Evangelism Trips

A lot of students assume I'm good at contact evangelism, that I don't fear it, like I've done this a million times and have some kind of plan because I'm leading weekly trips to Boulder. Truth is, God put it on my heart to carry on this LT tradition because this is a skill that needs developed for me. Whenever we walk through the Pearl Street pedestrian mall area, there are people I don't talk to because I haven't yet mustered up the courage to start talking with a complete stranger, because I'm intimidated by their body language or because I don't know how to begin. Yet God has certainly been at work here.

We've had three trips to Boulder for what we call contact evangelism so far. That essentially means that we pair up students, typically guys/girl, and encourage them to go begin spiritual conversations with people. Lots of people have mixed feelings about this kind of evangelism, but honestly, most people with negative views have them so they can justify their own fear of beginning these types of conversations.

Here are a few reasons why we are doing these trips:

• To help students get past "safe talk" with people and practice initiating spiritual conversations with people
• Biblically, Jesus and the disciples would tell people about the kingdom of God throughout his ministry and beyond.
• We believe that God can use these conversations to draw people to himself, whether it's salvation during these conversations or whether we are planting the seed for them to give themselves to him later.
• To grow a confidence and a clarity in our students about what they believe about God.

We rest on God's promise as Jesus says when he sent out his own disciples, 

"Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." Matthew 10: 19

My first trip, I paired with Ami, a students from Mizzou. We had three conversations, a reluctant older man, a girl who worked at the local Nepalese store and a homeless street musician named Gypsy who promptly told us he didn't talk about "God, politics or sports". My second week, I paired with a girl from Texas A&M named Chelsea, a new believer that just started reading her bible this summer! We visited with an older woman who had just recovered from breast cancer for about an hour, conversing about whether or not the bible can be trusted, if there is one true religion and of course who Jesus was. Chelsea was lit up afterward with excitement and passion for this. And just yesterday, Aimee and I paired up when our project group went to evangelize in Ft Collins. We visited with a homeless couple for over an hour about Jesus as we all ate Jimmy Johns. They we so open and you could tell they never talk about what they believe but were grateful to hear that we wanted to share God's love with them.

Oh I could share more but I would like to ask for prayer over these trips. If you think about it on Fridays, please pray for courage, for God's provision and that we would share the gospel boldly.

June 2012 Prayer Letter

This one is coming at you from Estes Park, Colorado! I've been excited to share with you about how the LT program is going so far. Here, I share about Project Groups, the Worship Team and Evangelism. Also, Aimee shares some thoughts in this prayer letter! I pray it's an encouragement to you.

Take care,
Chris

Baptisms Spring 2012

On our way out of the school year, we had "Payday", as Pastor John tells us, by celebrating new life. Since our Fall Retreat in October, we've had 9 students make a verbal commitment before the church to follow Jesus.

At 10pm in our pastor's driveway, using his hot tub as a baptismal (because that's how we roll), we heard the testimonies of these 9 students, baptized them and prayed over them. It was a phenomenal way to end the year.

Feel free to join us in praising God for His life-changing work!

Pittsburgh Church Plant

This Fall, we will send out a team to officially plant a church at the University of Pittsburgh. In a partnership with our sister church at Michigan State, we our sending out Pastor Ed Courtney, staff members Bill Lautenschlager, Peggy Myers, Amanda Craven (currently support-raising), associate staff Melissa Fritts and a slew of alumni who were great leaders in our church.

We recognized the team at our last service of the year, this past Saturday. In October, we'll bring everyone back for a bigger send-off ceremony but for now we wanted to recognize that this was the last service many of them would be attending. We are so excited for this plant and yet it is obviously a time where we'll be grieving not having these guys and girls around next year.

If you'd like to follow the team on Facebook, you can go here

Please pray for:
- Jobs for our leaders who are not on staff.
- God to prepare the campus for his servants there.
- Safety of the students as they have received several bomb threats this year.
- Unity and purpose of the team as they prepare this huge task.

Many of you knew Sherri Bent from Hope Community Church. She went to be with the Lord on Thursday, with her husband Stephen and two children, Kainan and Navi'a mourning her loss. Please be in prayer for this family. Below is a link to the obituary page.

We know this world is not our home and that Sherri is with the Lord today. It's a time to celebrate that and yet our hearts and prayers as well need to be with the family who is mourning this time of separation until they meet again.

Obituary Page

Thanks,
Chris