Evangelism - near and far

Our mission with Campus Crusade for Christ involves three key "distinctives" - Win, Build, and Send.

Win: to introduce students to the person of Jesus Christ
Build: to help students grow in their faith
Send: to equip students to win/build/send for a lifetime

I want to take just a minute or two to talk about two different experiences this past week in the "win" category. I titled this, "Evangelism - near and far" because the two means of evangelism for me this past week (well, the two stories I'm going to tell at any rate) couldn't be more different.

The first involves a couple of guys on the track team. Andrew is a guy who has been involved with our Athletes in Action ministry for several years, but is still gaining confidence in his new relationship with Christ. This past Thursday, he and I were meeting (it was supposed to be a larger AIA Bible study, but he was the only one who could make it.....ah, student ministry!) when all of a sudden his roommate, Anthony, showed up. He plopped down and we just started talking. He wondered what we were doing, so I explained about our small group. Then I started asking him some questions. It was clear that he had not thought of spiritual things for many, many years. His family had taken him to church until 2nd grade, and he hadn't been back since. Yet as I asked him some questions, he was able to articulate some of the things he had learned (the lesson: teach your kids well, because, really, they won't forget it).

The long and short of the conversation was this: I ended up sharing the gospel with him, and Andrew chimed in with some thoughts and a bit of his personal testimony. Anthony did not receive Christ, but heard probably for the first time how a person could enter into a relationship with Jesus. God provided us with an opportunity, and we took it.

The second story involves a strategy called "everystudent.com". This is a national website (check it out...it's great) that addresses so many of the important questions that people ask. We are doing this strategy on a number of Connecticut campuses, including Quinnipiac University. This past week I received an email from a student named Travis who asked me a ton of questions - some theological, some philosophical, but all interesting - and we have engaged in a back-and-forth email discussion since. He has asked me about Jesus' claims to be God, the historical evidence for the resurrection, the scientific evidence supporting theism, free will, prayer, and much more. Some questions probably are legitimate areas of inquiry for him, and others may be smoke screens to hide a deeper issue. In either case, I've been able to present a Biblical worldview that hopefully makes sense to him. I have never met Travis, but we've already engaged on a deep level thanks to the advance of technology.

So there you have it: evangelism near (Anthony) and far (Travis). Please feel free to pray for these two young men as they process our ongoing conversations!