A Planting Movement

The “bread and butter” of our ministry on campus is not to be found in large worship services with bands and flashy speakers; it’s found in the dorm rooms, union cafes, and lounges of the campus, where student-led cell groups (aka, missional bible studies) meet to dive into the scriptures and then bear witness to dorms and “people groups” of the campus. There are literally hundreds of stories I could share, but here’s a few of my favorites.

• At Central College, we challenged our core students to invite their non-Christian friends to discuss the gospel stories of Jesus with them for four weeks and more than 20 students decided to take the risk. Of the 25 non-Christians who were asked, and astounding 22 said they’d be interested and met with our students to ask, seek, and knock together around the Word of God!
• At Drake, a student named Beth Ann (who’s also coming on staff next year!) felt called by God to start a cell in her sorority house. By the mid-point in the semester, she had 40 girls who had attended at least one discussion, and new cells were beginning in the other three sororities at Drake!
• At UNI, two music majors who were in Ethiopia last summer decided to plant a new cell in the music department (a largely untouched pocket of the campus). Momentum has grown throughout the year as they’ve been faithful in prayer and invitation, and Jesus used that cell to bring three more students into relationship with Him (I got word of the third only two weeks ago!)