I wish this was a picture of our on-campus student organization. This gathering in the student union at UCF was a vigil I attended for the victims of the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. I didn’t know this until the tragedy, but Central Florida Hillel (which serves not just UCF, but other nearby colleges as well) is the second largest Jewish collegiate population outside of the State of Israel. Because of that, there is a significant Jewish presence on campus at UCF, as well as a Jewish Studies program at the University.
The Christian presence at UCF is a different story. There are several on-campus ministries (Cru, InterVarsity, BCM, RUF, Young Life), but for a school with over 66,000 students, they hardly make a dent. SHIFT, the ministry that Ali and I work with is part of that mix. We are doing our part to sow seeds, teaching students about how to grow in Christ, but we would love more time to devote to the cause of discipling and mentoring college students. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
This is why we began to raise support, and we have come quite a ways in meeting our goals. Overall, we are about 2/3 of the way to our monthly goal that we’ve been working to raise. We have several faithful donors who have supported us on a month to month basis, and without their help, we really wouldn’t be able to do anything on campus or off when it comes to student ministry.
For a bit of background, here is our mission with SHIFT @ UCF:
We want to pursue effective student ministry (both high school and college) in Orlando
More specifically:
We want to help mold high school and college students into whole-life disciples, equipped for various callings, and eager to engage the culture for the sake of the Kingdom
Because you’re curious, that phrase “whole-life disciples” comes from our church. It is a shorthand way of denoting that discipleship involves the whole of a person, not just their mind, or heart, or body. It’s also a way of implying that discipleship involves not just theological education, but perhaps in the case of high school and college students, lessons in “adulting.” In short, we’d like to see Christian adolescents become competent Christian adults. For more background on that, here is our target and some distinctives in our approach.
Toward that end, we’ve started molding our weekly meetings in the same form that our community group at church takes. The goal is to have more intentional time for fellowship in a more public place on campus before we transition to either a time of teaching, prayer, or sharing. We meet up in the student union to eat and hang out before we head over to our reserved room.
Last night we wrapped our fall Bible study in Ephesians. We focused on Ephesians 6:10-20, but ended up in Acts 19-20 for background context. We spent some time discussing how the spiritual climate in Ephesus contributed to Paul’s need to address spiritual warfare in his letter to the church. Interestingly, we noted that believers in Ephesus came to faith and were part of the church before they realized their need to confess practicing magic and then get rid of the materials of their former way of life (Acts 19:18-19).
We talked about how that is much the way it is today. Church and faith in Christ should be “come as you are, but don’t stay as you are.” We also noted how true spiritual change has to come from within and that it cannot be manipulated from without. Because it is within, and so a work of the Spirit, prayer is one of the key means by which that change is accomplished, both in our lives and the lives of those we know and love. I hadn’t necessarily expected the discussion to go in this direction, but the Spirit moves in unexpected ways sometimes.
As we enter into the end of the year and today in particular as Giving Tuesday, I’d like you to consider donating to our work with college students. Whether that is an end of the year gift or a commitment to support us on a monthly basis, we would truly appreciate your generosity.
To reach our goals for the 2018-2019 school year, we’re currently looking for 20 new monthly financials supporters:
- 5 people who could commit to $25/mo
- 5 people who could commit to $50/mo
- 5 people who could commit to $75/mo
- 5 people who could commit to $100/mo
If you’d be willing to talk more about filling one of those slots, you can do so in one of two ways:
1. You can send a check to:
SHIFT Ministries
12472 Lake Underhill Rd. #428
Orlando, FL 32828
Address the check to SHIFT Ministries and In the FOR section, write Account 102 (do not address it to me)
2. You can visit this link and give online.
Select an amount (e.g. $50, $100)
On the drop down menu, select my name (102 – Nate Claiborne)
Enter your card info (or at the very bottom, select “Bank Account”)
Select whether to cover card fees (it’s 3% we don’t get otherwise)
Select whether to setup automated giving and whether to give weekly, every other week, or monthly
We appreciate your consideration and would love your prayers for our ministry and God’s provision as we continue to walk by faith!