On The Mark

…IT'S ALL ABOUT PEOPLE

High Impact 2011 – Columbia, SC

October 5th, 2010

Mark

Each year Southern Baptist International Student Ministry (ISM) workers gather for a one-day gathering called High Impact. This ISM gathering promotes fellowship and collaboration with those who work with the brightest minds in the world. The meeting is annually timed to be held just prior to the Association of Christians Ministering to Internationals (ACMI). Columbia, South Carolina will host this 2011 June 1-2 meeting.

The details and registration for this meeting will be released by the NAMB collegiate evangelism team around December 1st on www.studentz.com. Here are a few things you can expect from this meeting.

1. On Wednesday the meeting will begin with registration at Columbia International University (CIU) followed by dinner at the USC Baptist Collegiate Ministry. The dinner is provided by the BCM South Carolina state collegiate office. During dinner participants will hear from a USC speaker and then tour the campus and downtown area. A bus will take people from and to the CIU campus.

2. High Impact seminars will begin Thursday morning at CIU. The 9 am- 3:30 PM meetings will include two general sessions and two breakout sessions. Each breakout is being designed to facilitate specific concerns of volunteers and full-time ministers/missionaries. Kevin Ezell, new president at the North American Mission Board, will speak to the group via a pre-recorded presentation. Breakfast and lunch are provided by NAMB as well as overnight campus dorm housing on Wednesday evening.

According to the US State Department, during the 2009/10 school year there were 721,000 international students and scholars on US college and university campuses. In addition to students, there were 113,000 research scholars and 58,000 intensive English study students. More detailed statistics can be found at Open Doors.

College Metro 2011

October 1st, 2010

Mark

Ft Worth will be the site of the next College Metro conference for college-age ministers. This annual meeting will be held at the Southcliff Baptist Church from March 30-April 1, 2011. The meeting will begin on Wednesday evening with dinner and conclude on Friday just a few hours before the Passion ministry begins their Ft Worth weekend conference that evening at 7 PM.

CollegeMetro 2011 has a full schedule including Matt Chandler as keynote, 6 special breakouts which speak to new and experienced college-age pastors, and a full tour of the Dallas Cowboys stadium. The conference fee, which includes the stadium tour, will be just $70. Be watching in late October for the full details with registration form at www.collegemetro.com .

Coming Later This Week

September 21st, 2010

Mark

1. How to host an international student for a meal in your home.

2. New Book Suggestion: Almost Christian.

10 Ways to Become a Great Neighbor In Your Community!

September 11th, 2010

Mark

It is not enough just to be a nice neighbor anymore. Hey, everyone is glad that you are nice but anyone and everyone should be nice. Have you ever read the book, “Good to Great”. Wait, here is the real question, ‘do you bring VALUE to your neighborhood’? That is, do you add something to the quality of life in the neighborhood? Here are 10 ways to increase your value and be a great neighbor to the people living near you.

1. Make your home attractive. A ‘neat’ house makes people feel good about you. They appreciate knowing that you are responsible and make the value of their homes remain as high as possible. People want to live in clean, neat neighborhoods.

2. Talk to your neighbors and listen to their concerns. Contrary to the seeming desire for privacy, people still want to know who they are living near. There is nothing better than being able to identify with your neighbors and to know how you can advise and/or assist them. When you know your neighbor, you move from isolation and the resulting loneliness it breeds.

3. Let others know you keep an eye on their house when they are away. Security is a huge issue today. I want to know that my neighbor will protect my home when I am away. One night my neighbor called to say that we had left our garage door open. WOW! That was a big security blunder that they overcame for us. We won’t forget it.

4. Mow a neighbors yard when you know they won’t be home for another few days. I once had a neighbor that was away for a month and had not realized that they needed to care for their lawn. My other neighbor saw me mow it and was amazed that I cared that much for my neighbors. He began to view me with alot more respect and we then had many great conversations.

5. Care for the children in your neighborhood. Give them some refreshment and use it to talk with them and their parents (most parents are out when the children are outside). People appreciate active and unusual acts of kindness.

6. Make up a WordPress neighborhood blog and share it with the neighbors. You can add local news, street events, birthdays, graduations, election information, school information or any other thing. Sharing important information makes you the ‘go to’ person. You don’t become the controller of information but the provider of it.

7. Hold a holiday event in your yard. Get the grille out and get some skateboards or hold another type of game event.

8. Purchase small American flags and had them out to be put next to mailboxes on memorial day, independence day, or veterans day. People appreciate being reminded of important days and they feel good about participating in them.

9. Sponsor the sign up of food for critically ill neighbors. This one takes a little work but think about how good it would be to receive a meal or plate of brownies when you are ill.

10. Hold a neighborhood yard sale for a common cause such as a school project, disaster relief, or other cause. This is a big matter. Sooner or later we are all touched by a needed project. Be the person who really shows care.

5 Things To Address With Youth Ministry

August 27th, 2010

Mark

Today, CNN (that is right, I read the bad guys site) posted a large article on their site about why teenagers turn away from their Christian upbringing. In her new book, Almost Christian, Princeton Professor Kenda Creasy Dean concludes that we are being too shallow in instruction with our youth and not challenging enough to complement their abilities and desires. If she is right, and she has over 3,300 researched teens on her side, then what could/should we do differently? Here are five simple concepts churches must begin to address in their youth ministries.

First, we must begin to address and include parents in their children’s spiritual group activity. Parents are the major influence on children and yet they are often not included in youth ministry planning, youth ministry events, and youth ministry instruction. Although he was fairly untrained in youth work, my papermaker dad was my youth group leader and we learned God’s word through his voice and life. Parents need to be very involved.

Second, since we have mentioned the importance of parents, why not do some parenting instruction. Maybe it’s time we started to think about investing some serious instruction on what it means to be a Christian parent and also how churches hire good but inexperienced people to be youth pastors. How about doing something radical like canceling entertainment based youth group meetings and replacing them with effective teen parenting meetings. I will bet the statistics of success are on the side of parenting meetings rather than teen meetings!

Third, let’s catechize our kids. Most instruction to our youth is about ‘trusting in Jesus’ and how we can be forgiven. I don’t want us to avoid dealing with the need for an immediate relationship with God but we need to do some basic instruction for daily living that impacts teens lives for the future. Our children need to begin to reflect on life through memorization and doctrinal instruction. If God is a trinity, then we must teach on subjects such as this so that students can articulate them and do so in a framework of personal application.

Fourth, students need to know how God expects them to live and why. Now I don’t think we want rationality to take authority over the commands of God but I do think students need to rationally understand that their lives are to conform to God’s will. Teens need to learn to obey God and to appreciate what He tells us to do. i.e. When God says that fornication is wrong, it is not just sexual intercourse. I am not certain that Christian teens fully understand God’s expectations for godly living.

Finally, we need to do some modeling of the Christian faith so that our teens can see real Christian living. As an example, they need to see love in action: financial generosity, kind words, great marriages, etc. This is why we need more than a youth pastor/leader engaging with our teens. Parents, leaders, and all Christians need to begin to model and seek ways to reveal Christ-like living.

ISM Rocks in Tampa

August 17th, 2010

Mark

Today I received a call from Joseph Pardo. Joseph is the USF director of the Friends of Internationals student ministry at USF. This is the ministry my wife Lynn and I founded in 1998. Joseph and his wife Daisy, along with their 3 preschoolers, have been serving well there for over 2 years. They anticipate another great year and have gotten lots of help in their work.

This year, the Pardo’s were able to set up airport transportation for 98 incoming graduate students. Each of these students will be greeted at the Tampa airport and assisted as they settle in to their new home at USF. It all begins this week. All of this is a prelude to lots of interaction with Americans, tons of personal assisting, and a great door to show international students what it means to be a Christian who loves the world that has come to our doorstep.

If you live in Tampa, call Joseph at 813-988-6500 to ask him how you can help.

Continue The Journey Together @WHYcard.net

August 9th, 2010

Mark

Beginning at noon tomorrow (August 9th) the new WHY card site will be functioning at full throttle (at least that is what the IT people told me to expect). The intent of this site is to give people the chance to continue their spiritual journey together by viewing stories of Christian college students and discussing the WHY questions that we all ask.

A postmodern world wants to discuss spiritual things. They want to talk through the issues of life, dream what could be, and consider their spiritual options. They want answers, but they expect to take some time to process their journey. At the same time, most Christians, excited about their solid faith in Christ, want to ‘tell’ people what to believe. So what do you do? You ask your friend to view www.WHYcard.net and set up a time or series of emails to discuss the videos/movies.

Please take a look at the new www.WHYcard.net and let me know what you think. I expect you will have some opinion of the 3 movies. Let me know what you think of the site…and how you might be able to use it.

How Do You Present The Gospel?

August 4th, 2010

Mark

My friend David Proffitt of the Aletheia Church at USF in Tampa uses a four fold plan to share Christ with the people he meets. Here it is:

1. Make sure you CONNECT with the person you are speaking with. That is, listen to people and see what concerns them, what they enjoy, etc. Find out about them!

2. While you are listening, discover what drives the values in their life. This will give you an understanding of how to present the gospel. In other words, discover and use the proper apologetic. Answering peoples concerns in life is honest and shows integrity on your part. People don’t trust in Christ when they don’t trust the messanger.

3. Present the gospel. It is easy to make friends and forget to share the most important message in the world…Jesus. Everyone deserves to hear about redemption in Christ Jesus.

4. Always, and I mean always, give a person a chance to say no. People need an opportunity to qualify their relationship to God. I have seen many people share their faith like it is a good idea rather than a something that needs to be accepted or rejected. That is respectful to the person and the importance of this issue in their life.

That’s it. People need to hear and deserve to hear from you. Think relational encounters: Connect, Apologetic, Present, Ask.

Seven Evangelistic Considerations For Every Christian

August 3rd, 2010

Mark

I recently asked some college students if they had ever led someone to Christ, start to finish. Almost half a dozen of the fifty or so students in the room said that they had done this in their lives. While we know that God opens the heart, we also know that people cannot believe without a clear witness. So, here is a condensed version of a presentation I made on this subject to some collegians last Friday.

1. Capture The Day. It is important to remember that it is God and His Word that will change a life. Even the hardest heart cannot stand against Him. So dream big and expect God to use you. You may not get a second chance!

2. Be Intentional. Since we encounter people through the power of the gospel we need to plan our relational encounters. Plan to share Christ with the people you meet. Anticipate that God will open hearts.

3. Train and Model It. Most Christians are not trained in how to share their faith so find someone who does it well and learn from them. Start by asking your pastor or spiritual mentor to assist you. While you are at it, memorize 15-20 key Scripture verses, you will need them. Can you imagine a soldier being sent into a conflict without thorough training? No way. Once you learn how to present the gospel, find ways to practice it and then teach someone what you have learned and practice. People need great models in this area.

5. Consider Your Gifting. Not everyone is an outgoing evangelist but everyone can do something based upon their specific abilities. Maybe you can bake? Then bake your neighbor or friend a pie or some brownies. If you can change oil in a car, then change the auto oil for a single mom. Various acts of kindness can open a window to the gospel. But remember, everyone is responsible to tell others about Christ.

6. Materials And Methods. Here are a few things to use and some ways to use them.

a. Share your story. Ask friends and relatives what is important to them and then share why Christ is important to you. People like to talk about important things and they like to hear great stories. Use www.mostimportantthing.org to disclose your story and direct people to it. Ask them to read your story online and then to send you their insight from your story.

b. Use tracts…yes they are old fashion but they open discussion and give you an avenue to stay connected.

c. The Web makes things easy and efficient. Scarf ideas from www.studentz.com or www.namb.net/college. Refer people to www.WHYcard.net . Make a wordpress blog. A blog is easy and free. You can quickly learn how to make a blog through instruction on YouTube. Of course, talk about Christ on F’book or Twitter.

d. Host a party! Birthday, seasonal, or sports parties/tailgates are always a great invite. When people see how you live they can then understand what you believe.

e. Go to www.studentz.com/college and view the ‘intentional evangelism’ DVD. It talks about intentionality, clarity, and how to have a spiritual discussion with your friends.

7. Discover Venues.

a. Go on a mission trip and share your story with others. Then make plans to return and do it locally.

b. Take a trip to Panama City Beach and work with the LifeWay BeachReach Spring break outreach. It is a lot of fun and you WILL get to share your faith.

c. How about inviting international students over for dinner. They always accept. Call your local college international student office and they will assist you. Many leaders say that 7 out of every 10 students never go to an American home while they are in the U.S.

d. Throw a tailgate party or block party. Great events like this show that you care about others in your world. They give you credibility and validation as a friendly person.

e. Got a ping-pong table? Invite neighborhood kids over to use it. When you want to invite them to your church VBS program, they may go.

f. Find a project to work on in your town. Schools need painting, streets need cleaning, libraries need volunteers, etc. You get the idea. Go to places where people work or live.

8. Celebrate. As you are able to share your faith and/or people receive Christ, don’t forget to rejoice. Throw a party! Have a cake and ice cream. Videotape the story for others to see. Share it on a blog. This is important!

Some web sites:

www.WHYcard.net

www.thekristo.com

www.studentz.com/college

www.namb.net/college

www.mostimportantthing.org

www.findithere.com

www.thebigday.com

www.everystudent.com