Growing Innovative Evangelists

by Penny Slater

This year, the EU’s season of heightened evangelism was the “Is Jesus…?” Festival. Festival was held from the 8th to 26th August, with a variety of gospel opportunities held each day. There were large, centralised gatherings such as Public Meetings (PMs) however, most were smaller, student-run opportunities.

The goal for Festival was to enable EUers to share the gospel with their non-Christian friends on campus, in a specifically appropriate way. This challenged students to firstly make non-Christian friends, then to intentionally get to know them as they discover their interests and ‘belief blockers’. Festival was a chance for students to be creative in designing an evangelistic opportunity that was suitable for their friends. It both broadened students’ vision for evangelism and encouraged them to be innovative as they shared the gospel.

It was fantastic seeing God work through Festival. One example was Zenina, a senior EUer who organised a few evangelistic opportunities. “Festival has grown me in prayerfulness, teaching me to trust that God would work through the opportunities,” she said. “I was able to see God use my “Is Jesus Western?” opportunity to help my friend understand more about who He is and how he offers salvation to all, by faith in Jesus.”

All around campus were Jesus-centred conversations, with at least six non-Christians reading Uncover (the gospel of Luke) with a friend (and probably several more) as a result of Festial. Praise God!

Ultimately, we wanted to empower and equip students during their time on campus, to practice Christ-centred and innovative evangelism which they could take with them after graduation, and for the rest of their lives. Zenina seemed to have grasped this vision.

“Festival was a great opportunity for me to think about how I can be bold in sharing Jesus myself, particularly when I won’t have EU activities conveniently at my workplace in the future,” said Zenina.

 

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