Chris Bean

I’m a bit emotional…sappy, you might say. Sometimes it humors my wife as we’re watching TV together and the dramatic tear-jerking scene (it can be anything really…even a commercial) reaches out extracting my heart from its proper place and lodging it in my throat.

I had one of those tearful moments as I drove to campus this morning. An NPR report came on the radio which involved a teen suicide cluster in Palo Alto, CA. You can find the actual report or even listen to it here.

Apparently, there have been four suicides at this particular commuter train railroad crossing in the past 6 months. What continued to capture my attention as I listened to the report was the response of the community and about 70 parents who began to volunteer for “Track Watch.”

I think this is a profound act of love and compassion…a true ’standing in the gap’ for teens in this community who are tempted to solve temporary problems with a permanent solution. This is no miniscule effort on the part of these parents either, spending several hours at a time as guardians of such an abused place.

As my heart was aching for these students, parents, school, and community…I was also infused with hope. As we enter this season of Advent, I’m looking for glimmers of Gospel…and a bunch of parents guarding a railroad track until 1 AM every  night looks like Gospel to me.

Success? Winning? Progress?

In some areas, this is an easy concept to define. As I have been training for marathons and trying to drop some extra pounds, all I have to do is step on the scale to see if I am “winning.”  When it comes to ministry and people, success is a little more elusive.

Not too long ago I was part of a church staff that was engaging Andy Stanley’s book “7 Practices of Effective Ministry” and we spent a good bit of time trying to define the “Win.”  That process instigated some healthy discussions regarding our vision, allotment of resources, evaluating success, etc.  A typically frustrating conclusion I often came to during my 15 years of staff ministry (youth, worship, discipleship) was that the “win” was nearly always defined in terms of numbers, dollars, programming, etc. I would even say that my own ministry with middle and high school students was more often geared towards being attractional and programmatically impressive than it should have been.

As I contemplate the next 10 to 20 years of my life, vocation, and mission…I am determined not only to define success differently, but to engage in ministry and relationships differently.

Several weeks ago I was sharing this re-orientation towards discipleship and long-term transformation with my friend, Phil. He was asking some questions about what I was trying to accomplish in campus ministry here in Cincinnati. My attempt to articulate this model of ministry never seems as clear or adequate verbalized as it exists in my head. But within a few minutes I think I was able to convey my passion and commitment to pouring myself into a few with hopes to impact many over time.

Another friend in campus ministry is wrestling with the same issue just across the river at NKU. Aaron Klinefelter is director of the Wesley Foundation and you can track with his discussion here. (Isn’t this a great shot of him with his son?!)   As Aaron and I discussed the topic of success briefly, I was challenged by something he said which I think is very true. If we don’t define success in our campus ministry, someone else will define it for us. Whether that’s a supervisor, a board, students, or any number of other possibilities…we must be intentional about shaping and modeling campus ministry strategically, ESPECIALLY if we have a definition of success and faithfulness which is not the default understanding of numbers, budgets, and a full calendar.

I especially like Jim Musser’s comments about measuring success by the future. You can read his perspective over at the Heart of Campus Ministry Blog here.  Jim makes this statement early in his post,

“The success of any campus ministry is found in what its students are doing five, 10, 15 years in the future.”

That is definitely the approach to ministry I am taking for the next 15-20 years. My goal is to disciple 12 students each year…with hopes that 4-6 of those students really flourish and are spiritually transformed. (Obviously, I would hope for 12 of 12 to succeed…but we all know better than that, eh?!)  Ideally, those 4-6 students would be discipled in such a way that they would own the calling of disciple-maker themselves. If that pattern continued for even 3 or 4 years, it would dwarf the “success” of my first 15 years of staff ministry. That’s pretty exciting…and as I have been praying to have maximum Kingdom impact with my life…campus ministry is an answer to that prayer.

Within the culture and context of my own family and extended family, Thanksgiving is a big deal. It only took a couple of our 15 years together for my wife and I to discover the optimal system for dividing up holiday time between our families. On my side of the family tree…Thanksgiving has always been the big family gathering. There is always more great food, more family present, and more good will surrounding this holiday than any other. So typically, we spend 2-3 days with my parents and brothers, grandma, etc around the traditional Thursday celebration in late November.

One little bonus this year was running the Drumstick Dash in Indy on Thursday morning with my big brother, Bill, and his oldest daughter, Erin. The 4.5 trek around the Broadripple community in northwest Indy was Erin’s first official race while she was home from Hanover College.

After only one quarter on campus at the University of Cincinnati, I’d say it’s a pretty big week for many families. Several students left campus after only attending a handful of classes on Monday and Tuesday of the Thanksgiving week. I heard mention of professors canceling their Wednesday classes because they knew students were leaving campus early. Perhaps the only thing that kept the masses hanging around campus this past week was the big game against Illinois on “Black Friday” which was particularly ‘black’ for the fighting Illini (Bearcat Black!)

My campus ministry-mates at the Edge House were engaged in some great efforts of hospitality and compassion…serving up some delicious Thanksgiving meals for those in need. Even after only one quarter’s worth of ministry, I know the Edge House is making a great impact on the students, campus, and community. Being part of the Edge House while serving students via the CCO & Nazarene Church has been a great combination so far. And we’ve only just begun!

Apparently, I’m a sucker for a re-made TV series which must have aired during my media-sensitive formative years.

Although I missed the pilot when it originally aired a couple of weeks ago, I just caught up with it on ABC.com and was mildly intrigued by a couple of things.

Religion…I’m always interested in the portrayal of religion and spiritual subjects when it comes to TV, film, music, etc. Jack, (hmm…what’s the obsession with “Jack” and hero characters for ABC?) is a priest who quickly becomes aligned with the resistance movement.  In the final scene with Elizabeth Mitchell (also of Lost fame), “devotion” is identified as the great weapon which the reptilian visitors have on their side.

It reminds me a little bit of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters and some of the ways in which the appretice demon was learning to thwart God’s purposes in the lives of Christ followers.

That scene certainly prompted me to think of ways in which my own devotion might be misappropriated. St. Augustine called it disordered love in our lives.

We’ll see how the Visitors’ attempt goes for gaining viewership and entertainment devotion. But this idea obviously begs the question on a spiritual level, have we lost our identity as subversives and champions of resistance?

Is our devotion rightly directed…or has it been hijacked by a reptilian or somewhat sinister system of living?

No one’s saying that isn’t an alluring option. 

One of the most difficult but faith-stretching challenges in our transition to campus ministry with the CCO has been in the area of raising support. Fortunately, the CCO has provided excellent training and ongoing support for this new part of our ministry, and because the CCO does such a great job of partnering with churches, colleges, and organizations to create campus staff positions our support raising need is lower than it would be with other campus ministry organizations.

About a week ago I met a friend of a friend who had been part of one of these other campus ministries (we’ll leave the ministry un-named) for several years. He commented on how bad the experience was in the area of support raising. As we talked, I got the impression that he disengaged from that ministry mainly over this difficult task. And for some, it’s not just the difficulty of the task but a basic belief that one shouldn’t have to raise financial support in order to fulfill a calling to minister with students.

We have so much mental baggage when it comes to money! And I am no exception to that. In order to correct much of this head trash I keep turning to Scripture. The biblical perspective on this aspect of ministry continues to open my eyes and stretch my faith. Here are just a few examples which have really helped shaped my view of raising support for ministry.

• It’s NOT Christian Begging.  (This is discussed in a Cru article which you can find here) When Jesus entered a new town, he regularly accepted the hospitality of others and instructed his disciples to do the same (Matt. 10:11)  Paul had a similar approach with the churches he planted and visited.
• Support Raising IS Ministry. I had to learn this principle and now it’s so obvious to me when other campus ministers (or missionaries) talk about raising support as the non-ministry they have to do in order to DO ministry. In Philippians 4:14-17 Paul commends the Philippians for their generous support and role that they played in his ministry. By being generous and supporting Paul, several of the churches got to play a significant role in Paul’s life and ministry. Even in the short time that we have been raising support for ministry, it is obvious that we have significant ministry (communication, prayer, encouragement, etc) to those who are partnering with us financially.
• The Mission is Worth the Effort. I sometimes have to just get over the awkwardness and my own level of discomfort. The mission of seeing college students transformed so that they can then transform the world is worth a little pre-phone-call anxiety! In the third epistle of John, he encourages the support of those who are going out for the sake of the Name.

There are, of course, many Christians who don’t respond well to this notion of support raising. The stories I’ve heard already from dozens of ministry peers become almost comical. Again, I think this is a result of the baggage and head trash most people have over money talk and not because they think it’s morally or biblically wrong. Paul had the Philippians to balance out the carnality of the  Corinthians…and He is likely to make the same sort of provision for today’s missionaries and church planters.

For those campus ministers who are raising support…what are the lessons you have learned? How has raising support become a positive part of your ministry?

For those campus ministers who are “fully” funded by a church, denomination, or other institution…be generous to your support raising friends! What an encouragement it was for me to have a fellow campus minister partner with us financially. Regardless of the amount, it will be a great source of inspiration and blessing to that ‘co-worker’ in campus missionary.

As I was reading some scripture this morning and thinking about discipleship, I turned to a passage in Luke 14 which is headed with the caption “The Cost of Being a Disciple” in the NIV. I don’t always appreciate these headings but I think the translation committee got this one right.

As I read the passage a third or fourth time, an interesting distinction jumped out at me from verse 25: “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus…”

Notice that Luke did NOT say that large crowds were following Jesus…just traveling with him. They were near Jesus, but not necessarily engaged.

Within the context of evangelical Christianity (perhaps I could just say Christianity in general, but I’ll limit my observations to what I’m experientially familiar with) discipleship is seen as optional. Obviously, not many pastors or Christians would actually say that this is the case, but the ways in which we understand the Gospel, ‘share’ the gospel, and “do” church betray our core beliefs. Whether it’s because we think praying the prayer is enough or because we fear losing the crowds, we rarely challenge believers to a self-sacrificial Gospel-shaped understanding and pursuit of discipleship.

Do we distinguish, as Jesus did,  between “traveling with” and following?

Do we settle for the criteria of the crowd?

In so doing, we create an environment in which discipleship is optional. We expect discipleship to happen simply as the result of proximity to Jesus (and other believers aka attending church).

In my own ministry with students at the University of Cincinnati, I am determined to pursue models of biblical discipleship which will result in a steady stream (over the years) of  transformed followers of Jesus. More than likely, this is not going to look like a mass gathering of students except on the rarest of occasions. My hope is that it will look like a full week of one-on-one or one-on-two conversations, meals, front-porch encounters, etc. It will look like a few students enjoying a weekend of backpacking in the Red River Gorge, or kayaking down the Little Miami River, or playing disc golf.

Of course, the first step for me or anyone else committed to discipling is to BE a disciple. Discipling and the transformation of students will happen in the wake of my own discipleship journey and transformation.

In an article by Gabe Lyons at www.fermiproject.com, he states the following after an overview of Christianity’s 2000-year history of fulfilling the cultural mandate in Genesis 1:28…

It’s easy to see that when forced to convey the most dramatic parts of the Christian story in a short period of time, parts of the story are easily overlooked. In the process, Christianity was losing its profound and life-giving answers to central questions no longer representing an entire life-system and worldview. It had become relegated to a personal, spiritual decision about where you would spend the afterlife.

This is a theme and over arching question which is driving many Christians to re-think what the “Gospel” is all about.

The title of the article is INFLUENCING CULTURE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CHURCH.

Gabe makes a correlation between the personalization of the Gospel and the influence of Christianity on the broader culture. As the former increases the latter decreases.

He goes on to say,

When Christians dismiss the cultural mandate as an insignificant part of the Christian life, separatism and piety increases and cultural influence fades, But, if Christians learn and embrace the full story gospel and partner with God in restoring and redeeming his creation, their cultural influence will follow and the Good News will spread.

Later he challenges those of us in the church by saying “This vision demands that leaders in the church wrestle with the complexity of embodying the Gospel in culture. As the church rediscovers its unique role in culture, and supports the calling of their cultural influencers, it will be a force for good in our communities, cities and the country.”