aziz

 (Enjoying some “small” steak with a friend in Argentina)

I never really understood what it means to be a carnivore until I went to Argentina!  I have eaten enough red meat to be permanently banned from PETA for life.  However, I was there not to eat, but to engage with national and area leaders of CCC from all over the world.  However, the eating sure was fun!

Once a year campus leaders from all over the world, endure long plane flights (some traveled over 40 hours!) just to come together to talk about global trends in university student ministry and how we as global campus leaders can begin to tackle those problems.  Leaders from close to 30 countries from Australia to Egypt to Korea to Costa Rica were represented there.  While there it was great to hear stories of what God is doing in student’s lives throughout the world as well as tackle some of our major problems.

As a group, we went through a lengthy process of agreeing on some major problems that either our organization is facing or that we are facing as ministers on the university campus. Here is a small taste. Together we said that we:

1) Are not giving students enough ownership of their local campus ministries.  Too many staff lead our movements on campus and the students just follow their directives.  Instead, we believe, it should be the other way around.  How do we as leaders help create that environment where our students lead the show.  After all, our students have the natural relationships with their non believing friends as well as it is their enthusiasm and excitement for the Lord that will eventually win the day.

2) We as global campus leaders are not taking advantage of the incredible opportunity that the internet brings in winning, building and sending the students of the world to the students of the world.  The average student spends 5-6 hours a day online.  We are not equipping our students to do win, build and send online.  We must engage students where they are spending most of their time outside of class (and sometimes where they spend MORE time than going to class)!  This needs to take place in all of our countries not just our wealthier ones.  One of my friends who oversees the campus ministry for parts of Africa tells me that even African students all have cell phones. Some of them have 2!

3) We must do a better job of coaching our staff..especially our National Campus Directors.  You could pray for me on this one as I am coaching a couple of our Arabic national campus directors.  Pray I would be more effective in helping these men do an even better job than they are doing in leading the campus ministries in their countries.

There are many other major problems that our campus ministry is experiencing worldwide including the rise of militant Islam, governments from both oppressed and “free” (including the USA) limiting our access to students on grounds of “tolerance” or “fairness”, and needing to partner better with all like minded Christian organizations to reach the world’s 130 million university students.  Pray for all of us as a group as we go after some of these problems.

Next time you sit down to have a steak, will you pray for the campus leaders who met in Argentina?  Bon apetit!