Economics & Ministry

No, this is not about money; this is about the economic law of supply and demand in its application to ministry. People teach and run their ministries on this principle. Find out the needs of their people group and then seek to fulfill those needs. Jesus, the good Samaritan, Peter, Paul, and other New Testament leaders used this form of ministry outreach at some point in their ministry.

This has been true for our ministry and has been successful to draw students. At the end of fall semester we had 25 students show up for a pre-finals week chili feed. This semester we have averaged 15-20 for monthly dinners we host at our house. The photo is from our National Tartan Day dinner in April which featured everything from haggis and scones to ribs and smashed potatoes for 20 students. We have sought to be of value to the campus through handing out hot chocolate, participating in campus preview days, and some students in Challenge are also in student government.

One problem of this type of involvement is that we can loose focus on why we are involved. We so are busy being all things to all people that we forget why we are different. Sharing our faith and the purpose for being on campus can be lost in these simple acts of kindness.

As part of our Kansas City spring break trip we stopped off to see what Christian Challenge looks like at Washburn University. It was a pleasure to re-connect with Craig Freerksen and this maturing ministry. The most important thing I took from our time with Craig was the necessity for intentionality. Regardless of what we do, say, where we live, or how we chose to spend our time, if we are not intentional then we will miss out.

We will still work to meet the needs of the students, but we must remember the very reason we exist. Pray that as we look at whatever this next year brings that this message of intentionality will move beyond a theory and become a law of our ministry!