[This post is part of the “4 Hour Campus Plant” series. I am live blogging my attempt to plant a ministry at a new campus with only 4 hours a week. This is a continuous story that builds, so make sure to start at the beginning.]

May 18, 2015

I was excited to go to LBCC today because Pastor Sean was going to join me and I wanted him to get a taste for what its like to plant a college ministry. While Sean is a prolific high school pastor and leader, he had never been apart of a ministry on a college campus – this would be his first time.

Here’s a taste of how we are feeling before we drive over:

On Campus, On Purpose

As we showed up to campus for the second core group meeting we were the first to get there. It was to be expected because Kimy was just getting out of class. But I was a little nervous as to who would show. How would Kimy be feeling this week?

Soon Kimy showed up and let us know quickly that the two people from the “other” group would most likely not be returning. She also told us that her closest friend, who was in the ER the week before, had to bail again this week. Hmmm.

But a few minutes later Juan came and I was pumped. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited to see Kimy too, but I knew she would be there. I didn’t know if Juan would come back or not. I was so glad he did. God is doing something unique in that guy.

We were just about to get started and then another guy walked up. Juan greeted him and asked him, “what are you doing right now?” the guy responded, “nothing. I came because I want to be part of this new Christian group on campus.”

Wow! Just like that we had another guy and we jumped right into the second part of “Start Something New”. The new guy, Eric, shared with us that he had become Christian just four years ago and was really excited about this group getting started. He had only been part of the cult group on campus and was waiting for something legit to get going.

This is when Eric and Juan launched into the fact that there are two cult groups on campus. Juan got more animated as he was more able to speak freely about the other two students from last week. He was emphatic with us today that they were part of the cult. He went into great detail about the group and what they do to students and how they manipulate beliefs about Jesus and Christianity. I had heard of this cult group before, but they had a different “disguise” name at LBCC. Suddenly, it made so much sense why there was ample tension last week.

Now that we were all caught up and had broken the group in nicely with talk of cultish activity, we were ready to get started in scripture.

The Sending of The 70

We had a powerful time of studying Luke 10 and talking about Jesus sending the 70 two by two to go into the towns to preach the Kingdom at hand. It was such  great discussion and you could feel the group forming around the mission of Jesus. We talked about what it means to be sent as lambs among wolves, what it means that we are to “go” with nothing, how we could bless the campus and receive from it as well, and lastly what kind of people would be needed for a sending mission.

We made a list of characteristics needed in the people of this kind of mission we were embarking on. It became clear what we needed to become and what kind of people we needed to find.

• Bold
• Adaptive
• Patient
• Creative
• Urgent
• Expectant

Pastor Sean was getting excited and he started texting and tweeting people during the group about next weeks meeting. Juan was becoming more and more comfortable and had many great answers. Kimy was growing in her leadership and was very perceptive. Eric had a bible verse for everything we talked about. We called him Bible man!

It was fun to have Sean there and it was the first time I have partnered this directly in planting a ministry on campus with a pastor. One of my favorite moments was towards the end and Sean said to Juan, “Pick any Wednesday this summer and come out to our youth group and share the word with us.” Juan was totally stoked that Sean would invite him to come be the main speaker after just meeting him.

But like I said in the post before; Juan is evangelistic and probably apostolic. Guys like that love that kind of invitation. It was rad to see Sean give away leadership that quickly – it was right to invite Juan out to the youth group. He will do great!

The Invitation

This week the invitation was to write down every person you knew on campus that had the characteristics above and invite them to come next week. Next week we will study Luke 10 again with them, but this time I would have one of the students lead the discussion. I asked the group who would want to lead and both Juan and Kimy responded eagerly. So next time we meet, they will co-lead a discussion on Luke 10 and the sending nature of Jesus.

Here’s how they were feeling after the core meeting today:

The Lesson Learned

Form teams around mission – Studying scripture about the mission of Jesus with people really forms a dynamic community. None of us would be hanging out with each other if it wasn’t for the fact that we are burdened to reach LBCC. We are different cultures, ages, temperaments and denominations. But when we started talking about Luke 10 and being sent into the harvest, we all got fired up and our sense of partnership grew.

Walking Into The Harvest

As we were walking back to the car, I saw a guy wearing a fraternity hat. I couldn’t believe it because community colleges don’t have Greek Systems. But I felt compelled to talk to him so I asked him where he was Greek. He said Cal Poly San Louis Obisbo. He graduated from there but now is perusing a masters and needed some extra classes.

I told him I work with fraternities all over LA and he asked me what I do. I told him I was a Christian minister. He then went on to tell me how they had a ministry at his college called Cru. I told him InterVarsity is just like that and we are starting a brand new ministry on campus at LBCC. He said he would be interested in joining us!

So we stopped for a minute and I explained the Start Something New manual to him. I asked his background and he said he grew up Catholic, but hasn’t engaged his faith in years. He is disconnected and wants to get back into the Word with people. I told him that if coming to our group was too intimidating at first I would be glad to grab coffee and catch up on our stories first. He lit up and said both would be cool. I got his number and we went on our ways.

How cool is that?

We study scripture on being sent into the harvest – a guy wearing a Greek hat walks by – I talk to him and he is not following Jesus but is open. That is not a coincidence! The harvest is plentiful.

We ended the day by me explaining the students that if we weren’t on this campus intentionally creating a witnessing community, this conversation wouldn’t have happened. What other conversations are waiting for us as well?

What I Was Thinking

As I left the campus today I realized I felt alive like I did when I was starting dorm ministry at San Diego State back in 2005. I love the adventure and spontaneity of God’s mission and how he brings such different people together. I love this calling I have. I also couldn’t stop thinking about how much has happened in less than a month. it was just three weeks ago Sean and I talked in the Mexican restaurant and now we have a core group of students pressing into mission on campus. This is incredible and exciting!

Oh, and I have not spent more than 4 hours a week on this campus!