College: Best Evangelistic Opportunity You'll Ever Have

"Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity." Colossians 3:5

Until you find yourself confined to a nursing home, college is best evangelistic opportunity you will ever get. In college (even a Christian college) you live with non-Christians. These non-Christians will listen to your words (words they would never otherwise be willing to hear) because you live with them. You support your words with a powerful visual aide: because they live with you, the people you are evangelizing get to observe how your membership in Christ's church affects every aspect of your life.

Once you graduate, everything changes. Americans are thoroughly committed to rugged individualism. If I walk next door and try to talk to my neighbor, he thinks I'm crazy. People are supposed to keep to themselves. This is America. Don't I understand that?

After college you'll meet people at work, of course. There may be a bit of time here and there to share the gospel, but for the most part your coworkers will be distracted by their work (that's why they're at work, after all). Plus you won't be living with the people at work. They don't get to see your faith in Christ lived out 24/7 like your dormmates do.

The students in your dorm leave their doors open for a reason: they want people to stop by and talk to them. They want to be distracted from their homework. What better way to distract them than by forming a relationship that can serve as a foundation for evangelism?

College students complain about how busy they are. They are not busy. Unless a student is working himself through college, no one uder the age of 65 has as much free time as a college student. This provides something absolutely essential for evangelism: time. Explaining the gospel takes time. Lots of time. After college, non-Christians are generally not willing to give believers sufficient time to share Christ with them.

While still in college, they will give you the time. They will sit and talk with you for hours about evolution vs. creation, postmodernism vs. being able to possess certain knowledge of absolute truth, the religious claim that man can earn salvation vs. the Bible's teaching on the necessity of Christ's atonement, etc. After college non-Christians will not spend hours sitting on a couch discussing such matters. In college, they are willing. Make the most of this opportunity.

If you are a college student, you have opportunities we older Christians can only dream of. You can engage in more evangelism in the next four years than all the rest of your life put together. Make the most of this opportunity.

Evangelistic tips for college students:

1) Become an associate member of a local church and attend that church faithfully (every week, even when you are tired or moderately sick). Make sure the church is committed to Biblical inerrancy, and to the gospel of justification by faith alone, through grace alone, because of Christ alone. Make sure it is a church you would invite non-Christians to without any hesitation. In other words, make sure the preaching and music are both excellent. The church should be committed to pastoring and shepherding its associate members (college students). You are a sheep. You need a pastor to feed and protect you. You must be humble enough to admit this, or you are going to starve and/or get eaten (not necessarily in that order). If no pastor is willing to pastor you, move on until you find a church that is willing to provide genuine pastoral care to its college students. (Note: Reformed University Fellowship - RUF for short - is the campus ministry of the Presbyterian Church in America - PCA. The RUF staff worker is an actual ordained pastor. He is a shepherd, bearing both rod and staff. If your campus has an RUF chapter, I urge you to join and receive the benefits unique to RUF.)

2) Taking a person to church is the most effective method of evangelism the world has ever seen, or ever will see. This is true for two reasons. First, God has made the preaching of his Word the primary means by which he convicts and converts sinners. This is not to denigrate the importance of one-on-one evangelism. It's just that hearing the Word preached is more powerful, more central - it is how the Holy Spirit most prefers to bring people to Christ. To put it as simply as possible: if you want someone to become a Christian, you need to get him to church. Second, Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom. "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." The kingdom of God is not heaven. The kingdom of God is the church. Jesus did not preach, "Believe in me so you can go to heaven." He preached, "Believe in me so you can be part of my church." This distinction is critical. If the church is the good news (in other words, if being part of Christ's body is what we are saved unto), then your evangelism has to be church-centered. It is your church as a whole leading a person into Christ's church.

3) Evangelism is a slow process. Do not try to rush it! Most of the evangelistic task is really what we would call "pre-evangelism." There is a great deal an unbeliever must be taught about the nature of God, man, sin, Christ, and the world in general before he can understand the gospel well enough to respond to it. So don't just jump in and start talking about how Jesus died for our sins! Instead, find out about a person's worldview. How does he define the word "God?" What is his definition of sin? Does he cling to the generic religious worldview (that human beings can earn salvation through some combination of good works, religious rituals, and trying one's best to avoid the really big sins)? Or is he committed to philosophic naturalism (humanism, secularism, postmodernism, whatever label you prefer)? Regardless, you have to find you where he is and proceed from there. There is no point in talking about how Jesus died as our substitute if the person does not believe in creation, or does not know the correct definition of sin, or does not understand the necessity of a Mediator between Creator and fallen creature.

4) Avoid Christianese. Do not use words or phrases like "saved" or "ask Jesus into your heart." Also, remember that even if the non-Christian knows some biblical terms (God, sin, hell, etc.), that doesn't mean he has biblical definitions in mind for these terms. Likely to him the word "God" means the wimpy, sentimental, Unitarian pansy mentioned on greeting cards in Hallmark stores. So you have to define everything. This is why evangelism takes so long. Much of evangelism is, in fact, teaching non-Christians the Biblical worldview (meaning the Biblical definitions for Biblical terms).

5) Avoid emotional manipulation and hasty decisions. The evangelist George Whitefield urged his listeners not to make quick decisions to convert. He did not want impulsive commitments made in high-emotion situations (like what people can feel in the middle of a revival meeting). Instead he told potential converts to go home and think the matter over in private. Did they really understand what they were getting themselves into? Becoming a believer is the most important decision a person will ever make. How much thought and consideration should go into deciding whom to marry? Even more thought and consideration should go into deciding whether or not to covenant with Christ.

If you are a college student, I am so happy for you! You are living with non-Christians who have lots of free time, and are willing to spend much of it having long, meaningful conversations.

May God grant you great fruitfulness in sharing the gospel of the kingdom with your fellow students. May your labors make the Church of the living God bigger and better. May your feet be counted beautiful indeed.

When you stand before Christ, may He find that you made the most of every opportunity!