College Union

by Keith Wasserman

During the 10 years that I worked as leader and director with an evangelical campus ministry, we focused on teaching young believers how to worship, understand God’s work, develop a disciplined life of prayer and Bible study, and communicate the gospel to this generation. Our goal was to raise up leaders who would “2 Timothy 2:2 it to the world.” But today as I reflect upon those years, I am gripped with the awareness that something vital was missing from our ministry.

When Jesus announced what the ministry of the Messiah would look like, he quoted from Isaiah 61, saying, “The Lord’s Spirit has come to me, because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to free everyone who suffers,” (Luke 4:18).

Is it possible that by focusing so narrowly on individual spiritual growth, we as evangelicals have actually institutionalized neglect of the poor in campus ministry? Can it be that the leadership of our ministry is, by omission, teaching that the needy are not among God’s priorities?

Missing the Mark

Ask any college student in your fellowship to name the top 10 issues that your ministry emphasized this year. When was the last time your students were encouraged to participate in a retreat on ministry to the poor and oppressed or to get involved in the community in a way that would bring them into contact with those living on the margins of society?

I recognize that most of us in campus ministry are there because God called us, and because we believe it to be the best way to impact the world. I also recognize that we each wrestle with a limited amount of time to teach young believers the “essentials” of the Christian faith.

Nevertheless, I want to raise this question: Does the biblical worldview of the average student coming out of our fellowships include an understanding of God’s heart for the poor? Can we say with confidence that our students know as much about the consistent biblical themes of the widow, orphan, and stranger as they do about how to discover God’s will for their lives or God’s guidelines for dating relationships?

Are we teaching our students to value spending time with the elderly, being a “big brother” or “big sister’ to a kid from a single-parent family or volunteering time at a homeless shelter as much as we are teaching them about sharing their faith or practicing the disciplines of quiet time and a consistent prayer life?

Nurturing Faith in Action

Today I direct Good Works, Inc., a ministry to the rural poor and homeless of Athens, Ohio. Would it surprise you to learn that our non-Christian volunteers outnumber our Christian volunteers three to one? Why is this? Because he who makes the definitions wins the arguments.

If being a Christian is defined only in terms of personal holiness and individual spiritual development — and measured in Bible study and church attendance — then it is no wonder that the average student sees little to no value in serving the poor.

In many ways, no one is better equipped to serve the needy than college students. It is often the ardent desire of youth to stretch themselves in the name of some higher calling, some greater cause. They long to make a difference in the world, to be relevant and feel needed. Rather than directing them inward in a search for personal spiritual growth, why not encourage them to go out into a needy world?

Meeting Christ in “the Least of These”

If it is our goal to know Christ and to make him known, then Jesus will reveal himself to us through face-to-face contact with “the least of these” in ways we will never meet him in a Bible study, prayer meeting, or sermon. A deeper relationship with God waits for us as we “spend ourselves” (Isa. 58:10) into the lives of those in economic, physical, and emotional need. We actually experience a depth in our relationship with Christ Jesus as we encounter him in suffering people who cannot repay us.

Go, therefore, and demonstrate the compassion of Jesus to the poor all around you. Be intentional. Do it as an act of true spiritual worship and as an effort to demonstrate the gospel. This is a kingdom value — to have a heart and an ear for the needy. And it’s all about the kingdom, isn’t it?

Keith Wasserman is a former college ministry leader. He currently serves as the director of Good Works, Inc., a ministry to the rural poor and homeless of Athens, Ohio. You can reach him by e-mail at goodworks@good-works.net

www.good-works.net 

This article first appeared in Prism Magazine, the flagship publication of Evangelicals for Social Action.

Categories: General, Missio Dei
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