Can God Change the U of M?
Posted by Paul Poteat in Ministry Update on February 8th, 2010
I have been ministering at the U of M for several years now and it has some distinct challenges. 55,000 students attend the U. That’s a lot. On top of that most students have night classes so they aren’t available from 6:00 until 9:30 at least one night a week. A large majority of the students need to work jobs in order to pay for their housing and tuition. Those who can’t work a job or choose not to graduate with upwards of $80,000 worth of debt. The campus is segmented into three different areas with dorms and eating facilities all over it. The campus itself has more stop lights in it then the town I once lived it. I could go on and on here. For a while I have been somewhat daunted by these realities and by the challenge they bring to campus ministry.
I am reminded of a Biblical account from the book of Numbers chapter 13, verses 25-29. In that story spies return from viewing the land and most are overwhelmed with the obstacles. All that they see are barriers and reasons to abort the mission. In their eyes nothing will get them into the land. They are daunted. This is very close to how I view myself and my faith at points in regards to the U of M. The barriers are too big for God to do a significant work.
A few weeks ago Campus Outreach Minneapolis had it’s annual Winter Leadership Retreat. For this we had two staff guys from CO Indianapolis come and speak on how God has worked and is working on their campuses. One guy shared about IUPUI, a school in Indianapolis. It was 98% commuter, almost no dorms, no student groups, a terrible student center, basically a barren wasteland in regards to ministry opportunity…or so it seemed. He spoke of how after several years of faithful labor there that God is changing the campus. Students are coming to Christ, dorms are being built, they have a new student center, what once seemed daunting is now seen as yet another example of God acting.
This story humbled me. I felt ashamed of my lack of faith, of the tiny barriers that had become giants in my mind and had caused me to doubt whether God could really bring about change at the U of M. Well, my response? Repentance. So often this is the posture of a Christian. We must constantly bow before God and acknowledge how our faith is small, how we put God in a box, how we don’t believe that HE is able to change a heart, change a campus, and ultimately change the world.
The answer to the title of this blog is a resounding YES! God can change the U of M and difficult campus dynamics are only there to make his remarkable power shine all the more brightly so that I can have no reason to boast in anything other than Him. I want to repent for all the ways I doubt this and fight to believe that HE is able.
BULLCOW – Pleasing vs. Trusting
Posted by COM Blogger in Resources on February 6th, 2010
We had almost 150 students attend a weekly meeting of Bethel and Northwestern students. Andrew Knight spoke about pleasing verses trusting God. He also taught on how that relates to the story of the men lowering a paralytic to see Jesus. There were 2 goals of this talk:
1. Which is better pleasing God or trusting God?
2. Which character in the story do you most identify with?
What’s the Purpose of a Support Letter
Posted by Andrew Knight in Ministry Update on February 4th, 2010
This all started when I began receiving letters in the mail asking for support for a variety of good missionary causes from friends and acquaintances. From some of them I had received multiple letters because the support process was not making much progress. During this season, my wife and I decided to offer our resources, experience, and time to help those with support raising that we could not support personally. The following words are a collection of ideas that have been spurred by others’ questions, experiences, and misconceptions about support raising. As I have reflected over the most common misconceptions it most often comes down to a support raisers understanding of the purpose for each part of the support process. Offering direction here seems to provide a lot of help, direction, and set expectations for funding their particular ministry.
The 5 parts of a support strategy are only as effective as is the clearness of purpose for each part of the process. Each part of the 5 step process is crucial to achieving the end goal. Each one is not supposed to achieve the end goal directly, but indirectly. Each one has its purpose to achieve and set up the next step in the process.
Therefore, rule number 1:
Never use a contact letter as a means for getting support. Letters provide a means for informing and connecting, not asking. People do not respond primarily to letters, but to people so do not let a letter stand in the place of a direct and personal ask. Letters to not let you capitalize on your emotion, your personality, your relationship with the person, nor a conversation. They can seem impersonal and do not communicate personalization and care for a person, but just their finances. A face to face appointment of the other hand communicates you have time for the other person and want them and not just what they can give you.
This is one of the most major misconceptions that I face when counseling and giving feedback to fund-raisers. They misuse the letter for its purpose. Its intention is to inform and set up an initial phone call. That’s all. Nothing more and nothing less. Now, its important because it is a first impression, but its sole purpose is to set up a phone call. That is its primary purpose. Do not try to make your letter a do it all, communicate all, cover everything, ask for money renaissance pamphlet.
Here are a couple of reminder:
1. Keep it to one page
2. Include a picture that is catchy and provides some color
3. Your letter should comprise of three parts:
- Introduction- update them on this present season of life
- Information – inform them about your ministry vision and vehicle
- Invitation – invite them to partner with you
4. Hand write a personal note at the bottom that communicates that you will be calling in one week to follow this letter up.
5. Sometimes if you send a letter to someone who is close to you can make the relationship feel impersonal. Only send a letter to those who you feel you cannot call on directly for your first contact (ie, sending a letter to close friends and family is not needed)
6. Be clear that your intention is to contact them and follow-up with them about the opportunity for them to partner with you financially and prayerfully.
Again, your purpose is to follow-up not gain support out of it. You want supporters, not just support and this comes by the grace of God and for those who sink time into this process. The role of the letter is to set up a phone call-Remember this!!
U of M COW – Who Says?
Posted by COM Blogger in Resources on February 3rd, 2010
Matt Reagan opened the semester of U of M COW meetings by introducing the topic of Who Says?
North SS: Acts 1:8
Posted by COM Blogger in Resources, Sunday School on February 3rd, 2010
Charlie introduced our topic for college sunday school a couple of weeks ago. We will be giving an overview of the book of Acts this year.
College Connection: Little Christian Words – Peace
Posted by COM Blogger in Resources, Sunday School on February 3rd, 2010
Eric Lonergan spoke this past week in downtown college connection on peace
I Want More
Posted by Karyn Tomlinson in Ministry Update on February 2nd, 2010
Last Wednesday about 25 girls crowded into our Northwestern women’s ministry house (“Wilder”) for our freshman girls’ movie bible study. After visiting and snacking, we watched a couple clips from Disney movies–Ariel singing “I want more” and Belle lamenting her provincial life. We talked about how those themes resonated with us even as little girls because of our endless cravings. No matter how much it seems like we have going for us, it never hits the spot. God designed us with desires so that he could satisfy them, but we look elsewhere and love ourself or other things more than God…sin worthy of death. We looked at John 4 where Jesus engaged the woman at the well and saw how Jesus answers our desire problem: not only has he been perfect in this way for us so we don’t have to experience God’s wrath, but he also promises that all our desires ultimately can be met in him.
After working on the study, I realized that often in ministry when my good desires are unmet they reveal deeper desire-dysfunction in my own heart. A freshman isn’t able to go on a retreat, one of the girls in my group just doesn’t seem to get it, or a key conversation didn’t go the way I had hoped. I immediately get frustrated because I want them to know Jesus more and grow as kingdom laborers, and I think that because fill-in-the-blank didn’t happen, they’ll come short of that goal. If I’m honest with myself though, I’ll realize that that doesn’t make sense. If I really believe that God is going to complete the work he started in them (Phil. 1:6), that he’s way more committed to them than I am (John 10), and that he can use everything (even sin!) for their good (Rom. 8:28), then I don’t need to get worried or anxious over what I interpret as set-backs. So at the bottom of my frustration I realize that there are other desires lurking–I think I need accomplishment, influence in someone’s life, recognition, etc. But John 4 makes it clear that it’s dangerous to try to satisfy those cravings with ministry…or anything else. Like the woman at the well, I need to repent and find my soul stilled and thirst quenched and in Jesus Christ, the fountain of living water.
GOD Changes Hearts
Posted by Eric Lonergan in Blog, Campuses, Ministry Update on January 28th, 2010
In 1 Cor. 3:1-9 Paul is dealing with divisions within the Corinthian Church. Apparently camps were forming between those who had been influenced by Paul and those who had been influenced by Apollos. I find one particular implication extremely helpful for a temptation my heart often is given over to.
I cannot be reminded enough by the point Paul makes regarding the role he and Apollos have when it comes to ministering the gospel to others. He asks, “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” When I immerse myself into the lives of others for the sake of their growth I find that I have to be very careful of idolatry. There is a sort of involvement and desire for the life of the men I am ministering to that may reveal more than simply a desire for them to grow. When I begin to sense that my joy is robbed and I become angry at the lack of maturity I see in these men, my desire for them to grow has shifted from something good and pure to something evil. Perhaps it could be best described as shifting from a desire for their growth to the desire. That is, when my joy is so intertwined with their maturity that it is everything to me, then I am idolizing ministry.
It is in this state of mind and heart that I become extremely harsh with them. I lose complete sight of the gospel, and become a minister of the letter, not the Spirit. I make up false standards that are my standards, not God’s. It’s here that my pride is on the line, not their growth. Paul says in 2 Cor. 3:6-7 that God has “made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” When I am not in their presence I am anxious, constantly mulling over in my head what kind of conversation I need to have that will get them to see things clearly.
The reminder of 1 Cor. 3 is that GOD gives the growth! The state of idolatry of ministry is a role reversal. It puts me in God’s place. I begin to act and live as though my actions, words, and thoughts are what changes hearts. This is so backwards to what Paul says to the Corinthians. He says that he and Apollos are nothing. Lord, help me and our staff team understand the joy and glory found in self-forgetfulness. Only when understanding that God gives the growth and I am a servant through whom he might choose to work will I truly love those I am ministering to.
College Connection: Little Christian Words – Intro
Posted by COM Blogger in Resources, Sunday School on January 27th, 2010
Paul Poteat opened up the series for downtown Sunday School (now called College Connection) on Little Christian Words. This semester they will look at words like: peace, love, joy, gentle, humble, etc. College Connection starts at 10am on Sunday mornings at BBC Downtown Campus.
MNYC 2009: Men’s Seminar
Posted by COM Blogger in Christmas Conference, Resources on January 26th, 2010
David Burns spoke to the men about what it means to be a Biblical man
-
Summer Training Project
begins in 5 months and 21 days.Podcast Feeds
