Spring 2012: MOmentum

As it's been a while since I've taken the time to update my blog, I thought I'd write a flurry of posts to give you a sense of what we've been up to on campus and what I've been up to personally as well. Happy reading!

Last Spring, the Missouri InterVarsity Staff team was granted a national grant to create a cohort of students who would agree to be part of a semester-long training curriculum designed to help them become better evangelists - to train them in learning how to share the Gospel with their friends and classmates in ways that allow those who don't know Jesus to understand and explore the Gospel.

We had never done anything like this before but about 30 students ended up going through the program and we saw a lot of fruit from even our first efforts at designing a program like this. We called it MOmentum, partly because we thought the MO thing (Missouri) was clever, but mostly because momentum is exactly what we were hoping it would drive on campus. So, as we were planning the year back before school started, we decided that we again wanted to invite several students to join us in growing as evangelists in community with other students and staff. Two of our leaders here at SLU volunteered to lead our team and quickly recruited another 8 students to join them. The team is comprised completely of freshmen and sophomores eager to learn how to share their faith, most of them for the first time.

We've been learning a lot this semester through MOmentum. A few folks experienced frustration right off the bat as they were challenged to talk to their friends about Jesus back in January and found less-than-welcoming receptions to these conversations. A few of the students have felt exhilarated by the surprisingly warm response their friends have given to talking about Jesus. More than anything though, they are learning what it means to be a community learning together. Every month, they gather once as a Missouri team for training and then once more as a SLU team to share stories and support one another. This time has been especially sweet as those who feel frustrated band together with those who feel joyful and together cry out for God to work in the lives of their friends. As the staff of this chapter, there is nothing that gives me more joy than seeing a freshman student whose heart genuinely breaks for their friends who don't yet know Jesus. May God grant that LOTS of the folks we are reaching out to would respond and give their lives to Jesus this year!