AMATEURS IN CHARGE?

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.

1. THE STUDENT WORLD: A PLENTIFUL HARVEST

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.

Ten years ago, it was a similar sense of need and calling that caused four students to sail for nine days on an open boat up the Lualaba river.

Albert, Patrice, Dieudonné, and Venance, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), were students in the GBU DRC group in Kisangani. When they heard that two provinces in their country lacked any GBU presence, they felt burdened and decided to act.

After much prayer and fasting, they sailed for the University of Kindu – in a province dominated by Islam and folk religions. There, they met students, talked to them about Christ, and introduced the basics of the IFES vision.

The four pioneering students from Kisangani passed on Bible study skills and led prayer and worship. When they left a month later, nine students had taken responsibility for the new group.

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.

2. STUDENT-LED: STUDENTS REACHING STUDENTS

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.

As a student in SIUCF (Solomon Islands), Amelia was involved in the ministry on her campus. But, when she became a staff worker, she learned a hard lesson. She realised how she needed to step back – to do less hands-on ministry so that students could do more. In a recent Prayerline, she shares:

“The dynamics of student ministry are very different from how I’m used to serving within our church youth fellowship. Regional support from IFES has equipped me to grow SIUCF ministry by training up the students.”

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

3. STUDENT-LED: EXPERIENCING GOD AT WORK

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.

That was Samuel’s story. As a student at Polytechnique Montréal, he joined his campus GBUC Canada group. That term, students were taking turns to lead studies in Nehemiah. But he’d never led a Bible study before. So, when his turn came, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

He recalls it was a thrilling experience:

“Just preparing the study was enjoyable. But when I led it, I realised how it wasn’t so much me leading as the Lord – he was able, through me, to give what was needed.”

4. STUDENT-LED: DEEPENING RELIANCE ON GOD

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.

However, such student initiative hadn’t gone unnoticed by the university authorities – not least because GBU was a faith-based group on a secular campus. Some weeks later, high-ranking university officials summoned Wirlley to a meeting to explain his actions. He shares about his deepened reliance on God:

“You can’t believe how nervous I was! Pacing up and down the room, I was thinking, ‘Oh wow! Oh no, oh no!’ But I was also in prayer. And with the help of the Holy Spirit, I was able to calmly speak.”

5. STUDENT-LED: LEARNING MINISTRY SKILLS

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:

“Before one of our exams, some classmates suggested praying together for the exam and they asked me to lead the prayer. While I was praying, the whole classroom went silent until I finished. The rest is a long story, but I can say that God answered that prayer in a miraculous way because we all passed that subject. My classmates said ‘Wow! Your prayer really worked!’, and I just said something like ‘It was all God’. “Some of us stayed to pray in thanksgiving for what happened, and we invited the lecturer to join us – and he did! So, we also prayed over him and talked with him a bit more about God. That was an amazing day! God showed me how much he can do with a little obedience and faithfulness from us.”

6. STUDENT-LED: DEVELOPING AS FUTURE LEADERS

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.

In the 1970s, when Chad had one of the world’s weakest economies, many would have thought it impossible that one of its students could become the leader of an international organisation.

Yet, by God’s grace, it was possible – through Daniel Bourdanné, former IFES General Secretary, to whom we recently paid tribute. His journey to global leadership started with student-led ministry in Chad and Togo.

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.

STUDENT INITIATIVE: A REWARDING RISK

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.

But hasn’t it always been God’s way to use ‘amateurs’ – with a wavering Abram, a young David, and a virgin Mary? And with Jesus giving authority to his new apprentices? Yet, we’ve seen that the ‘risk’ Jesus took was vindicated by the harvesting of lives – and the growth of his disciples.

The examples above show that the rewards of student-led ministry are no less impressive: the growth of new campus groups, the meeting of needs, a deeper knowledge of the Spirit’s enabling, faith-building experiences of answered prayer, and the germination of future leaders.

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.

“We are a ministry of students reaching students and we believe in students taking the initiative in all aspects of witness to the university.”

Amen.

BELIEVE IN GOD’S RISK: INCREASE THE REWARD

Have you been inspired by the idea and impact of student-led ministry?

Then support students today!

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STUDENTS IN ACTION

Watch students share and speak from Scripture at IFES World Assembly 2023.