wanted: missional students

According to InterVarsity's Chapter Planting material a missional Christian is, "a student or faculty who is motivated by their relationship with Jesus to advance the gospel on their campus, someone who is willing to devote time and resources to take risks for Jesus' sake." Missional Christians are essential to the health and vitality of a fellowship and they are particularly crucial in the start-up phases. At our Central Region Staff Conference in December I had the opportunity to interact with one of the staff who coaches chapter planters in New England. As I shared a bit about the history of One Voice with him and some of the current realities and challenges of working to replant the fellowship, he began to ask some really good questions.

"What kind of evangelistic risks are you willing to take?" "Are there students in the group who are pushing you to raise the bar when it comes to evangelism?" As I shared my responses he thought for a moment and then said, "It sounds like you need to pray. You need to pray that you will encounter missional students on campus who will join you in the evangelism that you're already doing and even lead out in greater risks. You need start praying for conversions. It sounds like God could be shaping your group to be a community built around conversion.

As soon as he said that I was reminded of the words that I've been holding onto for the past couple of years. As I prayed for One Voice in the summer of 2007, prior to knowing very much about the chapter or its students, I heard God saying that the chapter would not grow because we were attractive to all of the Christian students at Wash U. Rather, One Voice would grow through conversion - students encountering Jesus, perhaps for the first time in their lives, and choosing to follow him.

I am committing myself to prayer towards this vision even as we continue to experiment with creative outreach this semester. I am asking the current core of One Voice to spend more time praying towards this vision. In particular I am asking Jesus for some divine appointments with missional students. I believe they're out there.

Will you pray with us?