Launch a Movement in Less than an Hour

I went to a campus not too far from my house yesterday with a member of my team, Nathan Hoover. My days had been filled with networking pastors around the city and revamping materials, so I needed a day on campus. I also wanted to see for myself how difficult it is to launch a movement at a smaller private school.

Security stopped Nate and I before we even had a chance to walk through the door. "Where are you going?"

I replied, "We're looking for information about exchange programs between U.S. universities and Mexican ones." (That's really true, as we're hoping to create missional study abroad opportunities.)

Our friendly security escort showed us the way to administration and we spoke with an official there. I told Nate, "Let's make this a five-minute appointment and then ask if we can look around and talk with students about the school."

So, that's what we did. Five minutes after we entered the school, the administration gave us permission to enter, and we found ourselves standing in the middle of several hundred students in a crowded courtyard without an escort of any kind. We prayed for God to give us eyes to see who He had already chosen to launch a movement on this campus. When we said amen, I said to Nate, "Now we just talk to everyone and listen for the Spirit's voice."

I spotted a guy wearing a yellow shirt and thought about approaching him. Nate, however, immediately took the opportunity to talk to a couple of cute girls sitting at a table. I may have questioned whether the Spirit was leading him, but we approached the ladies and asked a few simple questions: "Do you know of anyone here who wants to have a positive impact on the campus and the community and who loves the Lord?"

One girl pondered the question, but the girl with the tongue ring said, "I have a friend who is a Christian. She's right over there. Do you want to meet her?"

She introduced us to her friend who promptly told us about her sister who is a Christian too. We were soon explaining the vision of Enfoque México with Vanessa, Tania, and Carmen (the non-believer). Tania was pretty jazzed about our vision of launching movements on all 400 campuses in the city in the next three years. She said she really wants to reach her friends for Christ.

Vanessa soon had to leave for class, so we gave her one of our brochures. Unbeknownst to us, our friendly security guard was following us. He came up and said, "You are distributing Christian literature on this campus and we don't allow that. I have to ask you to leave."

Tania immediately jumped in and said, "No, these are our friends. They are just visiting us." After a five-minute sidebar with the official, Tania gave her credentials to him to ensure that she would escort us out when our "visit" was over.

We sat down at a table and explained how she could gather a few Christians on her campus and begin a movement to put the Gospel within arms-reach of every student at the university. She was super-excited. She pointed to a guy at another table and said, "He is a Christian too!" This was the guy in the yellow shirt I had seen earlier after we finished praying. He came over to us and asked, "Wasn't Enfoque México at my church on Sunday?" And in fact, part of our team had visited his church to share the vision with the congregation, which allowed us to have instant credibility with him.

After about half an hour of talking, we left Tania with our vision brochure, a few Life Transformation Group brochures, and some very simple icthus posters that she wanted to put up today to find other Christians on campus. The two non-believers that we had spoken with initially came up to us before we left and said how much they enjoyed meeting us, and we shared a laugh about the security guard trying to kick us out.

In less than an hour God had moved us to connect with three solid believers on the campus who want to reach their friends, as well as allowing us to share about what God is doing with some non-believers.

I'm more and more convinced that God passionately wants to reach this country. We couldn't make connections like this otherwise. We just have to show up and listen to His Spirit and empower those He has already chosen to lead!!! Awesome.