Kicking off the Edge: 2012 Style

Human Bingo!

The Edge Kickoff - What is the Gospel?

In the Summer of 2009, my old staff partner, Esther, and our supervisor, Tammy, sat down together to evaluate the chapter.  At the time, we had about 20 total people involved in two different small groups.  We had a "large group" event once per month where we'd throw together a campus-wide event that a few other folks would show up to as well.  Overall, we weren't really very satisfied with where things were going - nobody was coming to faith, we had no idea what we were doing with discipleship, and the chapter had never gotten beyond those 20 people since it was first planted.

So, we scrapped everything. No more small groups. No more "large" group. We started from scratch and got everybody interested in InterVarsity into one room.  All 12 of them.  We called this new group "The Edge" because we wanted to take the Gospel to the edges of our campus - every corner, every people group, every dorm, everywhere.  That year, 12 people grew to 19. The next year the 19 became about 50 which then grew to 90 people involved in InterVarsity at SLU across 12 Bible studies and at least 40 people coming to The Edge every week.

Last night, we kicked off the year officially with about 70 people crammed into a classroom meant for 60 at the most.  We even got them up for a game of Human Bingo (check the picture - it was tight).  We preached the Gospel. We told them about our Bible studies (or "cells"). We sang songs. We ate cookies.  Honestly, it was awesome. Every time we do this in September, I'm reminded both why I love my job and why it matters.  Who knows what will happen with those 70 people?  Some of them may never come back.  But some of them may take my job one day or plant churches, or be amazing Christian nurses and lawyers and doctors and more.  Some of them may meet Jesus for the first time or get plugged into healthy community for the first time.  Lots of them might at least find a home away from home.  Whatever happens, God is good and we're happy to be back in the swing of things!