I have been actively involved in ministry since my time in college. But if I can be honest, my approach to ministry could be called “fit the box” ministry. I had a fixed approach to ministry and a fixed understanding of what being a Christian looked like. Therefore, when I ministered to people I had a goal for all people that looked the same. Being a Christian meant; getting up in the morning with a cup of coffee and a journal with your Bible open, leading in ministry meant leading a small group of people that prayed for 10 minutes, shared for 10 minutes, discussed Bible for 25 minutes and prayed to close for 10 minutes, being bold for Jesus meant going into vocational Christian ministry, and complete sacrifice meant going overseas as a foreign missionary. Of course I am exaggerating a little, but the force of what I am saying is true, I had a box that I would try to shape people to fit into.

RUF speaks about ministering to the Individual. Each person is different; differing families, differing experiences, differing temptations, differing sins, and differing wounds. Therefore to minister to people, to build a ministry means engaging each person, the individual, where they are and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to their specific wounds, struggles, sins. As a Campus Minister I must know my students, I must know their story and their struggles, so as Campus Ministers we spend a large portion of our weeks meeting with students one on one. In one way this makes ministry much more difficult and much more messy. There is no one way to walk with Jesus and lead in ministry, there is no box to fit into. In another way it takes the pressure off trying to “reproduce” certain types of Christians. This approach of ministering to the individual caused the flashing lights to go off in my mind and heart. This is how my belief concerning God’s understanding of me as an individual should flesh itself out in ministry. I want nothing more than God to meet people with the balm of the gospel where they are and empower them to serve His kingdom in the ways they are gifted and created. I am grateful God knows me individually, should not those we minister to individually be known by us? It means more digging into lives, which can be difficult, but Jesus never said ministry is easy. “ You can rake leaves all day long and only get leaves, it is easy. But if you dig you will find gold.” I want the Lord to shape each person into the person He has created and is recreating them to be.

In fact just during my brief time at Southern Miss I have known at least a dozen students who come from families in which one or both parents came through R.U.F. at Southern Miss in the 70s or 80s. Some of these “parent couples” even met at R.U.F.

Reformed University Fellowship is the arm of the local church to the college campus. God’s covenant faithfulness to his people (the church) is wrapped up in a promise to us and to our children. The goals of R.U.F are Growth in Grace, Evangelism and Missions, Fellowship and Service, and a Biblical World and Life View. We want to see our students leave college with Biblical perspective and a commitment to Jesus Christ, their family, their local church, their job, and their community through other venues. It is such an incredible encouragement to see God’s faithfulness to the generations of families who have learned to trust Christ in these areas of their lives due in part to the time they spent in R.U.F at college.

One of the distinct blessings that we experience at a place like USM (a campus that has had RUF for over 30 years) is that we have begun to see God use this arm of the local church (RUF) to impact generations of families. This trend will no doubt begin to surface at campuses all over the country as the children of RUF alumni reach the age of 18 and look to spread their wings on a college campus. Many of those students will look for and be able to find a Reformed University Fellowship on their prospective campuses, and some believe it or not as one student told me this fall will chose one campus over another because it “has an R.U.F”. Thanks be to God that he has grown R.U.F from the little Westminster Fellowship Group in Hattiesburg to over a hundred campuses world wide.

Acts 2:39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

“Why is God hiding?”

“Okay, I’ll bite…why is God hiding?” I say confused.

“I mean, if God wants people to believe in him so badly, why doesn’t he make himself more obvious? Why all the cloak and dagger? Why not just come out of hiding and let everyone know that he is absolutely here?”

I love/hate to tell this story to my incoming freshmen. I love/hate it because of the inevitable answer I get from them when I ask them what they would say to my half-lit friend.

“Well, if God made himself obvious, then we wouldn’t have to have faith,” they, without fail in my 12 years of student ministry, say.

There’s that word again: faith. I am becoming more and more convinced that this is the single most misunderstood word in all of evangelical jargon. Why? Because that answer is just wrong. Think of the logic: God actually is hiding (to use my friend’s wording) but he does so in order that he can draw from me some mental leap, some momentary purge of doubt that magically transforms our relationship into one of perfect kinship and peace.

Set aside for the moment the hopelessness of trying to determine if I actually have really made that leap or not, OR if I was sufficiently purged of enough doubt to get me over that magic line of salvation. I want to challenge my friend’s question first before I answer the question of the nature of faith. The two are closely related.

First of all, nowhere in the Bible are we allowed to believe that God is not actively making his presence known. Psalm 19 demonstrates that nicely. And that presence is so obvious that men are “without excuse,” says Paul in Romans 1:18ff. So what must be true if I don’t see God, but he assures me that he’s making himself known?

It can only be the case that it is not HE that is hiding, but ME! Apparently, according to the Bible, I am not quite the objective observer that I figure myself to be. As a matter of fact, it is in my nature to twist the truth, to bend it to my own ends. Those ends, as it turns out, are determined to oust God from my life and curtail any influence he wants to have on me, not the least of which is acknowledgement of his active presence in the world.

Hence, my next question to my friend, “If you were being deceived, would you know it?” Of course not, is the answer. That’s what it means to be “deceived.” So what if God is not only NOT hiding, but he is actively, endlessly, desperately revealing himself in every electric moment of my life…I just don’t want to see it. I’ll have nothing of it. This, it seems, casts quite a different light on the so-called “apologetic moment,” does it not?

Does it not follow then that the only way a deceived person begins the process of seeing the world aright is by a bold admission of his self-deception. In other words, a confession of his emptiness must come before the spell can be broken and he begins to listen to the words of the all-seeing, all-conditioning, and never-deceiving God.

This, I suggest, is the definition of faith. Faith cannot be a “work.” It can only be an admission of an inability to work. In our evangelical world, we have raised a generation of young people who have been told that faith is “asking Jesus in your heart” or “accepting him as your personal Lord and Savior.” Therefore, they are a fickle, doubting crew, at best; and, at worst, they have raced right past the first step of true Christian experience: utter dependence.

One of the major human dilemmas on the college campus is that everyone desperately wants to be loved, but we all know deep down that in order to be loved, we must be fully known. The dilemma is that no one believes they will be loved if they are fully known. In fact, it terrifies us. Most of our interaction with people is just a strategy to allow them to know the best (and most likeable) things about us while keeping them at a distance where they never know the most intimate details of our lives. We will share and talk about anything that is not risky, all the while, believing that we are truly getting to know someone, calling them "friends". It is an agreeable exchange that takes place everyday on the camps, "I will get involved in your life until you want to know about _____". This is why the problem of loneliness is everywhere on a campus of 47,000 people. No one wants to let you in, and you don't want to let them in. The problem becomes a dilemma because we are all made in the image of God. All human beings are made after a God who is personal, relational, committed, and never alone. The great NT professor Herman Ridderbos said "the most dehumanizing thing one can ever experience is loneliness." We all know we are not meant to be lonely, that's why it hurts so much when we are.

What we end up doing with our dilemma is solving it with plausible lies. This is most clearly seen on the college campus with sex. When two people "hookup" it is a deep reaction to loneliness. It is an expression of the deep longing to be fully known. But coupled with that longing is the fear of what people will do with what they now know about you (and they now know everything). Will they love me now that they have seen me like this? Are they going to reject me? The fear that they will not love them is so overwhelming that it compels them to just walk away, pretending it really was not a big deal, calling it "just sex". The painful irony is that afterwards, there is more loneliness than there was before, as you are right where you started.

In Psalm 139, David writes of a God who fully knows us, inside and out. He says "O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether." It is almost freeing to know that the living God knows everything about us, the stuff we hide, protect, and conceal from everyone. He knows it, and there is no running from that as David continues, "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?" If God were a God of works righteousness, then this would be the worst news of all, the justified reaction would be to run. For who could love me if they knew my deep secrets? More so, how could they love me if they knew? Our desires and fears are drawn to what Jesus had with the father, "the father knows me and I know the father." The solution to our dilemma is an all knowing God of grace, who fully knows us and loves us, in fact, David says we have his right hand of blessing. How? If God really knows everything about us, how can he love us? We know because on the cross, Jesus was naked, he was fully known; and when God saw him, he saw that he had become sin, so that when God sees us, we may be seen as righteous, naked and unashamed.

I think we all crave to be able utter these words to anyone without fear and in full assurance, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

For many of you who are “grown up,” there’s a widening gap between what you wanted to be and who you, in fact, are. As the excitement of living your dreams fades, you might reflect upon the word of Leo Tolstoy: “What will come of what I am doing today or tomorrow? What will come of my whole life? Why should I live, why wish for anything, or do anything? … Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?” I mean, who ever says, “the #1 thing I want to be when I grow up is insignificant”? In the hilarious new sitcom, Glee, Sue Sylvester (who thinks she is pretty great) articulates the desire to make a name for yourself:

“You know, I wasn’t always in the spot light. But I didn’t want to end up stuck in a lousy high school, wrestling with mental illness. Or forty, and single, coaching the worst football team in the history of our state. Or having to go to the salon every week to have my hair permed. I didn't want to end up like that.”

But, most ordinary lives look pretty similar to what Sue describes here. You are NOT in the spotlight as you change dirty diapers, make phone calls, wash dishes, pull weeds, study art history, grade papers, examine sore throats, and all the other thousands of things we might consider mundane.

Why does anything we do matter if we are all going to die and a few folks might gather for our funeral followed by potato salad? The fact is that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, ordinary things take on extraordinary meaning. Matter MATTERS. You see, Jesus not only takes our sin on the cross, but he defeats the very thing that threatens to take away reasons we have for living or doing anything: DEATH. What’s final is not death, but RESURRECTION.

Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:20: But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Jesus’ bodily resurrection is the FIRST in the bodily resurrection of everyone who belongs to Him by faith. God’s work of redemption is NOT ultimately about us going to heaven when we die. It’s about the ultimate Extreme Makeover-. Jesus returns and heaven comes down to earth. This tired old world is in for a complete renovation where everything wrong is made right. Once and for all, the prayers of God’s people will be answered, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

After speaking about the resurrection of our bodies in 1 Cor. 15, Paul’s application sounds almost like a direct answer to Tolstoy’s “why should I do anything?” question:

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

If you belong to the Lord through faith in Christ, ALL that you do matters. It’s not just “the Word of God and souls of men” that will last. We go about our work in anticipation of that new heavens and new earth: changing dirty diapers, washing dishes, faithfully praying, sharing Christ, and even eating and drinking… all to the glory of God! Abraham Kuyper said “there is not one square inch in the world that Jesus does not say “that is mine.” So, when I finally get around to doing a mundane task like cleaning my messy office, I’m reflecting God’s image in bringing order out of chaos and making earth look like heaven!

Instead of worshipping gods like greatness, fame, and recognition…. worship the Great Being: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He invites you to glorify Him in the little square inches where he plants you. Say to Him, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” – Psalm 16:11

Recently we did an overnighter at the local Housing Authority. It was a near disaster. I had one of the longest weeks of my life following a weekend of moving in our new home. I didn't plan for our "Mercy Weekend" to be the very next weekend but that is how it ended up. I had a meeting in Tennessee that morning and hustled back, grabbed my gear, headed to the meeting place where I thought I'd meet about 12 students who till then had written their name on a piece of paper but showed very little interest in serving children or elderly in our community. They weren't opposed to it, just not grabbing the bull by the horns. Neither was I when one student was there to meet me. Fifteen minutes passed. Twenty minutes. I began throwing thunder bolts and curses, admitting my anger. My student was silent. Come to find out later, he was mad, too! Eventually several more students showed up, threw their weight and hearts into it and did a great job simply being normal and not "helping those poor people." They were themselves and rubbed shoulders very naturally with those we worked with. After a night of poker where I crushed all involved my heart was restored.

I was reading recently in John when Jesus is on the cross. In the midst of carrying our weight and shouldering our sin he does the unthinkable - he rescues a widow who is about to lose her son. He asks John to care for his mother and he does. He takes her into his own home, no questions asked. Jesus doesn't ask him to care for all the widows in the world or solve the problem of poverty (the poor you will always have with you). He asks him to care for his mother in the faith and sister in Christ right beside him. Eventually the church would, as a body, care for the needs right under their noses. Fanning out a bit they would catch other needs in their midst. But, the gospel always calls us to stop overlooking our neighbor, our enemy, our sister, our brother, our parents, our children, our bosses, our roommates. At least in my meager 38 years these are the hardest to love especially when the need is great and there are religious things I'd rather attend to over at the Temple.

My dreams are that students will love their roommates, the kids God places them next to in class, the loser nobody sits with at lunch, the parent who annoys them, the Church where he has them, the needs right down the street and across continents. But, it is always a beautiful thing to see it happen right under our noses!

If Jesus were here on earth in the flesh, where would he hang out? Who would he hang out with? Probably many places, but I bet one of them would be a coffee shop late at night talking to prostitutes and drug dealers and those who are depressed and lonely…

Jesus came for sinners! This is one of the main reasons RUF is on campus all over the world. To reach out to people who are struggling and need Jesus.

Mark 2:15 - And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Dear Sirs,

I am.

Sincerely yours,

G. K. Chesterton

In those brief words Chesterton perfectly captured what Jesus meant when he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3, ESV). With his pen, Chesterton confessed before all of London his own spiritual bankruptcy and declared the poverty of his own spirit.

What does it mean to be “poor in spirit?’ Luke’s own version simply says blessed are the poor. But Jesus himself taught us that we must always read Scripture alongside the rest of Scripture (see Matt 4:7). Undoubtedly the poor often have nothing to hope in but Jesus, and nothing to hope for but heaven. Their poverty literally helps them become poor in spirit. But Jesus seems to be stressing a spiritual poverty here. For one can be poor, yet not be poor in spirit.

Sinclair Ferguson helps us understand what Jesus means: “Jesus is describing the person who sees his spiritual bondage, is conscious of the debt of his sins, and knows that in himself he is dispossessed before God. All he can do is cry for mercy, and depend upon the Lord. No one can be a Christian without this spirit. Everyone who is a Christian has this spirit. It is the spirit of the prodigal son. He left his father proudly, self-assured in his share of the inheritance. But when he was bankrupt, ‘he came to his senses.’”

To be poor in spirit means that you see the insurmountable debt of your sin against God; a debt you could never hope to pay. It means you know what you really are. You can say with Robert Murray Mc’Cheyne, “In my heart is the seed of every sin.” And with John Newton, “I remember two things: That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.”

There is a scene in Les Miserables in which Jean Valjean, the convicted criminal who has experienced grace from Bishop Myriel, is confronted with a difficult choice. He is the guilty one, and he knows what he’s done. Yet the police have arrested another man whom they think is him, and are about to sentence him. Valjean wrestles with his conscience as to what he should do. Should he reveal who he really is and spare the innocent man? Or should he lie and hide the truth of who he really is, letting this innocent man be punished in his place? As the scene builds Valjean enters the court room, unbuttons his shirt, and shows the whole courtroom those guilty prison numbers tattooed on his body: 24601.

The reason that I love this scene is that it makes me think of Jesus. Except Jesus’ story, the Innocent bears the guilt of the guilty, and God dies for the ungodly. Paul puts it perfectly in 2 Corinthians 8: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

The only way you and I will ever learn to rejoice in our own spiritual poverty is to see this glorious thing Paul is telling us. That Jesus loved me and you so much that he was willing to leave the riches of heaven, to be born into a poor family, to be more homeless than even the foxes and the birds, to have one lonely possession at the end of his life, and to be buried in a borrowed tomb.

Jesus became poor so that you and I might become rich in him. Rich in his love. Rich in his grace. Rich in his mercy. Rich in his peace. Rich in his joy. Rich in his gentleness. Rich in his righteousness. Rich with the riches of His kingdom. Rich in his own inheritance, which he loves to share with us, and is infinitely more valuable than we can even imagine. Rich in a way that many rich people long to be rich. Rich with the only currency that is valid in God’s economy. Oh that God would help us pan the mountains of riches that are ours in Christ daily!

The beauty of it all is that ONLY the poor in spirit are qualified. Only those who know themselves to be poor are rich in Jesus' kingdom. Only those who know themselves to be sinners are saints. Only those who know their badness are good. Only those who confess their guilt are freely forgiven with the guarantee of no more condemnation.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who have never had, don’t have, and never will have ANYTHING to give to God but filthy rags. If that is you, take to heart those rich words of Joseph Hart, “All the fitness he requires, is to feel your need of Him.” And those of August Toplady, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. Naked look to Thee for dress, Helpless look to Thee for grace.” Then, and only then will you know the riches of being spiritually poor.

What do you call it when you only share the information about yourself that you want people to know and nothing that you don’t? It used to be called propaganda, but today we call it Facebook. Don’t get me wrong, I think Facebook can be a valuable tool and it has been great for my ministry. But for many students it has become an obsession. It’s a place where they can have “friendships” without having real relationships. They can control what people know about them and how they want to be perceived.

The irony of Facebook comes out when you couple it with our desire to “keep it real.” The phrase, “I’m just keeping it real,” can be placed at the beginning or end of a statement to justify your negative opinion of just about anything. Or you can also simply use the phrase, “just say’n.” 98% of the time when someone uses this phrase it is to express a negative opinion. For example, “I’m just keeping it real, but Rob’s blog is more boring than C-Span.” Isn’t it interesting that we want to control what people think about us, while at the same time we want to be free to say whatever we want about others without impunity.

In RUF this is a tension that we deal with every day because we want students to have real relationships. The question is, “What is a real relationship?” Paul talks about it in his letter to the Philippians (1:9-10): “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ…”(ESV). In other words, God wants us to love one another intelligently. This means that we shouldn’t be a people that try to hide behind a mask. In our relationships we shouldn’t try to present only the best of ourselves, but rather, we should “keep it real” (in a positive way). This means that we should spend time together and give people the opportunity to get to know the real us with all of or our flaws. It opens the door to let others kindly “keep it real,” to speak gracious truth into our lives. In RUF we want students to enjoy true community and true fellowship. This can often be hard and even awkward, but the result is a community of believers who are seeking to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Oh, by the way, I lied about my weight (just keeping it real).

Sin brings a total reversal to how things are supposed to be and how we were designed as creatures. Now Instead of order there is chaos. Instead of life there is pain, death, and disease. Instead of enjoying God’s good gifts, we are filled with envy. Instead of resting, we run. Instead of obeying, we shake our fist at God and rebel against him. Instead of harmony in relationships there is struggle and conflict.

However, despite the ruin we see in Genesis 3 there is also hope. Verse 8 says, “They heard the Lord God walking in the garden.” Do you see it? They are ruined. However, God does not abandon the Garden, but instead He goes looking for them. God pursues ruined sinners! If I am honest there are lots of times when I don’t believe that. I think for sure God will draw back from me in my ruin. But that’s not the gospel. That’s not what God does. He draws near!

As He draws near, He also draws out. He asks Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” He could have gone straight to the charge and killed them on the spot, but he doesn’t. He asks questions - “Who told you are naked? Why did you do it?” He is saying ‘from where is your shame coming?’ He is trying to draw the reason for their shame, not trying to ruthlessly shame them. He is looking for confession and repentance, not coming for condemnation.

The reason he draws near and draws out because he knows someone is going pay. When something is ruined someone has to pay and it’s Him. God says, “I am going to send my Son born of a woman. The serpent will strike his heel and through suffering and pain Jesus will bear the wrath you and I deserve BUT he will crush the serpent’s head and you will be redeemed and rescued no matter how ruined you may be!”

This is the message of the gospel. This is the heart of RUF. Week in and week out in large groups, small groups, and one-on-one meetings we tell students that have been broken and bruised by The Fall that Jesus stands ready to save them.

I was reminded that Jesus talks about branches. “I am the vine; you are the branches,” Jesus says in John 15. “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” It is fine with me if God trims away dead branches from my oak trees (I didn’t even have to get out my ladder), but Jesus’ words make this more personal. I am a branch. We are branches. We have a responsibility to bear fruit. If I don’t bear fruit, I may be broken off and thrown to the side of the street for the yard waste collection (that’s what I did with my dead branch).

Meet my life in ministry, or my life in general. I know I have a responsibility to bear fruit … or else. How many people are coming to R.U.F.? How can we draw in more students? Is our ministry producing real “fruit” in the lives of students? Are we doing enough to reach out evangelistically to the campus? What do I need to do? Constantly my focus moves toward my responsibility. Fruit, fruit, fruit, growth, numbers, conversions, even love ... is it enough? Am I doing enough? … or will I be cut off? I am a branch after all.

Into my self-focused results-oriented mindset, Jesus says something I really hate – words that I desperately need, but not words I like to hear. “Apart from me you can do nothing.” I am independent and hate asking for help (or I would hate it, if I ever did). So Jesus’ words cut to the core of my heart idolatry of self-sufficiency. They hurt. What does he mean “nothing”? I can do something; I am doing something; I have to do something or else I will be cut off. Again Jesus says, “the branch cannot bear fruit by itself.”

Then it begins to make sense. I am a branch. How did that large 5 foot long branch at the top of my tree die in the first place? I get it. Independence killed it. It focused on the beautiful thick green leaves it could produce (I know I’m projecting here). It focused on the fruit and its own responsibility, forgot about the tree, stopped drawing its life from the root system of the tree, and in all its self-sufficiency (or lack thereof) it died.

So what’s a branch to do? A branch should draw its life from Jesus – not focus on the fruit it must produce, but on the life of the root system which is the means to produce that fruit. “I am the vine; you are the branches,” Jesus says. “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.” One of the aspects I have loved most about working in R.U.F, is our philosophy of ministry that drives us to Jesus not our accomplishments. My hope for students at Florida State is that they find a ministry that connects them to the life of Jesus, the Vine, and that His life flows through them to produce love and joy. Point people to Jesus; there they will never dry up or rot, and Christ will be exalted through them.

I am thirty-four years old and have been a Christian all of my life, and yet I do not think it was until this past year that I really believed in the power of prayer. Of course I prayed… and yes, I believed God answered prayer — I had seen Him do it. But often those situations were times of great crisis. Certainly God shows up then. That’s His job, isn’t it? But what about when there is no crisis, when one is simply facing the normal, everyday problems of life? Does God still work in those situations?

Two years ago I stepped onto the campus of Rice University with the goal of reaching out to the students here with the love of Jesus Christ. It sounds simple enough, and yet, to be honest, it wasn’t. I arrived not knowing a soul and without any real RUF presence on campus from which to launch my time of ministry. What had sounded like a heroic adventure for the kingdom six weeks earlier quickly turned into a marathon race for which I had forgotten to bring my shoes. Where should I start? Whom do I meet? How do I meet them? What in the world am I going to do in order to get things going? No crisis was occurring, and everyone was fine. But everything seemed difficult, and nothing seemed to be going my way.

Have you ever felt that way or been in a situation like that? You go to work, and although there is no threat of losing your job, things are just not working out. You keep missing the big deal or you are always behind and never able to catch up. Perhaps you find that you are just not connecting with your spouse, one of your children, or even a good friend. Life is beginning to feel like a grind and many of the hopes and dreams that once motivated you are starting to feel out of reach as you face one obstacle after another just to make it through the week. What went wrong? Did something go wrong, and you are just not aware of it? What do you do with situations like that? Is God concerned with these seemingly everyday problems?

The answer the Scriptures give us is a resounding “YES.” How great it is that the Lord calls us to cast all of our anxieties upon him – not just the “big crises” of life, but the everyday stuff as well. This is one of the things the Lord constantly impressed upon me this year. It seemed that everyday I woke up aware that if God did not do something here, then absolutely nothing was going to happen.

This realization caused me to cry out for help to God in a way that I have never done before when things seemed “calm.” It further made me ask others to pray. The Lord tells us to lift up each other’s burdens, and I know I needed other people’s help in this endeavor. For the many who prayed for me, I am grateful. In light of their kindness to me, let me encourage you, as many others have encouraged me this year: cast all of your anxieties (even the small ones) on the Lord because He cares for you.

Two things:

(1) Favoritism is a survival mechanism: Favoritism is aimed at satisfying the desire for glory. Glory is necessary for survival. Don't you think so? We are creatures derived from (created by, and made in the image of) the only true and living God - THE KING of Glory (Psalm 24). As creatures made in God's image it is QUITE necessary that we have glory, however - in a fallen/sinful world - our survival MECHANISM is not QUITE able to discern the appropriate way in which to get it. For example, the survival mechanism which produces the desire to drink salt water: the body knows it needs water and will go so far as to drink water permeated with salt in order to satisfy that essential desire. Of course, having gone about it in such a way, the body will eventually be destroyed by its misguided impulse. In the same way, our fallen nature is unable to discern the appropriate way in which to access glory. The desire for glory is innate and impulsive, and in our corrupt nature we devise and adopt the salt-water-like endeavor of favoritism to acquire it. Obeying our survival mechanism of favoritism will not only fail to get us glory, but it will inevitably destroy us. We need to be rescued from our idiocy, shown a better way, and (as it were) carried along and constantly supervised. It is only through Jesus Christ that we gain access to glory and are glorified; by faith we are united to Jesus, and thus share in His infinite glory (Rom. 8:28-30; Col. 1:12; Heb. 3:14; 12:10).

(2) Favoritism is like a parasite: Being a PARASITIC survival mechanism, favoritism is miserably self-serving. Favoritism can be very subtle and very deceiving (hence the comparison to parasite instead of cannibal), but it is always self-serving. It's all about self-validation. My favorite people are the ones who give me their undivided attention, and ask questions which show they are enthralled with what I speak of. This kind of person makes me feel SO good about myself! My favorite friends are the ones who invite me to enjoy box seats with them at a basketball game. This makes me feel SO important (walking past all the peasants as I board the special elevator which ascends to the lap of "catered box seat" luxury...and of course what I love, even more than the nachos, is the fact that the implied status of this box seat PROVES that I am awesome!)! I would not dare be mean to, or ignore such a friend who is able to make me feel this way. You get the point...favoritism is all about "ME"! But what makes favoritism even more wretchedly parasitic is that it does not just feed off one person (i.e. the person who is held in "favorite" status so long as it benefits me), it also feeds off of all others whom are presumed to be inferior. Thus, favoritism should also be understood as being extremely unjust. The Bible reveals an inseparable connection between favoritism and injustice (Psalm 82; James 2:1-4). It is when people think of themselves as being superior to others that they wreak havoc, and injustice prevails. This is what has happened with abortion. After-all, what validation can someone receive from an unborn human being? Quick sub-point: obviously, there are isolated/rare occasions where abortion should be allowed (e.g. an ectopic pregnancy) (just as there are situations where marijuana, cocaine, and morphine are prescribed; or times when killing is necessary – such as self-defense, war, and capitol punishment). BUT, obviously we DO NOT, and SHOULD NOT create laws based on isolated exceptions, nor on the premise that “it’s gonna happen anyway.” We establish laws based on God-revealed principles, and in the case of abortion God has revealed to us (and science has affirmed I might add) that life begins at conception, and human-life is sacred and it is endowed with inalienable rights.

Back to the main point: Favoritism superficially and conceitedly elevates one to the expense of another – inevitably leading to dehumanization and discrimination (Jas. 2:4).

The only liberation from favoritism is found in the Gospel: In Matthew 20:28 Jesus says, "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

…Believing in this is the only thing potent enough to overcome the cancer of favoritism in our lives, and in the world.

Only by faith in Jesus will we sincerely adopt, and live out, the principle of Acts 20:35.

This is one of the most important questions students, pastors, and supporters of RUF can ask. It is important because it reveals RUF’s deep commitment to both the church and the student.

So who is the Campus Minister? Let me answer in three ways.

The first and somewhat obvious answer is that the Campus Minister is in charge of the campus ministry. He organizes activities on campus, teaches Bible studies, and counsels students. A more biblical title for this position may be “Campus Pastor” because RUF is committed to hiring ordained elders (or pastors) in the church. This is emphasized in Ephesians 4:11-13:

It was he (God) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Here, Paul teaches that God instituted a structure for equipping Christians to do the work of ministry. The structure is simple: God has called His officers in the church (ordained men) to pastor His children to maturity in the faith. This is the model that the church follows as it elects its officers. Qualified men need to be trained and ordained for gospel ministry so they can lead and direct the church, and this is why RUF is committed to placing ordained men as pastors on college campuses.

Having seminary trained, ordained men as campus pastors is unique characteristic of RUF. Because of this, parents can have confidence that their children will continue to have pastors who care about them in college, supporters of the ministry can rest assured that they have well-equipped, honorable men allocating God’s resources on the campus, and most of all, the benefit is for the students. There is nothing more wonderful than having a qualified pastor on campus to encourage and shepherd students.

The second answer to our opening question is a little different. Each week in our leadership team meeting at Mercer I ask our students “Who is the campus minister?” I do this to emphasize that I am not “the” campus minister -- they are.

I am a campus pastor. Students are the campus ministers. In my first three years of campus ministry, I have worked very hard to get the students to see this truth. The Scriptures call them to do ministry on campus. 1 Peter 2:9 reads: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” We are all called to a priesthood, to a ministry. We are called to proclaim the gospel of light in a dark world. We must all begin seeing ourselves as little sermons in this world that preach the gospel to others. As students begin to understand this truth our ministry will grow.

The third answer to this question is the most obvious. Jesus is the campus minister. He is the head of the church, our Prophet, Priest and King. He is the one who heals and redeems. I once had a non-Christian friend in college who I ministered to often. We talked about Jesus, but his life continued to spiral downward. After a while, I just gave up on him. One night, I came home and he was sitting in his bed reading the Bible. He told me that he had been living his life for himself before, and he was now trusting in Jesus! I had ministered to him for months, but nothing happened. Jesus ministered to him, and he was saved in that moment. You see, our entire ministry hangs on Jesus. Without Him, it is all a waste of time.

So who is the Campus Minister?

I am.

Students are.

But mostly Jesus is.

How do you know if students are learning and growing in their understanding of the gospel? What does gospel change look like? What doesn’t it look like?

I often hear RUF referred to as a teaching ministry and to a large extent this is true. We do give a lot of time and attention to studying the bible in order to understand what it means that God, at infinite cost to himself, sent his son to die the death we should’ve died and live the life we should’ve lived that we might be restored to a right relationship with Him. However, the process students go through to learn the Bible's message of grace varies widely from one student to the next. The reason RUF gives specific attention to what we call the learning process is to guard against two pitfalls in ministry: 1) measuring student growth and understanding based on their enthusiasm and involvement in the ministry and 2) measuring student growth and understanding based on what they know about the Bible and theology. While involvement and knowledge are important, neither of them can stand alone as evidence for saving faith.

The learning process helps to preserve a balanced, patient perspective on student struggles, failures or tragedies. In other words our bottom line with students isn't their performance, but are they grasping the gospel of grace. This means that campus ministry will be messy. It means the goal isn't just to get students to stop having sex or stop getting drunk or studying too much or.... It means helping students to see and believe the goodness of the gospel. It means helping students to see that in Jesus God will never hold out on them (Rom. 8:32) and has given them all they need (2 Pet. 1:3). It means helping students to enjoy the good things God has given them without turning those good things into ultimate things. It means looking for God’s work of grace in a student’s life in the midst of their weakness, failure and brokenness. In a word, it means looking for the fruit of repentance and faith in Christ.

This priority is particularly helpful as we look back on the past year and ahead to the fall. It is tempting to want to get students involved in RUF because of what they might be or do for RUF. But, the learning process reminds us that we are involved in a process of how God is already at work in the life of each student we meet. We don't need to be anxious or worried about whether or not a particular student will get involved in RUF. We can instead give our attention to loving them right where they are for who they are and not for who we wish they were. The temptation is always to miss the individual in the flurry of ministry and to get frustrated because of what students are or are not doing. The learning process helps us realign our expectations of student growth with the reality that each student will grow in grace in a different way and on a different timetable. In other words, the learning process reminds us that ministry, like everything else in the Christian life, must be done by faith.

Christians want to maintain church staff and missionaries.   So a likely “budget cut” may be short-term overseas mission trips.  When funds are sufficient, church members will go “to the field” to assist career missionaries.  Benefits to the missionary are open for discussion, but one benefit is clear:  church members get a bigger view of the world, and of the “Lord of all nations.”  For good reason, short-term missions projects are often called “vision trips.”  The spiritual benefits “here” may outweigh the benefits “there”.

God is sovereign. “All things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). So even a bad economy can give us opportunities to re-think active partnership in world missions.   We may need a “paradigm shift”.  Churches are so tied to an apostolic model of missions (churches send - ministers go) that we neglect the hospitality model.

A true story illustrates the paradigm shift.  Not long ago, a U.S. pastor was granted an unusual (and risky) opportunity to meet a leader of an unauthorized Chinese church.   The Chinese church leader was asked a typical western question.  “What can American Christians do to help the Chinese church?”  The immediate reply was: “Don’t come, because you may be deported, but we will be jailed.  Don’t send money, because it is called foreign-devil money.  Do pray because the Chinese church is growing rapidly.  Do reach out to Chinese students and scholars who study in the west, because we are desperate for young, intellectual leadership.”

Over 600,000 international students and exchange scholars are now in America, from places like India, China, Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Southeast Asia.  Many of these nations restrict or forbid evangelistic ministries.  International students are the top 5% of their nations - future global leaders.  Foreign missionaries need 5-7 years to achieve language proficiency and 10-15 years to become culturally effective.  Over that time, $800,000 - $1,000,000 may be invested in a missionary.   To welcome internationals in American homes and churches is cost, language, and culturally effective - immediately. International students must pass an English language proficiency test to study here and are curious about life in the U.S, but few are invited into Christian homes or churches.

The most compelling reason to reach them is not a cost-benefit analysis.  One Day, Jesus will say to us, “When you welcomed the foreigner, you welcomed me!” (Matthew 25:35).

Yes, I am old. Not to offend you if you’ve got me beat age-wise, but for a Campus Minister I’m up there. Three years ago I took up the RUF Campus Minister mantle at Covenant College after an 11-year stint working in the local church.

Age does have its advantages, not the least of which is perspective. For all the change I’ve seen in college students over the past 21 years I’ve seen RUF stay the same when it comes to our goal of, “Reaching Students for Christ and Equipping Them to Serve.” Every year at the Summer Conference I get to see and hear real live examples of individuals from all over the country who have come to faith in Christ because God has been gracious to keep working through RUF. Some things stay the same.

The summer gives a Campus Minister the opportunity to do what he should have been doing all year. For me it meant finally ripping up the carpet in my home office and sorting through years of accumulated junk. I found an old audiotape of RUF student testimonies from 1981. How in the world this was in my possession I’ll never know. I was a junior in college when it was recorded, had never heard of RUF and wasn’t even considering going into ministry. One after the other these students from Mississippi got up and spoke about how God had used RUF in their lives to “reach them for Christ and equip them to serve.” These were gripping testimonies with a distinct Southern drawl.

Today you are just as likely to hear a student from California or Pennsylvania expressing gratitude for God’s work in their lives through RUF. We are a lot bigger these days but God is still is at work reaching and equipping students for Christ through RUF. I’m glad to be part of this ministry.

Of course, the suggestion was not original to me.  In the fourth commandment, God explicitly commands his people to cease from their work so they might worship and rest.  To be honest, I’m rather perplexed by the typical response to this commandment.  It usually goes in a few different directions, but all tend to ignore the fact that this is an incredible gift. When I was in college I latched onto the Sabbath, but my heart was in the midst of a huge self-righteous campaign, so I rarely got the point.  The Sabbath was just another form of self-worship. I rarely ceased from my work so that my physical rest might renew my heart and mind in the rest that was accomplished for me in Christ.  The goodness of our God to give us such a thing is amazing, really.  He says to stop working for an entire day—to just stop.  And while we cease from our portfolios, budgets, various decisions and to-do lists, our minds have to rest in the fact that He is God and we are not. Eugene Peterson says it well, “The Sabbath is about God interfering with all the things you think you need to get done, so that you can focus on what he has done.”

The abundance of quality parking spaces, the lack of lines at the Union Café, and the empty loneliness of the library this time of year can mean only one thing: the glorious reality of summer break has displaced Davidson students from campus into ordinary and exotic places for rest, work, study, service, and ministry.

With students absent from campus and pressing constraints on our time slackened, Margaret Ann and I recently seized the chance to lower the boom on the rising stacks of clutter in our garage: nondescript boxes of give-away clothes, wedding presents that never made their way out the box and into our lives, dated sports equipment, scads of books, and who knows what else seemed to have taken over. In one particular box, I unearthed a Bible that had been the first Bible I really made good use of in college. With its tattered binding, fraying edges, and maps on the cusp of falling out completely, this bible is a treasure for me. It is jammed with old bulletins, marked with faded highlights, and enhanced with sermon outlines recorded for reflection and posterity.

As I became absorbed in looking over the pages of announcements from the various congregations that I have called home over the past twelve years, I could not help wondering why I saved these particular orders of worship – what had so impressed itself upon my memory that I could not dare part with them? The entire lot of them had no outward peculiarity. Yet the sum of them impressed upon me a crucial truth: God was at work in me then as much as I beg him to be at work in me now. The cumulative effect of twelve years of church membership and nurturing, Sunday school lessons and sermons, fellowship groups and Bible studies, individual accountability and prayers is that God has shaped me into a redeemed image-bearer, an agent of redemption, and a builder of His Kingdom.

Much of the time I struggle profoundly to see the forest for the trees in the middle of the incessant pace and demands of RUF at Davidson College. I wonder if the individual sermons, the individual conversations, the individual prayers, the individual rounds of Frisbee golf, the individual meals in our home matter. Are they productive and effective? This year I have learned to take great comfort in the fact that God is at work in the individual acts of ministry and more beautifully in the cumulative, overarching process of conforming his people into his image.

God is at work in and through breakfasts in the Commons, lunches in the Union, smoothies at Summit. God is at work in and through emails, phone calls, and rides to the airport. God is at work in and through my counseling with students whose problems with sexual addiction, lust for esteem, achievement, and control do not vanish after one conversation, two articles discussed, three seasons of prayer. God is at work in and through our premarital counseling with couples whose lives will become infinitely more complicated and more satisfying on the other side of their marriage vows.

The abiding beauty of the gospel is that God is at work binding up the brokenness from the fall – that by his sovereign grace he transforms ordinary people in and through ordinary relationships and circumstances into builders of his extraordinary kingdom.

In a rather ordinary correspondence between C.S. Lewis and a woman simply identified as Mrs. Sonia Graham, Lewis soothes the troubled and despairing conscience of Mrs. Graham with a potent postscript: “P.S. – Of Course God does not consider you hopeless. If He did, He would not be moving you to seek Him (and He obviously is) . . . Continue seeking Him with seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.”

One of the privileges of serving as an RUF campus minister is engaging students who earnestly believe that God has given up on them and considers them to be hopeless cases. Our presupposition of God being at work affords me the even greater privilege of naming these signs of life and fanning them into flame – to urge students to “continue seeking Him with seriousness” precisely because He is not simply the author of our faith but the perfecter of it as well!

I’ve since played that story for a number of people, each time they laugh, then cringe as the audio of the commercial plays. Everyone identifies with that boy.  We’ve all had that moment when, so to speak, someone hits “play” and suddenly we see ourselves.  “I sound like that?  I look like that?  People think of me like…that?!  Oh no.”  We want to run, we want to hide, we want to change our names and move to a new town.  It’s a painful and scary thing to catch a glimpse of yourself as you really are.

College tends to be a time when in one way or another this moment happens.  When the ideal self identity of the perfect student, or the exceptional athlete, or the popular socialite, or the model Christian gets exposed as a sham.  Whether through failure in class, rejection by peers, or moral short falling students come to the realization, “I’m not who I thought I was.  I really sound like…that!” It is in these scary moments that often to Gospel sounds the sweetest, and the most unbelievable.  How do we now deal with ourselves once we see what we’re really like?  A large part of ministry is stepping into these moments and pointing away from the crumbled false identity and pointing to the new and true identity that is in Christ.  I am a Campus Minister at a college which is known particularly for its academic perfectionism. Because of this, I find myself talking about justification and the righteousness of Christ received by faith in the majority of my conversations with students.  Idealized self projections will inevitably fail. It’s good to have to watch that tape, every now and then, to be reminded of that. It’s even better to be told that the love of Christ doesn’t fail, that our righteousness is in him and that this cannot be tarnished one iota.  That is definitely good news for us all.  

Yes that’s the book for me,

I stand alone on the word of God,

The B-I-B-L-E!”

Every night as my wife and I put our children to bed, we sing this song as a family before we read the Bible.  We sing this song to help our children to know what is guiding us as we teach them the things we want them to know.  Becoming a parent pushed me to ask many questions like, “What is it that I want my child to believe?”  “What is it that I want my child to know?”  “What kind of person do I want my child to be?”  In some sense, we all wrestle with these very same questions.  Every day as soon as we turn on the TV, hop on the internet, or put in the earbuds, we begin to have different ideas coming at us.  Every commercial tries to persuade us to believe in their product.  Every song tries to persuade us to see the world as the songwriter does.  Every blog is proclaiming the truth as that person sees it.  These messages of information come flooding at us asking, “do you believe this and will you change to reflect this truth?”  Information is not valueless, but impacts us and seeks to change our course of action. If we do not recognize it, we find ourselves being changed without knowing it.  

Living at the beach, I have found it humorous how many people I know have come here and participated in a time-share sales meeting, going to it stating very emphatically that they will not buy a time-share.  More often than not, they do.  The time-share presenters know that you do not want to buy one, but they also know that most people just leave it at that, and do not take the time to think why they should not buy one.  The battle is mostly won at that very point.

As we go about our day to day life, if we just subscribe to a view point without reflecting on why we believe what we believe, then we are setting ourselves up to be persuaded away.  We will be open to whatever idea seems interesting, pressing, or compelling at the time.  What we need is firm foundations for our beliefs, something that can help us everyday think through what is true, what is right, what is good.  We need something that will not change, but will be a consistent guide.  This is why when I think of what I want my children to believe in and to know I teach them to look to the Bible.  It can do what I cannot do for them, and that is to be a timeless firm foundation.  As we pound our fists in our hands as we say, “ I stand alone on the word of God” I know I am pointing them to wisdom that is wiser, stronger and more sure than myself.  That helps me to sleep at night.

Maybe it’s time for you to look at Jesus through the eyes of faith. Maybe you’ve grown up in church all your life, and these stories have grown cold and dry for you. Look again at the wonder of the cross. Feel the weight of your sin there, the agony of bearing your transgressions. The pain and shame of the cross.

And you should consider the empty tomb this Easter. Look again at the wonder of the resurrection. See the hope that it brings for you. For the situation you’re in with death and suffering all around you. For your broken relationships. For the dashed hopes you have. For the bitterness in your heart. For the abuse you’ve endured. Look to the empty tomb and believe.

Jesus says you are blessed if you don’t have the direct evidence of Thomas (who found out he didn’t need it like he thought). Blessed are you who have not seen and yet have believed. Let the Holy Spirit fill you today. Let peace guide you to all hope and blessedness. Believe in the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ for you.

If you are a skeptic, I’d like to ask you to be skeptical about your skepticism. If you are a cynic, please be more cynical about your cynicism itself. If you are rational, be more rational and reasonable about your rationalism.

Inside each of is us hope. Inside each of us is fear. Inside each of us is adventure.  Jesus transforms people. He did it to Thomas, the skeptic who became a great leader of the church. He did it to cowardly Peter, who became a great leader of the church. He did it to others who seemed to weak to serve. He can do it with you. He can change you. It happens through the resurrections.  

I think I’m going to see my friend Dustin again. It’s because of this text. Because of the resurrection, I think I will see him and rejoice. Not too long after his death, I was in my car and my iPod shuffled over to a cheesy 80s Christian song by Don Francisco called He’s Alive. I remember listening to it because my dad had all of Don Francisco’s records. He’s famous for putting Bible stories to music, telling the story as he goes along. In my early days of iTunes, I downloaded some of those nostalgic songs. He’s Alive was at the top of the list. I have listened to it countless times over the past 30 years now.

But this one time it came on, and I started singing along. And I started crying. Weeping. I was crying so hard I had to pull over because I couldn’t see. It was because I was thinking about Jesus and I was thinking about Dustin. Jesus rose from the dead! There is death and sadness but that is not the final answer! Death has been and will be conquered! Because of this I have a real sadness as I enter the world and embrace its brokenness. But I have a real hope that all will be made right, all the bad will become untrue (as Tolkien says) and someday God’s children in Christ will live in glory.

What are some things that may frighten or unnerve you just a little?

I believe at the root of just about every issue that may face a student is the issue of authority. Every authority structure you have respected up to this point may be challenged by doubt and skepticism in the classroom. In general, authority (God and religious belief, parents and family expectations,) may be questioned as it relates to your life's meaning, your purpose or your calling. The crisis of authority is very old. It did not take long for Adam and Eve to question the right of the Creator, Himself, to put boundaries on them. Many students come to the campus understanding that the lack of discipline and defined boundaries in their own families has proven to be destructive.

The influx of different religious and philosophical views converging on the college campus produces doubts in many students' minds about appropriate authority structures. Significant confusion and struggle is a normal adjustment to diversity. RUF wants to help you wrestle with and think through the confusion and point you to the authority of scripture. We can have confidence in God's truth about Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection.

Maybe just thinking about the intellectual and cultural environment you are about to go into is a little scary. Hard questions about morality, why people suffer and why evil things happen seem to be endless. An encouraging point: As doubts, questions and fears arise we realize these "why" questions are not new. We can't let ourselves think they are new or different now than they have been in the past. Doing so could tempt us to think that the Bible is not equipped to address these issues. We believe the gospel (that Jesus died to make us right with God and has promised never to leave us or forsake us, even into eternity) goes right to the heart of those struggles and addresses them head-on. This belief that the work of Jesus was sufficient to satisfy God's requirement for perfection gives us the courage to say, "There is truth ... ," and gives us the love to engage those who disagree.

We would love for RUF to give you the basis, and the safe place, for long relational conversations about the hard things in life, conversations that span months or even years.

You may be one of the "convinced" (or the parent of a student you believe to be convinced of the truth of the gospel) who wants to lovingly engage others in these conversations about the unshakeable truth of scripture. Or you, or your child, may be "unconvinced" about the truth of scripture. Either way, please check us out. Sit down with a campus minister, intern or staff member and talk about your struggles and questions.

This is why pastoring college students (or anybody!) can be a tricky process. As sinners, we're always tempted to worship the thing we've learned over and above what that thing is pointing us unto. Some worship evangelistic skills, or a particular discipleship method, or how to have the perfect "quiet time". During the process of learning we often desire to put our faith and confidence in the process instead of in Jesus.

In RUF, one of our presuppositions is simply that learning is a process, and for each person that process may look very different. As a student in RUF I had campus ministers who demonstrated to me that Christianity is about more than just downloading information; rather, it is about putting that information into motion by faith. This has taught me much as a pastor, because I know that simply relating the information, or training an eager student to lead a Bible study, is not enough. Just because an individual has good answers or an abundance of enthusiasm does not necessarily mean they are learning what it means to follow Christ.

We use an acronym to help us remember how to implement this learning process: TDOEE. Teaching God's Word is the crucial first step. This might seem obvious, but it's really not. Often the temptation is to teach people a methodology first. This will only lead to moralism. The Holy Spirit works through the Bible to bring us to repentance and change us. More and more, the students I encounter know little to nothing about what the Bible actually says, although they might be steeped in Christian lingo and morality. This is why the second step must be to Demonstrate a life changed by the Gospel. Students must see their pastors living a life of repentance and faith upon Jesus alone. They must see that we too are in the midst of the learning process, and are continually being changed by God's Word.

The next three steps may be the most difficult because they involve a tremendous amount of patience and love. Students must be Observed to see if they are actually being positively changed by the gospel. Are true fruits of the Spirit appearing in the lives of these students? This is not an overnight process. And as they are being observed, they must also be Evaluated. Undoubtedly, this is can be a very difficult thing to do. We have to say things to students that they typically do not want to hear, but do it in a way that shows them the love of Christ. And so, the last step, and one which is employed throughout the learning process, is to Encourage. Students need to know that someone is rooting for them-true teaching involves patiently loving the student through the entire process.

And thus, what we desire students to learn in this process is utter dependence upon the grace of God. We long to see students repent from leaning upon their own understanding, and to embrace the true wisdom of God's Word.

C.S. Lewis observes the importance of silence through his title character in The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape is a demon who is writing letters to his nephew (also a demon) on how to best pull a human away from God. Screwtape angrily denounces silence, realizing that allowing a person to be silent allows them to both rest and reflect. Lewis says that both silence and music are glimpses of heaven. Screwtape views silence as an ultimate evil, declaring, "We will make the whole universe a noise in the end." It seems that our society has embraced this principle. Thus, we run from silence and we embrace noise.

Christ's mother shows us a better way. Luke's gospel tells us, "But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart," (Lk. 2:19). Mary had just given birth to the King of Kings. She held in her arms God incarnate and yet she took the time to treasure up all that she saw and to ponder it in her heart. During this busy holiday season, shouldn't we all take the time to treasure and ponder Christ, to reflect on the birth of our savior and our king, and to rest in the salvation he brings? This Christmas, take the time to be still and know that He is God (Ps. 46:10).

The conversation came to an untimely halt, though, when I asked him a simple question: “In thinking about your stand on issues, how do you let the Bible inform your views?”

While I have asked students hundreds of questions over the years, not many have evoked a stumped silence from them. This was one of those questions.  As this student had some level of Christian maturity, the silence surprised me.  After stumbling for an answer, he admitted sheepishly, “I-I-I don’t know.  I hadn’t really thought of that before.”

As a campus minister, this was not the first time I had run into such inconsistency.  On the one hand, I see Christian students who have been eager to grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Yet on the other hand, I have seen these same students unaware of their Lord’s call on the entirety of their lives.  Left untouched by His authority have been their studies, their relationships, their bodies, their emotions, and their dreams.

But this is not the Gospel we believe as Christians.  The Gospel we believe forces us to a much different consideration: Christ’s Lordship over the whole of our lives.  For when the Gospel takes root in believers’ hearts, those hearts are changed.  And when hearts are changed, whole lives are changed (cf., Matt 15:18-19).  No corner of the believer’s life escapes the Gospel’s notice.  It is this implication of the Gospel my student needed to hear that day; it is the same implication that all who believe must hear as well.

Jesus' last words before He ascended into heaven were what the church refers to as the Great Commission. Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." He begins by reaffirming His all-powerful control of the world. Then Jesus goes on to confirm the mission. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you." Jesus then again reminds His church at the end of this passage of His powerful presence as He says, "And I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Jesus began with His promise of authority, gave the mission, and ended with His promise of His continual presence. From these promises, and other promises repeated throughout the Bible, RUF has developed the presupposition that God is at work.

God is powerful, alive, and active. This allows His people to take hope that the church will never fail.
Jesus says that He has come to make all things new and He is redeeming what He has created. Therefore, regardless of the work of individuals or even a group of people, God is carrying out His purposes. He is working all the time to glorify Himself and bring His plan of redemption to His world.

This presupposition, God is at work, causes great enjoyment in ministry and gives RUF campus ministers, students, and volunteers, the privilege to join God in His work on the university campuses around the world.

It was not good "that man should be alone."

You see, this same God who creates "in his image" is not merely a "me" but also an "us." That is, God's very self-definition is that of a Tri-Unity or Trinity. He is three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and one essence. God did not create man because he was lonely because he was in fact NOT lonely. God has always existed in eternal, fellowship with the other members of the Trinity. He is a God with community and relationship built right into his own glorious self-existence.

Therefore, it stands to reason that if this kind of God was going to create something "in his image," his creatures would not adequately reflect that image if they were not in fellowship with one another? This is why it is "not good" that man is alone. The world is a theater for God's glory, and essential to that glory is his wondrous oneness in plurality. Only mankind in relationship can adequately display God's glory.

So what does this have to do with RUF? Formatted onto the spiritual hard drives of his "images" is an instinct for community. To adequately embrace God's mission for the world, we must be about the development and mission of more than isolated redeemed individuals. RUF is convinced that we are to be assembling what the Bible calls the Church, "called out ones" who take up the mission to restore God's creation that is marred by the systemic effects of human rebellion.

Therefore, at its heart, RUF is about relationships. We are about your relationship with God. We are about your relationship with others who know God. We are about your relationships with those who do not know God. We are about your relationship with yourself. We believe that God is building a community, a wide expanse of his creatures from "every tribe, every tongue, and every nation," to populate his world and expand his glory into eternity.

One day, executives in the company evaluated my wife's work. They praised her for being such an effective salesperson and for representing their product so well. Then they proceeded to show her how she could make far more money if she would lessen her attempts to sell the product to individuals and instead signed up other representatives to sell the product for her.

Not long after that, my wife came to me frustrated and disillusioned. What had once been a joy had suddenly become a burden. The focus had shifted. It was less about people and more about building something for selfish gain. And it zapped her zeal and passion for something she once loved. After a short discussion, I simply encouraged her to go back to the basics and to just "sell the long distance." She did. And organically, others began to ask how they might sell it too.

Later, as a RUF campus minister, I experienced similar struggles. Sometimes I would see other student groups growing numerically faster than RUF and I would be tempted to envision a program, an event, a novel methodology-anything to make RUF more outwardly impressive. Sometimes it was less about people and more about building for selfish gain. That is when my wife would lovingly take my face in her hands and simply admonish me to just "sell the long distance."

One of the things I appreciate about RUF is the emphasis on ministry driven by the means of grace. We focus our work on leading students to study the scriptures, pray, worship, and benefit from fellowship with other believers. These are the needful means God uses to call us and to grow us as followers of Jesus. "Selling the long distance" is about staying focused on loving God, loving others, leading people to the means of grace, and about keeping a long-term view.

It is ironic that those long distance executives, in their zeal for being bigger and richer, ultimately lost one of the best representatives that they ever had. "Slow and steady wins the race." That is why in RUF, we often encourage one another with a simple phrase; "Sell the long distance." God's means are effective. And in the end, that is why RUF has been humbly blessed to watch God grow this ministry over the decades despite our periodic doubts and whims.

Decades after the first RUF formed, we still call our campus ministers to this approach to ministry: Keep focus. Preach well. Meet faithfully with students one on one. Pray with them and for them. Assimilate them into relationships with other Christians. Equip them to reach others. Encourage them to love and serve the church. Take one day at a time. Meet with one student at a time. Avoid novelties that are focused on building for selfish gain. Trust that God is at work through his means and through his people. "Sell the long distance."