IFES as Para-Ecclesiastical Ministry for Student Evangelisation

“Change the university and you will change the world.”

CHARLES HABIB MALIK
LEBANESE PRESIDENT OF THE THIRTEENTH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Specialised Ministries and Church Collaborations: A Necessity

The Christian ministries sometimes called ‘para-ecclesiastical,’ are specifically dedicated to a single field of mission – whether for reaching students, prisoners, and those with disabilities, or for education, Bible translation, social and economic development, theological training, production of literature, etc.

Specific to student evangelism, these specialised ministries – such as the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), Cru, the Navigators, Youth with a Mission and others – tend to be widely accepted by evangelical churches. Several of these movements have made remarkable contributions towards the sharing of the Gospel, with many people having converted thanks to the testimonies of these groups at universities. Numerous evangelical church or mission leaders have also recognised the key role their involvement as students in these groups have played in orientating them towards their present vocations.

However, due to the often ‘interdenominational’ nature of those ‘para-ecclesiastical’ ministries, some local churches or denominations have reservations in supporting them. With their noble intent to preserve doctrinal purity, and especially to maintain influence over the students (including financially), some churches have set up their own campus ministries. This sometimes leads to a proliferation of fragmented denominational initiatives on university campuses, without any real collaboration between evangelical groups. This increase of denominational groups in the university is far from viable in the long term – particularly since the resulting disorder and disarray among Christian groups is often used by universities as a pretext to justify the prohibition of Christian witness on campus.

Given the particular nature of the university, the best strategy for evangelicals would be ongoing cooperation and collaboration, whereby the numerous different denominations work together with the specialised ministries that already hold the experience, skills, and knowledge required. Through this togetherness, the para-ecclesiastical ministries can be accountable to the wider Church body, thus creating a positive channel of communication and a climate of trust. Such a climate can contribute greatly towards a more effective use of resources and a more effective mission overall. We see also that where good interdenominational cooperation and specialised ministries exist, student evangelism is significantly more effective.

Where Christian groups do co-exist on campuses, they must avoid entering into competition with one another. Each organisation will often have a speciality or a particular expertise that others do not necessarily have. We are all bound by the common desire for students to discover and follow Christ and be transformed. The purpose of our missional presence at universities is the expansion of the Kingdom of God, not the empire-building of any particular ministry through competition which are counter-productive to the Christian witness in the university.

The best strategy is one that consists of students themselves reaching their peers. This is why Christian students must be the primary actors in evangelism on campus, since they live together, developing friendships, discussing, and debating.

Cooperation is itself a strategy for evangelism, as it allows non-Christian students to see and understand the values of Christian love, visibly shining through Christian unity on campus. One of the criticisms often brought against Christian students is the image portrayed of an incomprehensible fragmentation. Therefore, when different Christian groups work in harmony on campus, they contribute towards removing this perception, eliminating at least one of the barriers that prevent certain students from lending their attention to the saving message of Jesus Christ.

Student Outreach as a Strategic Priority

Closer to home, IFES, as a para-ecclesial movement, has God’s love for students as our primary motivation for student outreach. The Church’s attitude towards these millions of students worldwide should draw inspiration from that of Jesus Christ: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36).

The university is a strategic institution. It is there that young people are equipped and shaped. It’s often in the university that decision-makers are trained and that their vocation is determined for the rest of their lives. In many countries of the world, students form the elite of their society, holding considerable potential for influence. It is from within this trained elite, that leaders and decision-makers in the fields of economics, politics, science, and religion are recruited. By becoming Christian during their university days, these students have the time and opportunity to develop a Christian worldview. In their formative training as disciples of Jesus Christ, they become capable of making wise life choices, dedicating their lives and their vocations to the Lord. If universities, in their current form, had existed during the time of apostles, there is no doubt that people like the Apostle Paul would have intentionally invested time there, preaching the Good News to students. His ties with the intellectual world, particularly in Areopagus, testify to his awareness of the strategic nature of the intellectual elite.

Faced with the increasing secularisation of universities and the significant decline in the Christian presence on campuses, evangelicals ought to be actively invested in this area. The Christian witness in the university setting is now a necessity. This witness must be engaging and profound. We need to go beyond short-lived incursions and a superficial presence. The evangelical presence must be such that it is capable of entering into genuine dialogue with the ideas that are being championed in the universities, prompting reconsideration of ideologies and worldviews that are not subject to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is from this perspective that student evangelisation will have a perceptible impact on the evolution of non-Biblical ideas being developed in these centres of higher education and research.

Distinctive Challenges for Student Evangelisation

Student evangelisation missions generally face a number of difficulties. There is the issue of free access to universities. As a result of secularisation, universities are increasingly closing their doors to any religious presence, and especially to evangelical Christianity. From a purely human perspective, this situation shows no prospect of improving any time soon. The difficulty, born from tenuous definitions of secularism and from a fear of certain forms of religious expression, seems to be largely affecting the whole of the French-speaking world, which is being influenced by similar ideas. This lack of openness to evangelicals is, in some countries, worsened by the chaotic splintering of different Christian denominations on campus, a disunity that does not always take into account the specific nature of the academic world. In the long run, this splintering becomes a major obstacle to the overall evangelical Christian presence on campus, even in countries that are generally more open or tolerant regarding Christian witness in universities.

A sizeable proportion of students, notably in the West, are therefore dissatisfied with Christianity. Their dissatisfaction most likely stems from the image that Christianity projects: a negative religion that emphasises prohibitions, rather than affirming the positives such as enjoyment, celebration, communion, and beauty. In a fluid context dominated by pluralism, a Christianity that waves the doctrinal rules and restrictions around like a flag becomes suspicious. Students of this generation are not necessarily opposed to religion, rather they radically question the way in which Christianity is presented and lived in society. In general, theirs is a generation that wants to be involved and participate. However, an ecclesiastical structure which is highly institutionalised and rigidly hierarchical does not correspond to their needs or wants. They are instead drawn to spiritual and emotional experiences, a different form of spirituality.

Increasingly secularised universities are influencing the world with ideas, ideologies, and world views that often oppose those of Christianity. The new atheist ideology, for example, has been intentionally promoted among students in the West. Meanwhile, there is a constant exposure to, and sometimes bombardment by, various literature and publications that seek to influence student with their respective causes. As well as these orchestrated campaigns, current culture trends are characterised by rapid changes, the loss of traditional values and principles, relativism, materialism, and a thirst for instant gratification. Students tend to prioritise their individuality and focus on achieving their professional ambitions. However, despite the prevailing individualism, there remains a strong desire for community – a desire manifested in their mobility and connectivity. Hence the extraordinary success of virtual social networks. Because of this social evolution, many students live in a state of uncertainty, confused by the lack of social markers, reference points, certainties, and meaning. This lack of meaning is further fed by dissatisfaction due to growing unemployment, the weakening of family ties, excessive competition, and the absence of attractive role models in society.

The lack of human skills capable of bearing witness effectively in the university environment presents another limitation to the effective evangelisation of students. The university is a very specific mission field. Firstly, in terms of its composition, universities are essentially made up of intellectuals, those involved in deep reflection. Secondly, through its teaching methods, students are encouraged to question and, to a certain extent, discover the world through constant questioning. This approach, executed through critical analysis, can be radical and passionate. Few evangelical believers are prepared to work in such an environment. There is a tendency to regard universities as one would any other mission field, but replicating the evangelistic methods of the local church does not always work here. When seeking to evangelise highly educated Athenians, the Apostle Paul recognised the necessity of a particular approach. Both the structure and the content of his discourse show that he took account of the specific nature of his audience (Acts 17:16-34). The anti-intellectual tendency in some forms of evangelical spirituality is in fact a hindrance to Christian witness on campus. Such tendencies discourage the appropriate use of intelligence and amplify a form of mysticism that is irrelevant and ill-suited to the academic world. University students often require the presentation of faith to be accompanied by clear reasoning.

A Christianity that waves the doctrinal rules and restrictions around like a flag becomes suspicious. Students of this generation are not necessarily opposed to religion, rather they radically question the way in which Christianity is presented and lived in society.

Furthermore, there is the issue of the particularity of evangelising in a manner that is relevant to the age group and cultures of the students. Students are increasingly young and therefore characterised by a strong openness to the world, wanting to express themselves and to experiment. They want to be heard, be listened to, and sometimes to challenge. With the rise of postmodern culture hurtling towards pluralism, and the rejection of authority and all things institutional, it is becoming increasingly difficult for church leaders to find strategies appropriately adapted to this generation.

Students are also increasingly interested in using new technology for their information and communication. These technologies have profoundly altered their social habits and ways of communication. Social media and networking, for example, have given students impressive abilities of communication and self-organisation, as well as affecting their ways of learning, with increasingly importance on the visual. In the United States, many students now finish their university courses without having read a single printed book. New technologies equally shift the centres of power to the periphery – even the worst of dictators are incapable of controlling this power that now finds itself on campuses and among students. It’s difficult to predict the full consequences of these changes in student life, but we know for certain that they will in turn deeply impact the social fabric. Evangelicals, therefore, cannot and must not ignore these changes when considering their witness to students.

Today’s student profile no longer corresponds to that of a traditional residential student: one who lives on campus and dedicates his or herself exclusively to their studies. With the development of virtual communication, made possible by new media, there is now a large number of students that follow their courses online, even through distance-learning. This trend is set to increase with the constant and rapid improvement of such technologies. The gradual mastery of virtual training will lead to a change in student profiles that will certainly bring about profound upheaval in evangelisation strategies and methods.

A student today is subject to enormous pressures of various kinds. Aside from their studies, many have to work to finance their studies. In the Global South, very few benefit from scholarships or grants, or are eligible for bank loans. Many come from significantly poorer families. Infrastructure for accommodating students is also limited, and many must live far from the university, often incurring more expenses. Living away from campus restricts their involvement in the student community and also reduces the time and attention they could otherwise give to hearing the Word of God. All these new realities for the modern student call for new imaginative and creative approaches for outreach.

These difficulties should not, however, cause the Church to shy away from its missional responsibility towards students. Through ongoing work and prayer, pooling of resources, and collaboration with existing specialised parachurch ministries, evangelicals can make progress in their efforts for student outreach.

Students Outreach: An Immense Task

There is no magical approach to evangelize students. Student culture changes very quickly and an approach that is valuable today can become obsolete tomorrow. Strategies and methods must constantly evolve, taking into account and reflecting societal changes. Even if the central message remains the same, the way of presenting it to students must adapt, hence outreach to students must always remain creative and innovative.

Generally, the best strategy is one that consists of students themselves reaching their peers. This is why Christian students must be the primary actors in evangelism on campus, since they live together, developing friendships, discussing, and debating. Above all, Christian students have the irreplaceable experience of bearing tangible witness by opening up to their non-Christian friends like open bibles. Numerous testimonies of conversion from students wonderfully underline the importance of the witness of life and the friendship of Christians. This living testimony of faith can produce significantly more results than isolated and disembodied public preaching. Therefore, external interventions must be limited to training and mentoring the Christian students and providing them with resources. The role of church leaders should be limited to training, supporting in prayer and encouraging them into action. Every specialised ministry group that has had a significant presence and profound impact on university outreach has understood and embraced this principle of student initiative and leadership.

Christian professors and researchers working at the university should therefore be involved in training and preparing students for evangelism. Being constantly surrounded by students and respected in their fields for academic competence, they are well-positioned. Several non-believing students have been touched by witness of such professors and been converted. Concerning apologetics and debating the faith, these university staff can further help in discussions on the many difficult subjects Christians face, even with colleagues who are opposed to the faith. Their presence on campus offers a degree of security to Christian students who can sometimes feel challenged and led astray by the radical ideas that oppose their faith. They can encourage students to hold their own, be unafraid and unashamed when communicating the Good News on campus.

There remains much to be done in the area of student evangelisation. The task necessitates immense and varied skills and resources. No human being, no group of individuals, no single denomination can accomplish this task alone. Only God is capable. He is at work, opening doors and windows to create often unexpected opportunities. It is God who invites us to join this mission, a privilege in which God gives each of us a part of what he is already doing. This privilege of working with God encourages humility through collaboration with others. It also encourages us not to despair in the face of difficulties, because the work belongs to God.

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Bibliography

Solomon Andria, Regard théologique sur l’éducation en Afrique contemporaine, Cotonou, Groupes bibliques universitaires d’Afrique francophone, 1998.

Lindsay Brown, Shining Like Stars. The Power of the Gospel in the World’s Universities, Leicester, IVP, 2007.

Collectif, Mutation de la jeunesse étudiante et hésitation à l’égard du christianisme, Lumière et Vie 232, 1997.