Youth with a mission! YWAM

A message worthwhile to communicate!

This week I was with the SOKE* students of YWAM (youth with a mission).

Our topic was about communicating the message of Jesus to those outside of the Christian faith.

One of the students made the drawing you see in this post.

She expressed in this way part of the training which was about discovering God with our friends in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. 

It is easy to be with young people who are open to learning. Ten young people took the time to invest in their relationship with God and missions. It was inspiring to both have class sessions and a short mini-outreach at one of the campuses nearby.

We went to one campus and had good conversations about the meaning of life and God with many students. We even had some students who were willing to meet again and talk further.

Topics we talked about included

• Why make the effort and speak about our faith with others?
• How do we communicate in a way that is open, friendly, respectful, and clear?
• Trusting God to use our small efforts to speak to people.
• How to handle difficult questions and much more.

Notes

*SOKE stands for School of Kingdom Empowerment

StudentLife Den Haag activities

StudentLife Den Haag activities

Are you a student and would like to grow in the are of witnessing for Jesus and communicating good news? then the following events are for you.

We focus on three areas the coming few weeks: Prayer – Action Group – Training

At this link you can find more information StudentLife activities

Tagsstudent leader, StudentLife

Biblical images of leadership

The leadership image of a shepherd

A few years ago I attended training for IFES staff and students. I was impressed and inspired by the teaching of the Bible about spiritual leadership. A few images did draw my attention especially. The image of a shepherd, servant, and patient helped me most during this training. 

At Studentlife we thought that a series on leadership would help us. So we decided to use a variety of materials for these training sessions. 

We will have a closer look at the image of a shepherd as a leadership model. This comes from Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. The main passages come from Psalm 23; John 10; Ezekiel 34; Acts 20; John 21.

Some of the lessons are the following: 

• Good shepherding begins with God as our shepherd.
• If God is our shepherd, then we have the following benefits: abundance, security, and intimacy. We, therefore, learn to lead out of a sense of our needs being continually satisfied. Leadership is healthy if leaders are not using others to meet their needs. 

We will discuss a few case studies that will help us make it practical and concrete. We hope the training will better prepare us to coach and mentor our students and student leaders.

Tagsbook study, student leader

Training for speakers in the university setting: some reflections

Passionweeks is a movement in The Netherlands that allows students to hear a message from a Christian point of view. I participated in one of the training days in October. Benno van den Toren gave a workshop on how to prepare a talk in a university setting. Here are some highlights of this workshop. 

• Christians sometimes feel they have to keep their faith in the private sphere. But the Christian faith is a worldview that attempts to explain all of reality. Therefore Christians should bring their faith to the public square and not just keep it private. 
• Christians could make an effort to built bridges with people outside the Christian faith. A good approach is to invite non-Christians into our world so they can see that the Christian faith is meaningful and reasonable. 
• First, introduce people to Christ. Show them that Christ is attractive, trustworthy, and meaningful to you as a speaker. After you have done this you can remove some of the barriers, things that keep non-Christians away from considering the Christian faith as a life option. Benno said that “a witness from someone trustworthy makes a huge difference.” 
• Furthermore, show why Christ is both the answer to issues like guilt, shame, overcoming evil, and also that he is a solid foundation for our lives. 
• Finally, as a speaker find your voice. Don’t be afraid to stand and speak with your vulnerabilities and questions. Even then we have a reason to trust our message. 

It was a good and helpful workshop for people who give talks in the university setting. 

TagsFEUER, passionweek

Student Leaders and Their Potential Impact on Campus

StudentLife, the organization I am working with, believes that students can be positive influencers on their campuses. They can make a difference and impact others with the good news. What follows is some points related to the importance of student leaders for campus work and why students should consider becoming one. 

First, a student leader gives hands and feet to the Great Commission. 

You may have heard that Christians should go and make disciples of all nations, Mark 16:15 comes to mind. A student leader can partly help students give hands and feet to this commission. 

Christians sometimes know what they are supposed to do but don’t know exactly how to do it. Someone who came to StudentLife in Delft a few weeks ago said exactly this, “I know I have to share the good news with others but I don’t know how to do this.” 

Student leaders facilitate the moments to go and have conversations. They also arrange training on how to lead conversations and have follow-up meetings. 

Second, a student leader learns about spiritual leadership hands-on. 

There are different reasons why someone would not become a student leader: limited time, fear of the unknown (“what am I getting into now?”) failures, weaknesses, feelings of inadequacy (“I am not good enough, or not ready”) some doubts about faith, lack of courage, and the list can go on. What would you add to this list? Here some thoughts about the above reasons. 

Time is always a challenge. But how much time does it take to be a student leader? In StudentLife not more than 2 hours per week! Yes, you have to learn about time management and also stick with these two hours. We always can do more. But we have to learn to set limits and boundaries in our lives. 

It also has to do with priorities and values. What are the things that you are doing at the moment that you could either postpone or avoid doing for the next three months, or stop doing because they don’t help you become a better person? 

Furthermore, we all can feel a sense of inadequacy: we’re not ready, we’re not good enough, or we’re not able enough. The apostle Paul felt like this many times, such as in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6. Read and reflect on these verses. And Paul was not the only one to feel like this! Jeremiah as a young man felt overwhelmed with the idea of becoming a prophet for God, read and reflect on Jeremiah 1:4-10. Write your thoughts down and pray about your feelings of inadequacy. 

Third, you will learn what it means to depend on God and trust him to do his work

God is asking us to share the good news. He also expects us to be good leaders in our lives and our service for Him. But He also gives us the strength, wisdom, love, mercy, and power to do it. 

To join a StudentLife team and go for conversations with the purpose to help others think about the big questions of life is pleasing to God. To go a step further and become a student leader and lead a movement in your campus is also pleasing to God, good for others, and good for you. You will learn what it means to press on and not give up easily because God will sustain you. He will teach you the value of prayer in your life. A student leader once said, “Going for conversations is a training school/ground to share the good news and make disciples.” A training ground! And you can facilitate, you can make it happen with God’s enablement. 

Finally, some points about what a student leader does

• A student leader organizes once a week, or biweekly, to go out for conversations on the campus. 
• He arranges some training for the students. StudentLife staff or student leaders are available to give the training. 
• He gives the signal in the WhatsApp group when they go for conversations and leads the time they meet for this purpose. 
• He always has StudentLife staff in reach to help out. He is never alone! 

Would you prayerfully consider becoming a student leader? Feel free to contact me or one of my Studentlife colleagues. 

KV brochure A4 March 2019

TagsEurope, student leader