Soularium Outreach
Recently, our student leadership team at SIUE organized a large scale evangelistic outreach on their campus. Over the course of two days these 15 students shared the gospel with over 100 of their fellow students at SIUE! We saw God work in some amazing ways as our leadership team took steps of faith to initiate the Gospel with others. Praise God with us! Two students trusted Christ as a result of this outreach.
A Little Background
CCC History, St. Louis version from Peter Lively on Vimeo.
Check out this video to see a brief history of Campus Crusade for Christ!
What is Soularium?
Soularium is a tool we use on campus to help us begin spiritual conversations with students. Soularium is a collection of 50 artistic photographs that we spread out on tables, benches, the grass, or anywhere students are! We then ask students questions like, “What do you think God is like?” or “Describe your spiritual experience up to this point in your life,” but we ask them to choose photographs that represent the answers to these questions. Here’s a story of how Soularium works!
Last week, JB was sharing his faith at SWIC using Soularium. JB asked Jason, a SWIC student, some of the questions above, and asked him to choose three images to describe where he was spiritually. Jason chose a photo of a path, a photo of a barbed-wire fence, and a photo of a sunset to describe his spiritual state. He said, “I feel like I’m searching for God, like I’m on a path and I want to find Him. I know He’s got a plan for me. But…” Holding up the photo of the barbed-wire, he said, “I feel like something is standing in the way of me knowing God—something is holding me back, and blocking me.” Finally, holding up the picture of the sunset, he said, “Once I’m able to get through this barrier, the place I’ll be is a place of peace.”
Wow. How easy it was to share the Gospel with Jason after that! JB was able to explain to Jason that God loved him, and did have a wonderful plan for his life, but that he was right—there was something blocking him from knowing God. JB was able to explain that sin separates us from God, but that Jesus has removed the barrier! We can now have a relationship with God through faith in Christ. There at a picnic table outside SWIC’s main building, Jason placed his faith in Jesus.
As Jason was getting ready to go, he said, “I know so many people that need to hear this message. I’ve got so many people that I need to tell about this.”
Pray that Jason would grow in his faith as JB continues to meet with him. Pray that Jason would become a man who speaks to others about Jesus!
Fall Getaway!
Two weekends ago, we joined about 400 students from the Metro St. Louis area on Fall Getaway! Fall Getaway is a retreat that Campus Crusade puts on for students to get away from campus, hear from a great speaker, spend time with one another, and doing fun things like hiking, horseback riding, climbing...! Fall Getaway is a huge opportunity for students to go deeper in community with one another, and a great opportunity for evangelism as well!
We took a group of 29 students from the Metro East (SIUE and SWIC) to Fall Getaway! Several of the students that came do not know the Lord--it was a great time to share the Gospel with them, and for them to ask questions about who Jesus is! We really saw community among our students deepen at Fall Getaway, as well as a desire to continue to reach out to others who don’t know the Lord--praise God with us for this!
What is the Quest Survey?
One of the tools we use to get into spiritual conversations on campus is the Quest survey. The Quest survey is a five-question survey--the questions are listed above! Every day on campus, we take our student leaders with us and approach students on campus by saying something like, “Hi, I’m Abbie and this is my friend Candice. We’re with a student organization on campus and are getting students’ opinions and thoughts on spiritual things. Would mind taking a five-question survey? We’d love to get your thoughts.” We find that almost 100% of students are willing to engage in a spiritual conversation in this way.
The first two questions give us a chance to get to know the student we’re talking to. The second two allow us to gauge where a student is spiritually. The last question allows us to transition to the Gospel. if a student indicates a high level of desire to know God, we transition to sharing the Gospel by saying something like, “You know, Maggie, Candice and I actually believe it’s possible to know God personally. If you have a bit more time, I’d love to explain to you how I think that’s possible.” Many times, students will want to hear the Gospel! It is very exciting to be able to be so intentional in our evangelism, to initiate conversations, to use the survey to find the “good soil” and to share the Gospel with those who are ready to hear it! Praise God with us that we have already seen seven students place their faith in Christ from doing evangelism on campus!