Aspire to Dependence

Finally, our intuition says that even if we do all of these things successfully, we are destined for failure apart from an outpouring of God’s Spirit on our campuses.  Therefore, we ought to afford ourselves every opportunity to raise up a presence of prayer to the Living God, to thaw the hearts of this generation of collegians and depend on him daily.  Unless the Lord builds this house, we labor in vain.

What if the university environment, like a pre-Aslan Narnia, has grown ice-cold?  What if it feels to be “always winter, but never Christmas?”  We must ask the Lord to thaw out our campuses, that the gospel would find a widening reception.  To that end, quite literally, let us pray.

One outworking of this aspiration to dependence is the Jericho Project, a partnership with Collegiate Impact, (the collegiate arm of Life Action Ministries, Nancy DeMoss).  Dave Warn, dear friend and former CCC Local Leader at the University of Wisconsin, heads this ministry.  Dave has pioneered partnerships between CI and CCC at several campuses, including Montana State University.  He has also led partnerships with various Ivy League schools under the direction of the Christian Union.

The Jericho Project:

• Aims to transform entire campuses, not just portions of a campus.

• Begins with the blocked hearts of believers, which are impeding the progress of the gospel.  Dave says, “When God arrives to do a work of transformation … He first begins with us – the body of Christ on campus.”

• After concerted prayer, when there is a palpable sense that God’s people are being transformed, then “spills out to impact the broader campus community.”

• Is a partnership that will only be effective on campuses that recognize the need to involve all the campus ministry leaders of various Christian organizations, not just CCC.  A good first step for us would be to reach out to these dear co-laborers (representing different organizations), in order to pray together.  Don’t wait.  We must take the lead.  An excellent example of this exists at the University of Texas.

• Is a 1-2 year commitment, not a one-time event.

• Centers on the Biblical themes of: understanding God’s manifest presence, brokenness, humility, repentance, holiness, authenticity, spiritual unity, awe/worship, proclamation of God’s Word, desperation, spiritual warfare, and intercessory prayer.

We caution ourselves and our fellow, highly-proactive USCM leaders to not give mere intellectual assent to this proposal.  Rather, we must embrace this final proposal like a drowning man might clutch a life jacket.  For it is folly to think that we can achieve the Great Commission with wounded soldiers and in our own efforts.

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