"I accepted Christ at work this morning!" The voice on the other end of the phone was excited. "I wanted you to know."
It’s not often that you get a call from a college student at 8:30 in the morning on a Thursday, but I had been meeting with this young man for several weeks over the summer and he sounded like a changed man. As our Wesley worship nights started up again on Tuesdays, he started coming – along with thirty-five other brand new students to our ministry. Even more exciting than seeing 70 students in our building is that many of them are very new to walking with Christ.
Our first night, I was intentionally direct in communicating what we’re about at the Wesley. "This school year we’re going to re-roof two homes in inner-city Memphis, we’re going to spend a week in the wilds of the Rocky mountains with the Lord, every Tuesday night we’re going to have home cooked food and go through stories in your Bibles that you’ve probably never heard of before – and all of it is a very fun excuse to hang out with each other, the Lord, and grow in Christ. You're not going to want to miss it."
So far we’ve gone canoeing on the Buffalo, covered content like the Gibeonites & Joshua, Deborah & Barak, we’ve started open "cafes" on campus where Caleb and I meet up with groups of students throughout the week to discuss living a Christian life, and in the coming weeks we’ll kick off a whole new way of doing small groups. Already, without question, we’re seeing God bless our efforts and grant the desire of our hearts – that more students would enthrone Him as King!
"What happened? What made you decide to become a Christian on a Thursday morning at work!?" I asked half joking and genuinely curious. "Well, we were just talking about the Bible, about the stories you’ve been sharing on Tuesday nights, and I realized I wanted to make this a thing." I kind of laughed to myself. I like that language of "making this a thing." To borrow my friend’s words, this year at the Wesley, Jesus is doing an excellent job of making Himself "a thing".
Daniel Rupp
Wesley Director & College Pastor
