Student Leadership Ministry Equips Students to Share Christ
By erin conner, writer and communications associate
As Christians around the world prepare their hearts this Lenten season to acknowledge Christ's death and resurrection, Christian Union is preparing student leaders to boldly proclaim the gospel.
Every spring, Christian Union holds an eight-week evangelism campaign across their ten ministries at some of our nation's most secular and influential schools, equipping students to share the gospel in multiple, meaningful ways. From social media ads to initiating conversations with strangers in the street to hosting highly visible, large group events on campus, student leaders are devoted to sharing the life-giving message of Jesus Christ to all who have ears to hear.
Different types of evangelism can be found in the pages of Scripture. Sometimes, new converts gathered friends and family members to hear the good news. On other occasions, Jesus or the disciples preach openly to crowds of people, some of whom are friendly and some hostile. On other occasions, evangelism is accompanied with miraculous signs to give glory to God. Christian Union recognizes that it can be tempting to identify one particular methodology of gospel proclamation as the most important but maintains that the Biblical model of evangelism is a comprehensive approach.
This month, Christian Union Nova at Princeton University is kicking off this comprehensive outreach campaign by hosting a one-week student conference entitled CU Proclaim for students at Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Harvard Law.This conference is a powerful gathering designed to ignite students' faith, deepen their spiritual walk, and equip them to boldly and comprehensively proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ on their campuses and beyond.
At these conferences, students step into an atmosphere of unity, passion, and purpose, where they connect with other faith-driven students from influential universities across the nation to pray together, grow together, and sharpen one another in preparation to make Jesus known to their generation.
This year, Christian Union is honored to host Pastor Carter Conlon, General Overseer of Times Square Church and author of Fear Not and It’s Time to Pray. His dynamic, Spirit-led teaching is set to equip and empower students to walk in boldness, deepen their faith, and step into their calling.
At last year's conference, held at Cornell University, one student shared with Marcus Buckley, the Ministry Director of Christian Union Vita, that he wondered how he was ever going to be bold enough to share Jesus with complete strangers by just walking up to them. By the end of the week, this same student could not be stopped, asking for more opportunities to go out and share with strangers. Students, by the grace and power of God, are taking the demonstrative love of Christ into their spheres of influence.
In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Matt Bennett, Founder and President of Christian Union, shared that students at some of America's most influential educational institutions constitute an "unreached people group" with such a low percentage of the student body and faculty identifying as Christians. CBN's article about the interview stated, "Bennett made a sobering statement that underscores the dire state of spiritual affairs and intense lostness at many of these colleges, when he said, 'What's shocking is that, in this audience, you have fewer practicing Christians than you do, say...in mainland China or a lot of other places that we consider unreached.'"
Bennett also shared in this interview that, in his experience over the last twenty-plus years of providing ministry in some of the most spiritually dark places in our country, personal connection, not a campaign, is ultimately what inspires an individual to accept the gospel. However, it seems people need to encounter several touchpoints with the gospel before going to a trustworthy Christian in their life with their questions. Consequently, each and every Christian's role is to have the courage to be known as a Christian in their sphere of influence, so that when someone is seeking Truth, they know to whom to turn for direction to find and follow Him.
Christian Union's boldness reminds all Christians that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope of all the world and that followers of God are privileged and duty-bound to proclaim it far and wide in the power of the Holy Spirit. No other message on earth is more important to communicate than the opportunity of reconciliation with God by grace through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Christianity’s mission to the world is one of love. Nothing is more loving than letting people know how eager God is to wipe away all their sins and to replace death with life, ashes with beauty, and captivity with freedom through faith in Christ.
Watch a related 12-minute CBNNews interview here.
