Every May, over 800 students from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina gather for our end of year conference, known as Rockbridge. Rockbridge is always one of the highlights of my year and the Holy Spirit moved powerfully as students prayed and learned and worshiped!
I was a part of the Good News track where we spent time teaching students about evangelism and equipping them with tools to take with them back to campus. I also led a small group of 8 students from the track and we met over the course of the week to study scripture and process what was being learned and experienced. It was such a blessing to witness how God was growing these students and inspiring them to reach their friends back home and on their campuses!
Students often struggle with misplaced fear and misconceptions regarding evangelism. So one of our primary goals was to demonstrate that we must be compelled by love to reach our friends and people on our campuses. We memorized a passage from 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul starts out saying that "Christ's love compels us . . ." demonstrating that this is to be our overriding posture in the ministry of reconciliation that God has given us. We are to be a people so convinced of our need for God and his love for us that we have no choice but to be compelled by love to proclaim the gospel to those around us.
One of the other great components of the track was highlighting for students the role of the Holy Spirit, both in our own lives and in our friends. In the life of the early church we see an overwhelming role that the Holy Spirit plays in drawing people to God and communicating words of life through the believers. One of the greatest acts we can do in evangelism is to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to work. Not only does this take the pressure of us to do evangelism well, but it recognizes God's sovereignty in the lives of others around us and the fact that he is ultimately the one that can change hearts and make us into "new creations."
I am praying that the experiences these students had at Rockbridge will translate into many conversations and relationships over next year and that God's kingdom will continue to grow!
Another impression I had from the week is that God is doing something powerful in our chapters and on our campuses. As we gathered for worship on the last night of camp, there was a time carved out for corporate prayer and listening to God. With 500 students gathered together in the room, I was amazed by God's outpouring of the Spirit as students cried out for their friends and campuses and asked God to do something great. Just to give some context, this is a pretty dramatic shift from my experience as a student at Rockbridge. God has always been faithful to work at camp, but there seems to be something new that he is doing in this generation of students in calling them to prayer and dependency on his Holy Spirit at work in and through them. I am praying with them that God would begin a revival in our region and on campuses across the country!
Students often struggle with misplaced fear and misconceptions regarding evangelism. So one of our primary goals was to demonstrate that we must be compelled by love to reach our friends and people on our campuses. We memorized a passage from 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul starts out saying that "Christ's love compels us . . ." demonstrating that this is to be our overriding posture in the ministry of reconciliation that God has given us. We are to be a people so convinced of our need for God and his love for us that we have no choice but to be compelled by love to proclaim the gospel to those around us.
One of the other great components of the track was highlighting for students the role of the Holy Spirit, both in our own lives and in our friends. In the life of the early church we see an overwhelming role that the Holy Spirit plays in drawing people to God and communicating words of life through the believers. One of the greatest acts we can do in evangelism is to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to work. Not only does this take the pressure of us to do evangelism well, but it recognizes God's sovereignty in the lives of others around us and the fact that he is ultimately the one that can change hearts and make us into "new creations."
I am praying that the experiences these students had at Rockbridge will translate into many conversations and relationships over next year and that God's kingdom will continue to grow!
Another impression I had from the week is that God is doing something powerful in our chapters and on our campuses. As we gathered for worship on the last night of camp, there was a time carved out for corporate prayer and listening to God. With 500 students gathered together in the room, I was amazed by God's outpouring of the Spirit as students cried out for their friends and campuses and asked God to do something great. Just to give some context, this is a pretty dramatic shift from my experience as a student at Rockbridge. God has always been faithful to work at camp, but there seems to be something new that he is doing in this generation of students in calling them to prayer and dependency on his Holy Spirit at work in and through them. I am praying with them that God would begin a revival in our region and on campuses across the country!
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