Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Don't Overlook Fellowship Opportunities in College


This is the third post in the series "Your College Years Will Fly By".

I am continuing my series on not wasting your opportunities. Today’s post is on fellowship. Before I exhort you not to waste your opportunity, I should mention what fellowship is.

Fellowship involves Christians seeking to do spiritual good to one another and sharing life’s joys and struggles with one another. It is different than socializing in that it has a spiritual aim and foundation. It aims to spur each believer on to love, good deeds, and faithfulness. Its foundation is our common unity in Christ (which is why a Christian can and should love unbelieving neighbors, but there is no Christian fellowship there). I should point out that socializing works with fellowship in that socializing (talking about general and common life experiences) usually facilitates fellowship. It isn’t a replacement for fellowship (as if talking about who won the game is the same thing as fellowship). However, socializing isn’t unimportant either.

As young, unmarried adults, you have opportunities for a greater breadth of fellowship during this season of life. You will likely have more discretionary time than the “married with kids” demographic. I don’t mean to imply that you aren’t busy or that you don’t have serious work to do which consumes time and energy. You are likely very busy. All I mean is that your “free time” (however much you have) is likely discretionary (will you join this club, will you go to the football game, etc.). Whereas, a person who is married with kids has almost all of his or her free-time allocated. You might indeed stay up late working on papers, but you won’t have young kids waking up the next morning at the first sliver of dawning light to demand your attention. Perhaps you don’t have much discretionary time, but you likely have more energy than you will have in the future.

My point is that you should evaluate your opportunities to fellowship and maximize them for your good as well as that of others. Be broad in those you fellowship with. Try to be intentional at church to speak with older and younger people and to do them spiritual good. Hang out with the young families on the playground after Sunday evening service. Go to a Bible study to learn the Word with fellow believers and to pray with one another. Make time to socialize with fellow Christians so that you can more easily and naturally have spiritual fellowship.

Every stage of life should be marked by Christian fellowship. And in every stage of life there will always appear to be good reasons why you don’t have time for it. The temptation, especially in a Bible-centered church, is to see fellowship as simply a nice add-on. In otherwords, I come and hear the Bible, but I don’t have time to socialize and fellowship. Fight against this way of thinking. Develop the habit (the discipline) of fellowship now while you have a bit more energy and (perhaps) time. And when you grow older, don’t forsake it.

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Don't Waste Your Evangelism Opportunities in College

This is the second post in the series "Your College Years Will Fly By"


Here is my syllogism:
·       Every Christian must be involved in “making disciples,” which includes sharing the gospel with unbelievers.
·       Each stage of life brings some unique evangelistic opportunities. 
·       Therefore, be a good steward with your opportunities, for they will never be exactly the same in the future

Every Christian should evangelize

Jesus commanded his disciples to make disciples of all the nations. They “make disciples” (or followers of Jesus) by sharing the gospel message (Mark 1:15), exemplifying Christian love for fellow Christians (John 13:35), and letting the Lord give new life (John 3). The point is, every believer has a role to play. We know that this is true because the promise in the Great Commission is that Jesus will be with his followers until the end of the age to empower them in ministry. Therefore the ministry must endure past the original disciples to the end of the age.

Each stage of life brings some unique (and some similar) opportunities

For example, a young mom who is at home with her kids will have opportunities to evangelize her children, other moms she spends time around, her hairstylist, etc. Some of these are unique opportunities (her children) while others are more common (hairstylist).

You, as a young and single adult, will likely not have as many opportunities in the realm of evangelizing your children (but you could evangelize children through a ministry).  All I am saying is that there is usually a unique “people group” you can reach now that you will likely not have as direct access to in the future.

So, don’t waste the particular opportunities you have now. What doors are open for young adults? For those who are students, you have more direct contact with college students. These young men and women are at a phase of life in which they are trying to formulate convictions about their purpose, why the world is as it is, and where everything is going. That is a unique opportunity in terms of evangelism. 

Beyond that, young, unmarried adults often have a greater number of exchanges with people during the day. Between work and school, you are around large numbers of different folks. Being around more people, especially at a secular university, means you also have contact with a wider variety of people. Not merely in terms of numbers but in terms of worldviews and nationalities. You in a stage in life in which it takes less extra and intentional effort to break out of the silos of being around people that are mostly “just like you.”

Therefore, be a good steward

What a tremendous set of circumstances to minister in! What opportunities to make Jesus Lordship and grace known. So, don’t waste these unique opportunities. The same goes for “the rest of us.” We have unique opportunities that are unique if we open our eyes and love our neighbors.