Dear Friend of the Ministry,
Every opportunity that presents itself, I try to take one of you with me. Seeing firsthand what campus ministry is like ignites one’s commitment to the challenge. But, alas! Not all can go. So, here’s my feeble attempt to put pen to paper and describe it to you. I call it,
“My heart: a kaleidoscope of memories of university ministry.”
Preaching “open air” in the new UNC-Greensboro dorm quad…about 300 students are present. As I’m holding forth on a text, much to our amusement, a heckler on the 6th floor is making animal sounds….
Seeing Tillman Hall, Clemson University, teeming with over 1,300 young people, the largest Fellow of Christian Athletes meeting in the nation….
Some Duke University alumnae, 10 years out of school, meeting on Lake Badin Island for a reunion centered in Jesus! The former quarterback is now a doctor. We study “The Nature of Success.”
A big 300-pound tackle at USC in Columbia weeping and blustering into an open microphone to the crowd, “I just want you guys to know I love you and Jesus loves you, and there ain’t nothing you can do about it.”
A Furman University freshman on the third floor balcony engaged in a “spitting contest.” He lost his balance and fell to his death. In the stunned aftermath, two Christians on his floor gain a serious hearing of the Gospel….
Debating homosexuality at a Raleigh Christian college forum. The talk is civil, honest, from the Bible, and convicting as 400 young people listen….
An eager young ministerial student downloading over thirty of my sermons from the Carolina Study Center web site for his own personal devotions. He uses one of them for a discussion of sermon structure in his preaching class….
An Afro-American professional football player at Presbytery shaking my hand and telling me he’s been reading my question-and-answer column in FCA’s magazine since junior high school….
There you have it! A wee glimpse at the kaleidoscope of ministry I carry with me.
Praise be to Jesus Christ! And thank you for making all of this possible!
Love,
Stephen
