[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.]
Today was a fun day. It was my first time back on campus in over a month and we had a great conversation. Two new people showed up. One guy, Moses, from Long Beach State and another woman Relene from LBCC. She goes to our church and heard about what we are doing. I love what she has to say in the video reflection.
I have been waiting for 5 years for something on campus!
On a side note, I love how the video reflection has become normalized. When it came to that time, Relene smiled and said, “I have seen the posts, I knew this was coming” 🙂
It was also powerful to have another Long Beach State student come and share about reading out to the campus and how InterVarsity goes about that. Nothing is better than student to student sharing and encouragement. Moses was such a blessing!
Proxe Stations
I showed the group what InterVarsity calls Proxe Stations and gave them some vision of what it could look like to do outreach during the first weeks of campus. Check out the proxe we are going to do here. The “Red Cup Campaign” creates a conversation around thirst and what we thirst for in life and how ultimately Jesus can fill it. It is a really powerful and engaging station that should catapult us into some great conversations!
The students were excited!
The City College Student Schedule
I was able to get Juan-David to come hear me preach at church on revival a few weeks ago and that got us reconnected. He agreed to meet up with me at LBCC so we did so before today’s meeting. What became clear is that his heart is totally into what we are doing, but his schedule is not.
This is the reality of many city college students.
They work potentially multiple jobs, have class, are part of other clubs, are studying to get to a four year and if they are Christian, are most likely involved with a church.
Juan-David laid out his schedule for me:
- Monday & Friday is work
- Tuesday & Thursday & Wednesday night is class
- President of Spanish club on campus
we discovered that he has a small window on Tuesdays where he actually could attend a gathering. We are going to do our best to have it at that time.
But a more important discussion emerged.
We Are A Mission
I want to see a mission started at LBCC not just a fellowship. Both are important.
Of course we want students to gather and grow together and be community. But what do you do with Juan -David types? Leaders that are busy and have little margin in their life?
What I told Juan-David is that I and InterVarsity want to help him learn to be on mission where he goes. On mission in his work and inside his club.
We had a great conversation about what this can look like inside the Spanish club. We talked about how could he use his presidency to bring the gospel to searching people. He was excited about this conversation and two things emerged:
- Making space for seekers inside the Spanish Club. What if Juan-David gathered them once a month to answer their questions and make a contextualized space just for them. Put the gathering one hour before or after the club meeting?
- Community Service. The club wants to be involved with the community so I told him about our churches work in Compton and the community garden we have. He was ecstatic about getting the club serving there.
What I wanted him to know is that we aren’t trying to just start a club. We are starting a mission and I dream of the day that leaders, like Juan-David, are being launched into mission inside their spheres of influence. We want to reach people on campus that could only be reached where they are.
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