Students Grow in Leadership through Outreach, Evangelism

Tue, 24 May 2011 09:31:34 -0500

In the mid 19th century, nearly one in every twenty Americans was Methodist. They had been reached by a network of Circuit Riding evangelists and preachers who shared the good news of Jesus Christ, called people to repentance and faith, and organized small groups to make new disciples and leaders.
Campus Ministry is itself a kind of “Circuit” - with student organizations on three campuses, and opportunities elsewhere. Student leaders take responsibility for reaching other students for Christ as they grow in faith, leading in areas of outreach, mission, worship, and small groups.   As Methodists, however, we are also connected to the life of the local church. Located near downtown San Antonio, the Methodist Student Center provides effective and vital ministry to a population that is largely absent in churches in the area: urban young adults. In addition, many UMC related congregations in the urban area of San Antonio are experiencing serious patterns of decline.
One of those congregations is Los Angeles Heights UMC, a church that has declined from 160 families in 1960 to fewer than ten in 2010. Students and other Volunteers in Mission recently formed a “Firestarters” project to revitalize congregational ministry in that location, offering Sunday evening dinner and worship services to working people who are unavailable to worship on Sunday morning in an informal setting that can appeal to urban young adults and others. They called the project “Crosstown Christian Fellowship” - with hopes to attract people from across town to a highly visible location on IH-10.  The project was launched in April 2011 and since that time has reached over 60 different people with average attendance around 26. (The morning services average around 15).

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Students Grow in Leadership through Outreach, Evangelism