written by Daniel Stull
Who do you hang with?
Last week at the ministry training class at HCBUT (that’s Hill Country Baptist UT for those not in the know on acronyms) God revealed a very disappointing aspect of my life to me. Heather Lods, one of the staff at HCBUT, was talking about living missionally within your individual spheres of life (ex. Work, school, apartment, recreation.) She told us to discuss with our neighbors the spheres we have outside our churchy friends when it hit me: I don’t have any.
There was a time when I had several good friends that weren’t regular Jesus lovers, but I realized that I had all but abandoned them in pursuit of heavier involvement in church, compounded with taking on extra hours in school.
So I have to ask myself why I am really here at the University of Texas. Am I here to put class first and involvement with The Austin Stone after that, or am I here to pour out the gospel and show Christ’s love to those who really need it?
What should I do?
So here is the plan: figure out where God has gifted you-that includes physical talents, and spiritual gifts. Next figure out how you can use them on a regular basis-if it’s sports, what sport; if it’s people skills, how can you interact with people on a regular basis? And then last and ultimately, find a place where you know there will be people who don’t know Christ’s salvation and make a commitment to spend time with them.
This needs to be something regular like a club, work, or anything regular where you can build relationships with the same people each time.
So woe is me, God has given me a love for rock climbing and the outdoors so a friend of mine and I are going to join the UT rock climbing club and commit to building relationships with the other members. It’s so rough to have fun and be missional and loving at the same time isn’t it. God doesn’t call us to be these Christian machines that work in the factory called church. God made us each different with different loves and interests, and He wants us to get out in the world and use the gifts He’s given us as a means for Him to shine through us.
