The Heart of the Matter

As I mentioned in a previous post, last fall I taught a class on witnessing and personal evangelism for the undergraduate religion department at Andrews University. At the same time, another professor Pastor Glenn Russell was teaching a class called Campus Evangelism that was on how to organize, prepare for and conduct a public evangelistic effort. Both classes were being offered for the first time ever to prepare students to be part of a student-led evangelistic effort on campus called "The Heart of the Matter." It began last fall with students speaking and making appeals for baptism and learning more about the SDA faith at vespers, chapel and PMC. The students in my class then followed up on these interests by giving Bible studies. One girl was baptized last fall as a result. But the big event was Student Week of Spiritual Emphasis which took place January 25-29.

The Wednesday before Pastor Glenn and I met with the students from both classes at the Pioneer Memorial Church for a special season of prayer. We had spent months preparing for this event. Students had written sermons and rehearsed them, advertising materials were all across campus, students had been invited, but we knew that what we really needed was the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. And so we prayed ... at the podium where the students would be speaking ... at the altar where they would be invited to come ... in the back where the harder-to-reach "mixed multitude" likes to sit, and the baptistry where we hoped many would one day stand. It was powerful!

And then it began. Every morning and evening God's Word was lifted up. It was deep, undiluted, unashamed - not gimmicky or entertainment-driven. It called them to make commitments - to pray "Lord, don't just take me out of Egypt; take the Egypt out of me," to end dating relationships that don't honor God, to break away from worldly entertainment, to stop being careless in Sabbath observance, to embrace the identity and mission of the SDA church by becoming a member, and more! The students spoke with conviction. Several of the guys began to cry as they appealed to the students to commit everything to Christ.

Pastor Dwight Nelson told me this was the best and most well-attended student-led weeks of prayer he has ever seen on this campus. On Friday night I watched him pray with students who responded to one of the appeals. In the end we had 15 decisions for baptism and 30+ who wanted studies to learn more about the SDA faith. These are now being studied with.

The Heart of the Matter is really all about Jesus - Jesus lifted up - Jesus preached - Jesus invited into the life - Jesus transforming the life. I saw the truth of His Words, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. "John 12:32.

Here is a sample of one message on "Why Embrace God's Remnant Church?" preached by one of my students Andrew Campbell.