” Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. ”

2 Corinthians 4:1-2

Share life.

Our home is a vital part of our ministry.  Students meet here for bible study, to eat, movies, games, food, to hang out, snack, etc.  And also to watch our family and be a part of our family.  We want them to see how real life works around our place and teach them about how real life works.  And how we walk through real life with God.

This means our door is open.  This also means we can go through a lot of food.  And it is food well spent when we can share stories, have relationships that are more than superficial or event related, pray together, let students see what we are like at home, talk about how God is working and involved at present, answer questions, laugh.

This is discipleship beyond content and our hope is that it helps all be ready for living their entire lives in light of eternity and God’s purposes, helps many know God personally, helps some become healthy.  It means we are transparent and vulnerable and open for inspection and correction.  Changing the world through God-honoring relationships.

This also means our schedules look a little different.  Its not 9 to 5 and then home.  Our ministry is our life.  We don’t have many early morning meetings with students (at least at CU), we often tell students to lock up when they leave, we never know who may be around for supper, Our ministry is our life. Our life is our ministry.  In fact, many of the things students said they remember learning from us happened in the midst of mundane, unplanned times - not a planned meeting.  So every conversation and comment counts and maybe some of the most teachable moments are those we haven’t scheduled.

I will look at evangelism and discipleship in the next post of What We Do.

Our byline at Christian Challenge is:

Changing the World through God-honoring relationships

We do this first by helping students have a growing, intimate relationship with God.  For some this means entering a relationship with God  for the first time by hearing the Gospel and receiving Christ. For others it means understanding for the first time what this relationship entails and taking it seriously.  And for others it is simply coming along side them and walking with them in the god-ward way they are already moving.

And for all we want to help solidify a foundation of connecting to Christ and looking more and more like Him that they can build on for the rest of their lives.

We also fulfill the objective by helping them know how to be in relationships that honor God.  To be a blessing, to initiate, to practice a holy curiosity,  to clear up relationships, to forgive and ask forgiveness, to serve, to do well in school - these are just some of the areas in which we mentor students.

And then changing the world.  As we practice God-honoring relationships in the places where God has us, people are changed.  But the scope of our vision goes beyond just our present location. We give students a vision for the people’s of the world.  Some can only be informed and pray, while others are able to spend a summer or semester in another country.

This is just a brief glimpse at our overall vision.  In following posts I will describe what this looks like more specifically.