Something clicked for me when I came to UGA and joined our BCM. For the first time, I feel a part of a Christian community. I experienced discipleship, leadership, service – all the things that never fell into place before have suddenly come together in the building on Lumpkin Street. I spend a large (probably too large) bulk of my time either at the B or thinking of everything I need to do the next time I’m at the B – and I absolutely love it. But not everyone feels the same way about collegiate ministry, or Christian ministries in general. In the past several weeks, I’ve heard several different perspectives surface in conversations:
“This ministry frustrates me. All we do is talk to our same group of Christian friends! That’s not real discipleship!”
“We keep going in circles with this ministry. All of the problems are discussed, but none of them are solved.”
“I feel like this ministry is isolated and exclusive, and I’m tired of not reaching the campus.”
These arguments each carry valid points and have reasonable proof, but I think we’re getting hooked up on the details and missing the bigger picture of what ministries like the BCM accomplish.
First off, this is college. The setting is no longer the Sunday school/youth group experience so many of us grew up in. The people involved in the ministry want to be there – Mom and Dad can’t drag you into the minivan and force you to sit in the pew anymore. So even though it’s tempting to take for granted the community of Christians around you, don’t. They’re sacrificing study time, party time, and whatever else they could have come up with to be immersed in Christ alongside their fellow believers. Just because you believe the Bible and love Jesus doesn’t make it any easier to show up to a service every week!
But what a community it is when you show up! The Bible studies, the late night talks, the friendships, the experience, and so much more that I have gained from my involvement with BCM have had the greatest impact of almost anything else on my walk with Christ. How can that not be considered discipleship? I guess we’ve been bombarded our whole lives with heart-wrenching discussions and the tear-jerking bonfire nights at summer camp until we’ve grown complacent with spiritual growth and taken it for granted. What we don’t realize when we’ve been raised in the church is that every discussion makes a difference. That training to open up and examine yourself, to share with your community how you’ve grown and how you’ve stumbled – these are skills that most people outside the church don’t experience in the same way. They don’t have a God to answer to. But Christian ministries believe in discipleship, which means making people grow in the Lord. In practical terms, that means facilitating community environments for people to be held accountable, to love your enemy, to serve with humility, to fess up and do better when you fail. For me, these things mean the difference between a stale relationship with God and an active one full of fruit.
So don’t hate if your small group doesn’t have any non-believers in it. Don’t think that nothing’s being accomplished, or your ministry isn’t going anywhere. I definitely don’t want to undermine the importance of evangelism or applaud exclusive, “Christian bubble” tendencies, but I want us to think about how often we take for granted the value of what we’ve got. People’s lives are changing. Who are we to protest the work of our ministries when Christ is using them to help people grow?
Rambles 