thrashnwheat

Spring Break for Chico State is around the corner — in fact it starts this upcoming weekend — and just like every year we are off to Catalina Island for 45 hours of in-depth scripture study, plenty of community bonding, powerful times in prayer, and some much needed time to connect with God.

Staff Conference only happens every 3 years, but WOW it is awesome
enough to keep us thrilled about ministry to last us those 1095 days
in between. Alongside our 1,200 staff partners from around the entire
country we heard testimonies and keynote talks about how God is
renewing campuses in amazing ways in the over 860 chapters where we
minister. Since the theme of this conference was ‘Campuses Renewed’
(our vision statement is to see lives transformed, campuses renewed,
and world-changers developed), all the teaching and sharing had to do
with ministries that are having a campus-wide impact– we heard from
professors and administrators as well as IV staff who are privileged
to see God reaching the entire campus/entire chunks of the campus.

For example, this video -
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?ChrisThrasherWheatle/59c0866a86/TEST/92a3f4e61f describes a ministry to athletes at the University of New Hampshire,
where InterVarsity’s presence on the soccer and track teams has
become so integral to the athletic department that it is now normal
to hear the name of Jesus in the locker rooms. We are so thankful to
be part of the movement of God on college campuses through
InterVarsity, and you can pray for us as we reach out to more of the
Chico campus this semester!

Last semester we were stuck with our info table in the worst place on
campus for meeting students — no one was passing by and we were
beginning to feel frustrated sitting behind our table talking to no
one.  After a while I could take it no longer, so I grabbed a handful
of our flyers and a couple students and headed over to the busiest
walkway.  We set up shop, asking every person that went by, “Are you
interested in Christian community?”  You wouldn’t believe how
nerve-wracking those first few conversations were!  Most said no,
some were antagonistic, but quite a few students expressed interest
and one of them became a Christian a month later after getting
plugged into our community!  The best part was how transformational
and simple the activity was for the students who joined me.  Suddenly
the campus was no longer ominous and every person seemed like someone
God could be leading them to.

Fast forward to this week.  Again I found myself in the busy walkway
with a key freshman, Matt.  In fact, because he joined me last
semester, it was his idea to grab a stack of flyers and head to “our
spot.”  Half an hour in, Matt comes running over to me and says,
“You’ll never guess what just happened!  I was asking these two guys
if they were interested in Christian community when this guy flying
by on a bike slammed on his brakes and said, ‘Did you just say
Christian community?’  I told him yes, and he said that he had been
waiting for God to show him the community he was to join, that his
parents were missionaries from Nigeria, and that this was a diving
moment.  He then said his name is Miracle!  Yeah, Miracle!”

Matt looked at me as if to say, “Did God really just do that?!”  I
just laughed and told him, “when we take risks like this for God and
make ourselves available to Him, there’s no telling who He will bring
our way.” What a great way to start the semester !

We will be headed to the Bay Fri- Mon, 11/5-8, so please let us know if you are interested in meeting up/grabbing coffee/having us babysit your kids. We would truly love to make the most of this visit, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.

11/6: Sat 5:30-8pm, PBC , International Banquet w/speaker Tuvya Zaretsky from Jews for Jesus

11/7: Sun 8am-noon, PBC , “Joy to the World” Missions Faire… stop by and update us on how you are!

Hey friends, now would be the time to pray it up for the Chico InterVarsity community :)  Here are ways you can support us in prayer this weekend:

This past Large Group Marissa was practically glowing as she exclaimed, through tears, “I’ve never been so happy!  I just told God I want to be with him forever and ever!” She then shared about how thankful she is for the InterVarsity community and for God’s presence in her life.  A huge grin spread across my face because of Marissa’s authentic joy and truly fresh faith, and I couldn’t help but thank God for such a sweet moment.  Everyone at Large Group seemed in awe of what had just happened, and students came up to us later using words like “miracle” and “amazing” and “joy.”

Expect a full account of Marissa’s story after we get back from Trilogy — hopefully witha video to boot :)  Meanwhile, please pray for her, and her friend, that they would experience Jesus in even deeper ways as they come this weekend to the conference!

Brief Overview

• Prayer walks and Bible study downtown during busy party nights
• “What are you thirsty for?” Outreach November 5th
• Networking with the Fraternity & Sorority System

* * *

Why we feel this will lead to breakthrough this year and beyond

Chico State is well know for many things—we are the 6^th Best Public Master’s Level University in the West (U.S. News & World Report, 2010), we have one of the best MBA programs in the country according to The Princeton Review (2009), we are the #1 school in the nation for Up Til Dawn (a fundraiser for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital), as well as the 8^th Most Sustainable Campus in the World (Grist Magazine, 2007). But there is one stat that everyone seems to know best: That Playboy ranked us #1 Party School in the Country in 1987 and #2 in 2002.

From our perspective, we are not surprised at all that Chico students can be known at once for all these things—Chico students are very dynamic, compassionate, entrepreneurial, and outgoing. The same characteristics that make Chico amazing can be twisted/distorted, allowing for the wild parties and awful things that happen when students let it get out of control. And we have seen first-hand how those same characteristics, if brought under the Lordship of Jesus, flourish—making amazing men and women who are growing as followers of Jesus here at Chico and after they graduate.

We want to be witnesses to the Lord’s transformative power in the Chico party scene. We are beginning to prayer walk “5 and I” (the intersection of Fifth and Ivy, where there are crowds of students milling around between bars and restaurants—linked KTVU 2007 video has some footage of the area) during the busy nights, and soon we will start experimenting with ways to reach out. On November 5^th we will have an InterVarsity house party outreach, asking students “What are you thirsty for?” Because in John 4:13-14 Jesus tells us that He is the only thing to quench our spiritual thirst. We pray that just as the Samaritan woman became a rockin evangelist, seeing her entire town come to faith—that as partiers find fullness of life in Jesus, “out of them will flow torrents of living water” right into the party scene. Bible studies at 5 and I, here we come!

Your prayerful partnership is very essential to our pursuit of seeing God revealed in the party scene at Chico State. Please consider how you are called to participate in prayer and financial partnership with this initiative.

Email Chris and Liz about giving and/or praying.

Brief Overview

• Training Leaders to initiate and invite peers to take steps closer to Jesus (skeptic–>seeker–>follower–>disciple–>leader)
• Evangelistic Bible study training for all InterVarsity students
• Mobilizing students to live out their faith on campus and in the community, as well as in their personal lives

* * *

Why we feel this will lead to breakthrough this year and beyond

The reason we even started talking about initiatives was due to the large amount of new faces and God-given movement in the Chico InterVarsity community this school year.  We are calling this “momentum,” and started to prayerfully think through, “what should we aim this momentum at in order to see breakthrough on campus?”  I mean, students are inviting friends to Large Group and Bible study, only to have those friends bring more friends the next week.  There is a hunger in students we haven’t seen before, and we feel like we’re not just riding a wave…. we’re catching a tsunami.  So how do we start to harness this energy?

We decided cultivating the already-sprouting Missional DNA in students was the best place to start.

This is a big deal when you consider we are raising up the next generation of the church.  InterVarsity students will be tomorrow’s cubicle dwellers, managers, nurses, you name it.  Imagine how different their work place would be with the tools and confidence to share their faith!  Sadly, when it comes to intentional witness and outreach, former Campus Crusade President, Bill Bright, guessed that “only 2% of Christians share their faith regularly.”  His hunch was backed up by a survey done by Zondervan Publishing, finding that 97% of Christians do not regularly share their faith.  Therefore, we have decided that each student in InterVarsity should be able to open up the scriptures to show their friends and acquaintances who Jesus is.  We call this a Groups Investigating God (GIGs), and we pray every student in our community will be trained to lead one with a friend. With funding, we can train and coach every willing student through the process of starting and leading a GIG.

We firmly believe breakthrough will happen in our witness to the campus through each student faithfully witnessing to God’s work in their lives — and not just through a great sermon at Large Group.  As staff, we love seeing students come to faith, but there is nothing better than seeing a leader or InterVarsity member take a risk, share Jesus with their friend, and witness the miracle of salvation in their midst.  May it be so!

Email Chris and Liz about giving and/or praying.

Brief Overview

• Expanding the Chico Staff team to 5 staff by 2012
• Further development of our Intern Program
• Intentional development of Interns towards full-time staff (ie. Caitlin this year)

* * *

Why we feel this will lead to breakthrough this year and beyond

We see several clear affirmations that God is building a movement here at Chico, and a primary one is the increased number of students interested in/being open to come on staff. There is no plausible way for Chris and I to handle the growth that is happening by ourselves, and our current intern, Caitlin, has been a God-send. This year is the first time where I, as a staff, have felt unable to connect personally with everyone coming; we have more students actively involved (as in, they come to Bible study and Large Group every week, and are hanging out with each other during “non-IV” time) and calling InterVarsity their home than in previous years, and we are praying for the Lord to raise up staff who want to faithfully pursue the mission on campus with us.

Your partnership with the Staff Development Initiative will support our efforts as we, as Team Leaders for the Chico chapter, allocate more time to recruiting new staff and developing them as they choose to come on staff. The standard model we will employ is to have interested graduates participate in an intern year their first year, which will give them space to have a taste of staff life so that they can better discern if they are called to full-time staff. As the Lord brings more staff on the team, Chris and I will be able to trust more of the ministry into their hands, freeing us up to better develop the interns as young leaders.

Thank you for praying for our upcoming leaders and potential staff, and we invite you to support this Initiative as a key component of God’s movement at Chico.

Email Chris and Liz about giving and/or praying.

Brief Overview

• Direct mentoring and development of male leaders
• Start 5 male discipleship and prayer times
• Men’s Retreat, Spring 2011 with goal of 30 guys

* * *

Why we feel this will lead to breakthrough this year and beyond

At a recent Men’s BBQ, one of our leaders pointed out, “You know, it was great to be a part of InterVarsity last year and the years before — and God did some really good stuff — but this year is a whole new ball game.  God is really taking InterVarsity to a whole new level, and as guys we need to rise to the occasion.  People will look at our group and think, ‘They have some good guys there,’ but I don’t want us to settle for just being good guys.  I want us become men of God.  I look around this room, and I see a ridiculous amount of potential in each of us.  It’s time we step it up, gentlemen.”

I couldn’t agree more.

A look at the broader church finds these statistics: On any given Sunday there are 13 million more adult women than men in America’s churches.  This Sunday almost 25 percent of married, churchgoing women will worship without their husbands. Fewer than 10% of U.S. churches are able to establish or maintain a vibrant men’s ministry. Over 70 percent of the boys who are being raised in church will abandon it during their teens and twenties. Many of these boys will never return.

As startling as these statistics are, God is up to something in our community here in Chico and we know a few basic truths that are propelling us forward:  Male leadership is essential to a healthy community;  men beget men, and leaders beget leaders; the men who meet together and pray weekly in our community will be tomorrows pastors, elders, lay leaders, and fathers.
Please consider prayer for and giving monthly towards Raising up Male Leadership here in Chico InterVarsity so that we can mentor and develop key male leaders, start five weekly men’s discipleship and prayer times, and take thirty guys on our first ever Men’s Retreat this upcoming spring.

Email Chris and Liz about giving.