Missions mobilization in the past has been about going. Now it is about a bigger goal—every Christian a World Christian. Every Christian saying, “I’ll do whatever it takes for my life to contribute to the great commission.” What is the goal of mobilization? Most of us are familiar with the end goal: reaching every tongue, tribe, and nation. But how do we get there from here? As mobilizers, what is it that we want students to do? Cross an ocean? Reach out to internationals? Pray for the world? These all are great things, however, we do not want to mobilize students to a single activity. If we do, they go back to life as usual once the activity is completed.
Instead, we should mobilize students to a change in perspective. So that no matter where they are or what they are doing, they are now World Christians. When they come home from the summer missions trip, they know they are not done. It’s not a geographical issue, but a heart issue. A World Christian understands that God’s heart is for the world and no matter where they find themselves on the planet they are furthering his kingdom. It is the World Christians who will make a difference in reaching every tongue, tribe, and nation, we as mobilizers must see it as our goal to raise them up.
So how do you raise up World Christians? There are three things needed in order to do this. They must be given motivation, information, and a lot of attention.
1. Motivation. Millions of Christian students pass casually through four of the most important years of their life. Many of whom are involved in college ministries, and yet the uttermost remains the uttermost. Why? “Without vision the people perish” (Prov. 29:18). We must understand that very few students have been introduced to the fact that 3 billion souls are without Christ. Even fewer students realize that their lives can be used to impact the eternal destiny of these people. Everything in our culture says, “Get what you can, then can what you get.” “Look out for number one!” Students lack vision and they need people to speak it into their lives. We need to be people who can motivate students by sounding the trumpet that life is about more than just themselves. Very rarely does the Christian college student look up and pray, “God, in light of your word and your world, where is the most strategic place for me and please make it to the least reached.” This just isn’t what they are being challenged with. So as mobilizers, we need to bring the challenge to them and bring it big. We must come alongside them and say, “This is the biblical basis of missions, this is what the world looks like and who has no access to the gospel. You have all the power of the Godhead at your disposal, put your yes on the table and let’s pray and see where the Lord puts it on the map. We must challenge them to lay down their Isaac (degree, family, suburbia, money, sports, etc.) and hear them pray, “God…unless you allow me to take it up again…I will not.” Whether it is through a speaker at a campus meeting or conference, through a discipler or friends, the student is exposed to God’s heart for the world. Motivation is always the first step of mobilization.
2. Information. Without information, motivation has a tendency to be just a good talk from a speaker with a neat personality. If all we give the students is motivation without information, we run the risk of creating “zeal without knowledge”(Prov. 19:2). I myself am a product of a good speaker that left me with no tools. If only he had given me a small amount of follow up, it would have saved years of struggle! As I travel from campus to campus, I see this same problem recurring. If we can follow students up with information regarding mission agencies, prayer resources, magazines, definitions for terms like “welcomer,” “goer” or “mobilizer,” etc., then they will be equipped to start taking steps. We must take the responsibility for keeping students in the pipeline and in the process. The Traveling Team places a high value on follow-up above all that we do. Each student that we meet with individually gets several follow-up emails from us personally, a follow-up email from our office once a month with a developing article, an email from each of the eight agencies that we partner with, and as we channel them toward our online follow-up tool, the 12 lessons on our website, they get responses back from each lesson by our staff. In one month that student may get eleven “touches” from us and a phone call; eleven reminders to keep in the process. It’s just like physics—it takes the greatest amount of energy to get an object moving from zero to one—but once it is rolling the process and inertia takes over. The information is already out there, let’s put it in their hands.
3. Attention. Even after information is given, we still may see very few World Christians raised up. There are plenty of case studies of students who have motivation and information, yet they still do nothing. Why is this? Because everything around them is pulling for their passion, time, and resources. I am amazed, personally, at how much I can forget in just one night of sleep. Students are no different. They desperately need personal attention. The best person to give personal attention is the one discipling them. Unfortunately, many students are not being discipled so it falls on us as mobilizers to provide some of the needed attention through establishing relationships and various channels of communication. As difficult as it is to pull this task off, there will never be a substitute for providing attention to college students after the motivation and information has been delivered.
So what is the goal? Ultimately, the goal is to see the Lord praised in every nation. However, to get there we need to raise up and equip World Christians through motivation, information, and attention. If that goal is met effectively, we will see a mighty movement of ready laborers to finish the Great Commission in our generation.
© 2010 Christianity Today/BuildingChurchLeaders.com
