Diminishing Teen Witness - Barna Study

Interesting new Barna study on "How Teenagers Faith Practices are Changing". The study suggests a significant decline in believing teens attempts to witness.

Believing teenagers were asked if they had attempted to explain their religious beliefs to someone else with different religious beliefs with a hope that they might receive Jesus Christ as Savior. In 1997, 63% of "born-again" youth answered affirmatively. In December 2009, that number had dropped to 45%.

What does this suggest to those involved in campus ministry? Is the culture's aversion to dialogue about matters of faith taking its toll on youth witness?

My experience suggests that Christian students still desire to witness, but not necessarily in the "forms" that have been handed down from previous generations. This was a large part of the motivation behind the development of CoJourners.

Cru Video from Texas Tech

Wonder what campus ministry looks like in the 21st Century? Here is a great video glimpse of the Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) Ministry at Texas Tech.

Supreme Court Ruling: IVCF President Responds

Different ministries (including ours) are in the process of assessing the potential impact of the Supreme Courts ruling in the June 28th "Christian Legal Society vs. Martinez" (Hastings Law School) decision and charting a path forward.

I had provided an earlier link to one legal experts opinion.

Here is a response from Alec Hill, President of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship: "Is the Christian Legal Society's Loss a Loss for Everyone?"

Mission Shift: From Good News to Good Deeds

Wall Street Journal published a fascinating article by Brad Greenberg on the shift in missions from "preaching the gospel" to "serving the needy". It is entitled, "How Missionaries Lost their Chariots of Fire" and is worth the 3-4 minutes to read.

Supreme Court Ruling

There has been a fair amount of conversational stir created by the recent Supreme Court ruling, CLS vs Martinez. Since I am not a lawyer, I will refrain from adding my ignorance to the discussion. However, since others (like me) would like some perspective, I offer this link from Jesus Creed:

Christian Legal Society vs. Martinez: "T" Weighs In

Q Conference

ABC News did an interesting interview at the Q Conference on the "End of Christianity", as embraced by, well, Christians.

Thoughts?

Random Evangelism? Stop it!

"Random Evangelism" is a phrase I have heard often in my 30 plus years of ministry. I have heard it again a couple of times lately. But I wish it would go away. Why? Because there is no such thing of "random evangelism", at least for a Christ-centered, Spirit-filled witness.

The phrase "random evangelism" is used to describe the process of approaching strangers for the purpose of witness. But the word "random" means "lacking any definite plan or order or purpose; governed by or depending on chance".

Since "evangelism is first and foremost a work of God" (a phrase I commonly use when teaching our Evangelism Model), it cannot be random unless God is not in it. The phrase "random evangelism" is a very man-centric view of evangelism and leaves one with an entirely wrong impression (or worse, the wrong mindset.)

I doubt this phrase is used broadly in Christian circles. But there is a certain ministry, of whom I am very fond, who has this ingrained in their language. My counsel is, (to quote Bob Newhart) "Stop it!"

I don't mean stop the practice of engaging strangers for the purpose of witness. The Sovereign God, Lord of the Harvest, still delights to work through such conversations when they are guided by his Spirit, motivated by love and practiced with genuine sensitivity and situational appropriateness. My counsel is to stop calling this "random".