by Rev. Blane Young || Executive Director, DCXA
(4) Keeping the Lost in Focus
This is really intertwined with reason three (Post: Shifting from Consumer to Commissioned) but instead of focusing on you (the person reading this), the impetus is placed on those that aren’t reading this (yet).
It’s been said like this before: Christian communities are the only organizations in the world that are explicitly designed to serve non-members. I like that.
Well, I like the way that sounds, it is much harder to live out!
A friend at my church put it like this recently, “God doesn’t have a mission (role) for His Church, He has a Church because of and for the mission.”
Francis Chan puts it like this, “God gave us the Great Commission (to make disciples wherever we go, to the ends of the earth) and instead of obeying, we simply memorized the instructions.”
What I’m getting at, is that at its best, Chi Alpha exists for those that aren’t looking for Chi Alpha. We aren’t a club and we certainly don’t want to be a cloistered away Christian club that’s exclusive and insular.
One of the ways we ensure we maintain our identity as a missions organization, as a serve-and-engage the campus with the words and ways of Jesus type of group, is by keeping the lost in focus.
At some point, we have to mature to a point where us simply knowing the Good News isn’t enough if our friends, professors, classmates, family, roommates are missing out.
We need to proclaim the Gospel and live out the Gospel.
It has to be both!
We have been and are continuing to grow into an organization tha tis principle-driven and not directed by the preferences of students (whom we love!) that will be here for a few years and then graduate. We love you enough to help you live for something beyond yourself.
And we know that when someone else comes to faith because of you and your story, it’ll be more meaningful and valuable than if we had been a campus miinstry that did things the way you preferred. And it will be more special to you, long term, to have impacted 2-4 students than to have been frenetically involved in 2-4 campus ministries.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10
May we develop the same heart.
Thanks for taking time to read this, over the next few days, we’ll have 4-5 more blog posts published in this series.