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You wouldn’t expect an amateur actor to direct a Hollywood blockbuster. You wouldn’t let an amateur chef prepare a presidential dinner. So, why should ordinary students without theological qualifications lead campus Bible studies? Why let young, impressionable adults take charge of Christian witness and ministry at university? 

In this Conexión blog, we’re considering the case for student-led ministry.  

It’s a core value of IFES: “We are a ministry of students reaching students and we believe in students taking the initiative in all aspects of witness to the university.” But why take the risk? Why put “amateurs” in charge? 

When reading through the Gospels, you might ask the same questions of Jesus. Matthew has barely left his tax collector’s desk (Matthew 9), when Jesus sends him and other spiritual rookies to help confront evil and heal sickness among the “harassed and helpless” (Matthew 10). Yet Jesus’s risky trust in his ‘students’ yields clear rewards – for the helpless and the helpers. 

By looking at that passage in the light of past and present IFES ministry, we can see six compelling reasons for championing student initiative. 

The trigger for Jesus sending out his students was not their need for spiritual growth. This mission was not designed as a ‘discipleship program’. Primarily, it expressed Jesus’s loving response to a vast need (Matthew 9:35-38). 

Of course, the disciples did learn much (see below). But here we find an important caveat for all that follows: Jesus entrusts his followers with ministry because of the “plentiful harvest” – and the need for “workers” to gather it in. Through his disciples, the multitudes could be touched.  

The need has not changed. In fact, over the last ten years, the number of students enrolled in higher education worldwide has skyrocketed.

Today, it stands at around 250 million – a vast harvest field.  

To gather in the plentiful harvest, Jesus told his students to spend time in the field. When they entered a town, they were to stay in people’s homes (Matthew 10:11). We’re not told how long the whole mission lasted – it certainly wasn’t the typical 3-5 years that higher education takes. However, the principle remains: they spent time among the “lost sheep”, chatting in their homes, eating around their tables, winning their trust and witnessing their needs. 

In the same way, university students who are disciples of Jesus are best placed to reach students who are lost, “harassed and helpless”. For they are already in the harvest field, chatting with them on campus, sharing meals together, and encountering their needs.  

This is why staff in IFES and staff workers in its national movements encourage and equip students to do the harvesting. 

Consequently, some campuses now have students running Bible study groups in several dorms. 

Jesus’s first disciples saw him heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, and drive out demons (Matthew 8-9). They saw God at work through Jesus. Then, Jesus gave them authority to do exactly the same (10:8) – and they experienced God work through them. Luke tells us how thrilling this was for Jesus’ students (Luke 10:17). 

For more than 75 years, this has been the experience of students in IFES movements. The prospect of leading an outreach event, prayer time, or campus Bible study can feel deeply daunting. Yet, when the time comes, it is often a thrilling opportunity to see God at work.

Like Samuel in Canada, before Jesus’ students could experience God at work through them, they needed to step out in faith. They needed to depend on God not only to use them but also to meet their needs (10:9). And their mission was to be a precursor to future times when they’d need to rely on the Holy Spirit to give them the right words to say (10:20).  

By leading his GBU group in Vila Real (Portugal), Wirlley learned exactly that. He’d been praying for an opportunity to serve the university. One day, while they were discussing how the closure of a campus bus stop was negatively impacting the student community, they realised how they could serve: by mobilising a petition. With the help of others, Wirlley and his GBU group gathered over 1,700 signatures. The bus stop was reopened.  

Discipleship is apprenticeship – it’s about learning on the job. Nowhere is that clearer than in Mathew 10. As students of Jesus, the disciples had shadowed their “master” at work. Now it was time for them to become practitioners – to go and ‘do’, offering healing, life, restoration, and liberation (10:8). They were to learn ministry by ministering. 

When Natalie launched a fellowship group in her faculty at the University of Panama, she faced numerous challenges. But with support from peers and her national movement (CEC), as well as last year’s faith-building trip to IFES World Assembly, she has been continuing to practise her faith. In recent months, Natalie has been learning more about the ministry of prayer – by ministering:  

Finally, as “the twelve” practised the ministry of Jesus, dependent on the Father, open to the Spirit’s work, these “disciples” (10:1) became “apostles” (10:2). They were turning into future pioneers and leaders for the church.   

Serving God in student-led ministry has been the seedbed out of which many godly and influential leaders have grown – for the church and society.  

Around the world, many students have been shaped for prominent roles in society by encountering Christ and learning to serve God through their national movement. In chapter five of Shining Like Stars, Lindsay Brown illustrates this with testimonies, like those of Fanny Bejarano who secured a senior judiciary role in Argentina and Procel DaSilva Armando who gained an influential government role in Guinea-Bissau. 

It can often be in the ‘small things’, like organising student prayer meetings, that student initiative becomes a gateway to discovering gifts and calling. In a recent podcast, Isabelle Veldhuizen shares how her humble experience in a small group in GBU France led to her involvement with IFES Europe and her participation in the Global Leadership Initiative.  

Entrusting students with ministry feels risky: Albert, Patrice, Dieudonné, and Venance heading up the river; Wirlley standing before the university administration; Natalie guiding her whole class in prayer; Samuel leading his first Bible study with peers; Amelia stepping back as staff so that more students could step up.  

 Through its national movements, regional initiatives, and global ministries, IFES seeks to empower students – with fellowship, training, and resources – so that the harvest can be gathered in.