The Heart of Evangelism

At the beginning of December was a conference for all the IVCF Canada Staff.  The theme of this
conference was around developing a heart of Evangelism and Witness and to show us that it is possible for us to be doing this even without a particular "gifting".  Both Barron and I came away with a conviction that this needs to be true for the SFU ministry.  So we went ahead to prepare our students to receive the news of this direction for SFU.  Barron worked with Abraham in the small group leaders material and training around evangelism and I worked on communicating with the other exec around what the new direction is going to be like.  

As the student executive and small group leaders walked through my doors at the beginning of classes, all of them had differing ideas on what small groups looked like.  However, as Barron and Abraham have been planning and started sharing the vision, I could sense a tension of fear filling the air.  We were basically asking our small group and executive team to be stronger witnesses and to proclaim the Gospel to their non-believing friends.  A few of them expressed their concerns and reservations, but to our surprise, they all agreed that it needed to be done.

Them saying yes is a result of the faithfulness of the students who went before them.  They said "yes" even though they knew that they may be hated or labelled for it.  Despite that, they chose to step into this fear and discomfort which put their minds off of what they can do themselves to what God is capable of doing.

A couple of weeks later, we as a team went to Denman Island where Ian Elliot (Director of Evangelism) hosted our group.  Ian and his wife Naomi lead our team through the sending of the seventy disciples, got us to name our fears, and brought attention to the sin of tolerance in Canadian culture.  During all of these portions, he shared incredible stories of witness which revealed to our team the practical (and attainable) applications of Evangelism.  That week, we became inspired to be bathing this vision in prayer and to be fervently praying for the friends we are called to witness to.

As a result of that weekend, Anika our Spiritual Direction Coordinator lead us (the Core Witness Team) through an incredible prayer time of confession and repentance.  We were reminded of the truths of who God is and that if there are fears in us, it's because these truths were not active in us.  To help us with a deeper understanding of these truths, we started praying specific bold prayers.  Prayers of healing, prayers for God to intervene, prayers for God to create opportunities and open up doors to witness.  We saw God giving prophetic words and images for each other who were dealing with these fears.  The initial fears these students are having are starting to disappear as they come to know and believe the truths of God's character.

With the combination of fervent prayer and exceptional training for our leaders, one can only imagine what will happen this semester.  As a big bold prayer, we are praying for 20 students who aren't Christians to be coming out to the Ski Retreat.  We are praying that by the end of the semester that we will have 10 students who aren't Christians come and study the Gospel of Mark at Mark West Pacific.  But most of all, we are praying that our lost friends will be able to find Jesus this semester.  

Please join with IVCF SFU through intercession.  We are in desperate need of your prayers and know that your prayers are being heard and answered.

Pray for the continued breakdown of walls and fears that prevent us from witnessing to our peers and friends

Pray that God would open doors for them to explore deeper faith issues.

Pray that God would compel a large amount of students to say "yes" to the Ski Retreat

Pray for our current community of believers that they would receive the heart and passion for witness.

Pray that the Holy Spirit would penetrate deep into our hearts.