Michael Ots Evangelism Trust

Posted on December 15th, 2011 at 6:16 PM / No comments

The last two University missions that I spoke at were two of the most fruitful weeks I have been involved in. Over 100 signed up for follow up and 50 indicated that they professed faith. While there will always be some drop off after the week this is still a really encouraging response. Several people have been asking: What made those two weeks so fruitful? I have thought about that question over the last week or so and here are my reflections.

Firstly, it is impossible to predict quite how a week will go. That’s one of the adventures of mission. Sometimes a week will surpass expectations and other times it will be the opposite. However, there were several factors that I think did make a difference, but the biggest was this:

Expectation

At both Bath and Cardiff there was a real sense of expectation for what the Lord could and would do. I often share with the CU from the end of Acts 17 and look at the kind of response that we could expect to see – some reject the gospel (but don’t give up!), some need to hear more (so put on follow up) but some will believe (so be ready to disciple them!). I think often the expectation for people to believe has often been lost. So we pitch all our mission efforts and prayer into simply trying to get people to explore further. This means that we don’t pray for conversions. But it also means that often we don’t plan a mission in such a way that people could respond – the talks are too short and tacked on at the end of the evening. They are aimed at simply generating interest not drawing people to Christ and to repentance and faith. So with both Bath and Cardiff we spent time building some Biblical expectations for what we would see happen rather that just presuming that it had to be the same as the year before. Then started to plan and pray accordingly.

Diligent Planning

Both CU’s appointed mission planning teams and worked hard to cover all the details. There was an attention to detail and a diligence in the preparations that really made a difference. There is no short cut here. Good missions take serious effort. Planning meetings may not be the most exciting meetings in the world  but they lead to exciting missions as a result! I have written a mission planning document that goes through all the details of what will need to happen. This is being produced by UCCF or you can get an electronic version from me in the meantime.

Expectant Prayer

Cardiff spent a week in prayer in the build up to their mission. Both CU’s packed out the early morning prayer meeting. Everything else flowed from this. I have never seen a fruitful mission where the prayer meetings were badly attended. It has two benefits – firstly – God answers prayer – so when we pray God works. But also it motivates the CU – if you can get them praying at 7:30 in the morning then there is much more chance that they will put legs to their prayers and bring people to events and invite their friends.

Great CU Guests

At both places we had a big team of CU guests made up of relay workers, church workers and students and IFES staff from other countries. These were a real blessing and help to have around for the week and really made a difference.

Events where the talk is central

At all the events, while there was often food and music the central place was given to the talk. So each event had at least 20 -  40 minutes of the gospel being communicated. I find that events where people know they are coming to hear a talk are much more fruitful than when the talk is tacked on the side. It also takes time to communicate the gospel well. It is not suprising that if we only give people 5 or 10 minutes they are not in a position to respond to the gospel. They need time to understand it and for the objections to be dealt with as well. It is ironic that in a generation that is less biblically literate than many previous ones, we respond by giving people less time to hear the gospel – when they actually need more!

Keeping talks central didn’t mean the events were boring – the venues looked great, the food tasty and the music top quality. But people knew they were coming to hear a talk and everything else served that purpose.

Talks where Jesus is preached and an opportunity to respond is given

We worked on talk titles that would legitimately allow us to really get to the heart of the gospel and speak about Jesus. Some talks, for instance on the subject of science, are interesting but aren’t the best for a mission week event. They are better to deal with in the weeks before.

After nearly every talk we gave a three-fold challenge. To the atheist and sceptic we challenged them to read a gospel for themselves. For the unconvinced we got them to sign up for a follow up course starting the week after. But for those who were ready we gave the opportunity to respond by giving a prayer of response that we invited people to join in. We then encouraged them to indicate that they had done so on the feedback so we could plug them into another course that would get them started in the Christian life. Sometimes we don’t see response because we never give people the opportunity to do it! Follow up courses are great but Jesus command was not to go to another follow up course but to repent and believe. Even for those who were not ready to do so, the prayer modelled the kind of response that is ultimately required.