Recently, our church has been going through a series on 1 Corinthians entitled, "When Churches Lose Their Way." There have been some really good messages that have benefited me...particularly the sermon about division. Take a listen here if you want: http://www.ubcfayetteville.org/2016/01/brad-wheeler-division-1-corinthians-110-421/
I remember early in our college ministry years, one particular student started becoming unable to come to our weekly activities anymore because of involvement in K-Life. To be perfectly honest, I was really frustrated. This student was stellar ( a youth group super star if you will) and I felt like she was being "stolen" from us by another ministry. I felt like we were always losing some of our top students out to other things that while they were great ministries, they weren't "our" ministry. It was a naive and selfish view that was short sighted and not very kingdom minded.
Sometimes I think we can find ourselves in the same world as the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians. Instead of some following Apollos, some following Paul, and some following Christ (1 Corinthians 3) our groups have different divisions, like STUMO, CRU, BCM, the Navigators, and the like. We start the beginning of the year and look at the student body as a pie to be divided up. We feel the need to swoop in and get students plugged in before someone else snatches them up.
Every year, our ministry houses the girls that go through sorority recruitment the week before school starts. They come into our building (along with other places on campus) to rest, cool off, watch movies, and wait until they go to the next house party they have on their schedule. The first few years I would get so frustrated as I tried to engage girls in conversation, hoping my personality and conversation would win them as a BCM student. Terrible game plan...terribly selfish. I was making these girls into consumers I was trying to win over rather than girls who desperately need to see the love of Jesus and the truth of the gospel displayed while they are in our care, so I changed my mindset. I needed to think more about reaching people and making disciples instead of building up numbers in a ministry. I began using my role during recruitment week to display the love of Christ, not the my love for the BCM and really cool things began to happen. We started asking local churches to come in and help host during recruitment, because above all, we want to help students connect with local churches. If they can't do a campus ministry and a local church we want them to pick a local church (because as my husband says, there is no BCM after college). Women from these churches (a lot of them who had been involved in Greek life themselves) did an amazing job as they engaged these girls in conversation and invited them to Sunday services. We started asking other ministries to come in and send female staff to help on days we were short handed...particularly, ministries that already had a strong greek presence. While we would love to have more of a greek presence in our ministry it would be selfish of us to not point students to ministries that are the best fit for them. We saw greek students get connected immediately to ministries and churches.
The Lord has shown me in the last several years how we are called to be connectors on this campus. We should be seeking, as disciples of Christ, to want to serve each person as they need us to. Sometimes that means we plant the seed of the gospel while they are in our building for sorority recruitment at the BCM, but CRU gets to water the seed and God gives growth until at last the truth of the gospel blooms forth as the students attends a local church. Other times, it may mean we recommend a church that isn't ours because it is a better fit for the student we are counseling. As we see the multitudes before us, let us have compassion. Let us not think of winning them over for the sake of our own pride in the ministry we serve, but for the sake of souls in need of a Savior. Let's work together for the gospel..cooperating, not competing, as we see the day draw near...because on that day when every knee bows and every tongue confesses, it will not be the name of the BCM or First Baptist wherever or STUMO that we cry, but the name of Jesus.
