What we do is not about the strategy or the content, whether we use video games, t-shirts, or a 50-foot banana split (actual strategy), the point is the people that God is pursuing through us.
The strategies are simply following Paul’s model to “become all things to all people so that by all possible means [we] might save some” (1 Cor 9:22).
One key strategy is focusing on incoming freshmen in the Fall, because they enter the campus those first few weeks with their radars wide open for new relationships in a way that never quite happens again. Also, if we build a relationship with them right at the beginning, we have the longest runway to pour into them before they head out into the world (hopefully as life-long Christ-centered multiplying disciples).
How to find those freshmen is one of the big questions. That’s where t-shirts and ice cream and video games come in.
Just yesterday (as I write this), I drove to a college on the coast and spent a couple hours standing next to a tripod with a Nintendo Switch on it while wearing a Mario hat. They certainly catch the eye.
As students come up and played with us, like Jericho and David yesterday, we ask them what else they like to play. We ask them what they’re studying, and we ask them what they believe about God. The game gives us a natural shoulder-to-shoulder icebreaker, and the laughs (usually from my gaming mistakes) build an easy rapport.
From there, we invite the curious to hear the gospel, and we invite both Christians and non-Christians to join our in-person community as well as the online gaming and Bible study Discord. Please pray for the freshmen and those reaching them!
Grant Ministry 