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A year ago, the InterVarsity student leadership team at the University of Pennsylvania faced a challenging dilemma. Our chapter leaders and InterVarsity staff workers were meeting together to pray and listen to God for direction of the fellowship for the upcoming year. As we studied Luke 10–15, our mission became clear: Go out together! Bring your neighbors closer to Jesus.

In order to facilitate this new mission we made some significant structural changes. During the vision process, we submitted every structure in our fellowship to the new mission statement. That meant if the structure helped carry out the vision, it was kept. If it didn’t, it was changed. Most notably, we decided not to have small groups! In the past, our small groups made sincere efforts to be hospitable to non-believers. Yet, because the leaders and members primarily viewed their groups as a place to develop Christians, small groups never really became a safe place for non-believers to check out Jesus. While developing Christians is an important task, we asked ourselves, “What sort of Christians are we developing if we are excluding non-Christians from our community?” Looking at Jesus in Luke convinced us that discipleship and evangelism are not mutually exclusive, as though a person had to do one at the expense of the other.

Instead of small groups, the executive committee decided to develop Missionary Discipleship Teams (MDTs). The task of the MDTs was to build relationships with their neighbors, develop trust, and build structures to help their friends move closer to Jesus. But the exec team leaders didn’t know how the small-group leaders would respond to their plan.

At that time, the chapter’s small-group leaders were aware that a big change was coming, although they didn’t know specifics. When the exec team communicated their vision, and the implications for no small groups, people stared at them stunned. Everyone was given the freedom to withdraw from leadership, since the new vision wasn’t what the small-group leaders were called to when they were asked to serve the previous spring. Not only did no one leave the leadership team, but many were challenged positively by the vision and structural changes.

When fall came, the chapter members focused on building relationships with non-believers, particularly those who lived near them. There was less emphasis on evangelistic events and new student outreach that mostly attracted Christian freshmen and used up a lot of leaders’ time and energy. Instead, those who agreed to be MDT leaders were asked to avoid leading or running any meetings for five weeks, except for prayer meetings. They used those first weeks of school to be totally available to meet new people and care for them in the name of Jesus.

After this five-week period of building new friendships, leaders assessed who God was calling them to be neighbors to, and started to think about what structure would work best to bring their neighbors closer to Jesus. Some leaders chose to focus on their halls, and hosted focus groups and Bible studies for their hallmates. Some leaders chose to focus on training Christian freshmen to be evangelists through Bible studies. Regular training meetings encouraged leaders to be creative with their MDTs. As a result, chapter members have become far more welcoming and devoted to loving their non-Christian friends. The fringe of our fellowship has changed from less-committed Christians to interested “pre-Christians.”

As a result of dropping the traditional small groups, our fellowship decreased in size by one-third last year. However we do not see this as negative. In calling people to be evangelists, our core of committed people grew in size and quality. It felt a bit like when Jesus called his disciples to lose their lives for the gospel. Some people left because his teaching was so hard. But those who stayed got so much more.

By the end of the school year, seven students became Christians. As this is the same number as the previous year, we have yet to see larger results from our new strategy. However, it is obvious that people are more committed to reaching out to their non-believing friends than in years past—not just individually, but as a whole fellowship working together. In the midst of our striving, God has made us more aware of how we need to depend on him, and less on our own abilities. We are learning that evangelism is not so much about methods, but rather more about our relying on God to work miracles in the lives of our friends.

This school year we have maintained the same structure, but have encouraged MDT leaders to either focus on developing Christians to be evangelists, or lead a MDT that directly evangelizes fellow students. Currently, two MDTs focus on evangelism, and others that focus on helping Christians to reach out with the gospel. Also, one MDT focuses entirely on prayer as a way to tangibly express our need for God to work mightily. While we have no new conversions yet, about ten people earnestly seek to know more of Jesus, and people who converted last year continue to be discipled.

This next semester staff and key leaders will more intensively train the MDT leaders to develop Christians who love the lost, encouraging them to use different resources such as investigative Bible studies or focus groups to introduce students to Jesus. We also hope to teach more on the value of prayer.

As we enter this new semester, we expect God to work greatly among us, knowing that “What is impossible with mortals is possible with God” (Luke 18:27).