Seeking Jesus Prayer Guide

This semester, we are working our way through the seven miracles and seven “I AM” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John.  I turned back to these passages when we came up with our initial mission statment for the Yellow Door:

Yellow Door is a community of young adults seeking to live out the beauty, truth, and justice of Jesus Christ.

As we read, pray, and teach through these passages in John, we are asking how our deepest needs as human beings are met in the work (miracles) and person (I AM statements) of Jesus.  I don’t have any preconceived ideas of what we will experience, just a hope that Jesus will break into the lives of these students dreaming and visioning what the Yellow Door will become.  Again, I want to invite you to pray along with us and I would love to hear what God has revealed to you about the work and person of Jesus and how we should live that out here on The Plaza.

Acts 2:42-47
42They DEVOTED themselves to the APOSTLES’ TEACHING (STUDY) and FELLOWSHIP, to the BREAKING OF BREAD (WORSHIP) and the PRAYERS.  43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles (HEALING). 44All who believed were together and had all things in common (UNITY); 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need (GENEROSITY). 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food (RELATIONAL) with glad and generous hearts (THANKFUL), 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people (FAVOR). And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved (GROWTH).

My imagination for what the Yellow Door should be continues to grow out of this simple description of the early church.  John Ed Mathison preached a great sermon off of this text at COR this summer on “How to Build An Awe-ful Church”.  There’s nothing new, but we have to be devoted.  I would invite you to print this out, pray through it with me, and ask God to help us live out this ministry in a way that our devotion is marked by the same characteristics of the early church.

If you were to search United Methodist campus ministry websites, you will probably find one common strategy for most Wesley Foundatins or local church ministries – food.  Food brings in students and there are enough mom-types at most UM churches who need someone to cook for – it’s a great combination.

One program that had been started before I came to the Yellow Door was a Tuesday evening meal called “Break Away Cafe”.  It was started in May and went on through the summer.  I believe they had any where from 10 to 20 students a night and gave me a list of about 30 students when I started in August.  The congregation rallied and took turns each week cooking some amazing meals.  Yet when I came on staff, I found myself quickly wondering about not the what of the night, but the why of it.

I first figured out this strategy wasn’t working when I e-mailed the students on the list and no one responded.  I started calling the students only to find that the students who came were bugged by my intrustions.  I began to casually ask the students who joined us in the fall only to learn that they were only interested in the cheap or free food.  After seeing increasingly smaller numbers and talking with the other church staff, I decided the effort wasn’t the strategy we needed to begin a new community of young adults (because they weren’t coming).

Jesus did his best work around a table and over a meal.  His disciples heard things there that others would only hear about.  He broke down racial and class barriers, healed old wounds, and spoke words that would be repeated at meals down through history. He got a reputation for eating with the wrong people – those of us who follow Him could do far worse than to emulate Him in this one practice of sacred and scandalous hospitality.

It’s no wonder we have lost a sense of the sacredness of shared meals – most of us eat in our cars way too much.  It’s a task, a biological inconvenience, or a means of social advancement – not communion.  Heck, we don’t even know what fork is for the salad let alone that a common meal can be a setting for the eternal to break into our lives.

Don’t get me wrong – meals are great ways to feed people – spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  But so much of the time we are content to feed the body but not the soul.  We feed them for a day, but we don’t offer the bread of life that could sustain them through out this life and the next.  We go through the trouble of preparing a meal, but without a clear strategy about how it will lead others into deeper relationships with each other or with God.  I don’t want to be a food pantry for college students.  I want to set a table where all are welcome, where conversations and relationships change hearts, and where Jesus is present.

The United Methodist Church is in a real crisis. We know that we need to be in mission to the students on our nation’s college and university campuses, but we don’t know how to begin. We’re overwhelmed and intimidated by organizations like Campus Crusade, Navigators, or Intervarsity who have decades of momentum on campuses, yet we can’t shake the feeling that our voices are needed there as well. The Wesley Foundations that do work – like Texas Tech, University of Georgia in Athens, and Auburn – almost defy explaining except for a success string of good appointments that moved the ministries beyond humble beginnings to the powerhouses they are today. We are also stuck between a coming departure of leadership and the near emptiness of where a new generation of leaders should be. These are desperate times – each step we take could either save us or bury us. We have a lot of catching up to do.

This new blog seeks to chronicle the beginnings of a new campus ministry called Yellow Door Ministries out of Central UMC in Kansas City, MO. My hope is to encourage others who are following God’s Spirit back to the campuses we gave up on so long ago.

I have had the privilege to serve at two fine institutions – Southern Methodist University and the University of Kansas. But I believe every campus mattters – not just the big ones. I find myself taking on a challenge in that I am will be serving three, urban universities from a local church context. The challenges are huge, but so is the potential.

So come along. I’m going to get a bunch of different voices to speak into this – I hope your’s will be one of them. We are going to learn from their successes and mistakes while adding our own. I’m going to bring in colleagues from other ministries and denominations to kick the tires. Who knows – we may even do a “new ministry tour” and name a Rookie of the Year or two.

But here’s what I’m banking on – you and I are not the first people to care about the college and university campuses across the street. Our God has been seeking out these students long before we showed and will pursuing them long after we are gone. I see my job over this next year helping my team find where God is already working and hurry to catch up with Him.