Turning the tongue to good

Last spring, 17 student leaders from Central State University (OH) got together for a weekend retreat. The purpose was to get on the same page as a team, receive some training, and hear from God what his purposes are for Central State.

Students studied the Experiencing God weekend workbook by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. They were completely engaged and enjoying the training. Toward the end of the first night, at a break, a couple of the students started using very inappropriate humor against each other. They were using cutting language and putting each other down. When we continued the training, a couple of us gently told them how pained we were to see them talking about each other in that way. I mentioned how the book of James describes the tongue as an unruly evil that blesses God and curses people at the same time. Unthinkable! The students in the group were challenged by 1 John 4:7-8, which says that you cannot say that you love God, whom you have not seen, when you cannot love your brother or your sister whom you see every day. We realized that God was not going to trust our group with new life until we became a healthy family that knows how to take care of one another, so that we can, in turn, take care of the new life that comes into the family.

During our last break, I casually suggested that we have a “put up” time where we could put someone in a circle and tell them what gifts they have, and how we appreciate them. James, one of the students, suggested we do it right away. Every leader stood at the head of our conference table while everyone else took turns telling each person how grateful they were of his or her gifts and how they appreciated this person as a friend.

This was truly a powerful time, and we could feel the presence of God in the room. We sensed from God that praising one another is like praising him, because we were in effect talking well about his sons and daughters, and every dad loves that, including our heavenly Father. Yet God also loves true unity and unfeigned love. So God demonstrated to us that He wanted us to be family, not a feuding family, but a loving one that knows how to nurture one another.

When we got back to campus, we participated in a Sunday worship service with a lot of other students. When the service ended, the students just wanted to keep worshiping. This became a powerful time of exhortation, encouragement and prayer which included a wider group of student leaders who could not make it to the retreat. We spent so much time in prayer, worship and exhortation that the students missed supper. When we got hungry, we pooled our money to buy pizza, fried chicken and beverages.

Later that night, the students decided to do a midnight prayer service. They did a dorm sweep to see who wanted to come for prayer. As they were talking to students in the dorms, six students made commitments to Christ, and two more made commitments during the prayer service.

The Christian student leaders have noticed a direct connection between the retreat and the explosion of God’s activity on campus. They want their words to be fountains of life-giving refreshment to the other leaders, chapter members, and entire campus community.

—Marc Davidson serves as InterVarsity Staff at Central State University and Oberlin College, and he is a graduate of Morehouse College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.