area of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
People who are sold out to Jesus have amazing opportunities to see Him at work, said Michael Kelley, one of the week’s featured speakers.
“Christianity is not a crutch for the weak,” said Kelley, Bible study editor at LifeWay and a Threads author. “That gives us too much credit. Christianity is a stretcher for the dead! We didn’t just need a little help. We are a bunch of reborn corpses.
“You can’t script out what happened to us when Christ came into our lives,” Kelley continued. “We’ve been born again into a family that will never revoke our membership.”
Kelley said his heart’s goal is to be “left breathless with praise welling up and erupting in the light of what God is doing in us.”
Another featured speaker, Matt Chandler, lead pastor at The Village Church in Highland Village, Texas, spoke about dealing with sin before it completely takes hold.
“You have issues. Sin issues. They are in your life,” Chandler told the college crowd. “You know it. You admit it. You confess it. You swear you’ll never do it again. But then you go right out and do it again.”
Speaking directly to young men in the audience, Chandler said: “Men, it’s a terrifying reality that your sin will affect your wife and your children. Deal with it now so you won’t have to deal with it 10 years from now. God will expose your sin. He does that. It’s better if you confess and repent yourself.
“You overcome sin when you realize that Christ is lovelier than that sin,” Chandler said. “When you see Him as more beautiful and more attractive than your sin, you will cast aside the sin. You want to get out of sin? Grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ.”
BREAKOUTS
Students and leaders chose from more than 150 breakout sessions on topics ranging from C.S. Lewis, evangelism and marriage to social networking, an in-depth dive into Genesis, money management, long-term missions and BAM (Be a Man).
Linda Osborne, director of LifeWay’s Threads area, facilitated a session for leaders on helping students transition to young professionals.
“We have learned that this is a time of crisis for many students,” Osborne said. “Psychologists say that how a young person handles the first major crisis sets the stage for how they handle the rest.”
For this reason, some sort of transitional ministry is needed, Osborne said. Understanding that college juniors and seniors have more demands on their time academically, collegiate ministry leaders will have to accept that these students will be involved in college ministry differently than they were as freshmen and sophomores.
“Help them connect strongly to a local church,” Osborne said. “Remind them it is OK to be assertive in their church and find a place of ministry that will work with the time they have.”
Osborne said a young professional tends to look for four things in a church:
— Community: Young professionals want church to be authentic and real. They aren’t looking for fluff. Their time is too valuable for that.
— Connection: Young professionals want to be mentored by someone honest and practical. They want to connect with people of all ages, not just other young adults.
— Depth: Young professionals aren’t afraid of doing and learning hard things. Again, no fluff.
— Responsibility: Young professionals want their church to be proactive and meet needs they see. They want ministry to be local as well as national and international.
MENTORING
Leaders must invest their lives into young adults, said Chuck Lawless, author of “Mentoring,” a new book from Threads, and vice president for global theological advance at the International Mission Board.
“I’m convinced that if you aren’t mentoring someone, you aren’t following the biblical model [of Jesus]. For me, it’s just that basic,” Lawless said. “Our job is to invest ourselves in others so that if we die tomorrow, our ministry will go on.
“The people Jesus poured His life into became those who took the Gospel to the world,” Lawless said. “Mentoring takes a nobody and makes him a somebody. When you pour your life into somebody, you tell them they are important not only to you, but to God.”
Lindsay Lau, part of a nine-member group from Hawaii, said she learned “a lot” at the Aug. 7-11 Collegiate Week,
“But honestly, I have been put in a position to really think about my relationship with God and what He wants for me,” Lau said.-BP