Campus Priests
I hope that this finds you well in the midst of some wild temperature swings accompanied by some hurricane force political happenings. As I was watching election results come in, get tabulated, get challenged, etc. I was reminded of the big job we have as the church of Christ to be priests to the world around us. Peter puts it this way “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9). As priests to this world, we are called to live sacrificially and to continually make intercession before the mercy seat of our God. We are called to live in such a way as to usher others into the kingdom.
One strategic way that we are partnering to execute this priesthood is through the ministry of Campus Outreach. This summer we welcomed Kenny Hayes and his family to West MI as they lay the groundwork for Campus Outreach in West MI. Addison and I had a good time talking to Kenny about this work in a podcast you can find here. Now that they are a couple of months into the strangest fall semester ever I thought it would be good to hear an update from Kenny on how things are going:
When the name of your game is building social networks, starting a new college ministry during times of social isolation has been anything but easy. But!! But, but, but… the Lord has been so faithful. Our prayer has been that God would put us in the right places at the right times. I’ll share an example: One afternoon my team and I decided to move our daily workout to the Intramural field. Guess who we met?? Every fraternity on campus! Unknown to us, there was a campus-wide event moved to this location because of COVID restrictions. This was a direct answer to prayer as one of our chief goals this year is to get our foot in the door among the fraternities and sororities. I befriended one president that day who soon got me involved with their house bible study!
Got time for another story? Last week we made it a goal to knock on every fraternity door. After getting blown off a couple times, the president of one of the biggest fraternities did give us his cell. Jeff, my co-laborer, took him out for lunch which led to God opening the door to start a bible study at their fraternity house as well! Oh Lord, would the light of the gospel break forth amongst the darkest places of campus.
So, let us continue to intercede for and with Kenny and his team as they seek to usher these young people into closer walks with Jesus. This week Addison will be returning to Romans 14 to finish our look at the weak and the strong and the call to unity and welcome that God has placed on us.
Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash