Chapter makeover, part 4
The structural changes we’d made were starting to build momentum in our InterVarsity chapter at UNH. A little more than a year after recognizing that our group had become a monument, we were now becoming a dynamic movement. Where would this momentum take us? It was time now to dream big.
This is part 4 of the story of how God did a major makeover on our group, moving us toward becoming a genuine witnessing community. Our story has four parts; you might want to back up and read part 1 to get oriented.
Chapter makeover part 4: Dreaming big
When God led his people out of Egyptian slavery and into the wilderness, he told them repeatedly that one day he would settle them in a land flowing with milk and honey. Why did God use this “milk and honey” language? Why not just call it “the promised land,” or define it geographically? I was confronted with these challenging questions by two other staff, Doug Schaupp and Val Gordon.
I believe God used this phrase to invite his people to dream. Remember, these folks who wandered through the wilderness had been provided with food in manna and quail. Just imagine the salivating that occurred at the thought of milk and honey. God invited them to not just eat the manna provided, but to dream about the honey. Dream! And dream big!
Milk and honey dreams
Heading into the spring 2009 semester, InterVarsity at UNH was starting to dream big. We had to face that dreaming big is hard for many of us. We have a hard time envisioning something that could happen beyond what the works of our hands can accomplish. We can be “functional atheists” in that sense. God, help our unbelief.
But we are trying to learn, even making it a spiritual discipline, to dream big. In response, the leadership team has continued to make changes:
- Our chapter mission statement was re-launched from the static “Knowing God and Making Him Known” to the more active “Joining Jesus to transform lives, giving hope, purpose and a future.”
- We re-branded our generic “Large Group” label from something structurally bland and are calling it “Catalyst,” a place we hope God will cause and accelerate transformation in our community and on our campus.
- Two new missional prayer times were launched to pray for the welfare of our campus, as Jeremiah and the exiles in Babylon prayed for Jerusalem. Senior Jim Browne saw clearly that a re-launched mission has to start with prayer. “Prayer is the single most important contributor to what we have seen at UNH,” he said.
- The Edge, our meeting of core members and leaders, multiplied from one big meeting to three smaller ones, giving students more access to support, to prayer and to one another in encouraging their risks for the mission.
- Our spring semester ministry was centered around the Katrina Relief Urban Plunge (KRUP). We went to New Orleans with both non-Christians and Christians, traveling together to the Gulf of Mexico, helping rebuild homes and lives still devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Our trip transformed all of us. Four of the students in our group decided to follow Jesus during that week, so we’ve seen ten students come to Christ this year, with more very close to entering the kingdom.
- Once back from our Katrina trip (an ordeal in itself!), we focused on hosting GIGs (Groups Investigating God), and we now offer frequent public calls to faith at Catalyst. [For more about GIGs, see the GIG Guide (PDF file).]
Last semester, our Father provided “manna and quail” for the movement at UNH and even gave us a taste of milk and honey. We thank him for that, even as we move into a new semester of ministry with new visions of milk and honey flavoring our dreams.
A mission of movement matters
Entering into a mission of movement is scary. Things can fall apart when they start to move. When movement occurs, the destination — and the journey — is often unknown. Our façade of control breaks down as a fellowship begins to move.
“It has been rough trying to change our old ways and focus our group towards non-Christians,” junior exec team member Becky Riding said. “But I think that people are starting to notice that this is God’s mission — reaching every inch of campus.”
What the movement at UNH has learned is that a mission of movement centered on others — on the lost, on the poor, on the oppressed — matters.
- It matters to the student who was dealing drugs in August but by October had found a new purpose, sharing the good news about Jesus outside UNH’s library. His conversion was “one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, by far,” commented Alex, a member of the leadership team.
- It matters to the student whose family’s small business failed this fall, leaving him with nothing to cling to, until, much as in the parable of the prodigal son, the voice of his Father said to him, “Come home.”
- It matters to the student who was sexually abused as a child but is finding that she is actually worth being loved as a Daughter of the King by a God who left heaven in Jesus to come and get her.
- It matters to me because Jesus came to get me in college when I was living a lost life of fear, materialism and selfishness — when I never had an inkling of what true freedom was.
But none of us are found unless the Holy Spirit inspires a community of Christians to move, to come and get us. So go move. Respond to the Spirit, and move your fellowship. Monuments are nice and pretty and safe. But movements — they transform lives.
—Ben Humphries
Read more about how these students changed their chapter structure and took risks in their mission to the campus:
Chapter Makeover at UNH:
- Part 1: From monument to movement
- Part 2: Moving to the edge
- Part 3: Building momentum
- You are here: >> Part 4: Dreaming big
