We believe there are 5 key elements necessary in order to build an effective ministry that promotes both internal and external growth in all whom are involved. These are: prayer, worship, discipleship, outreach, and fellowship.
The success of Rush Campus Ministries hinges on our ability to mobilize believers to pray for the campus. Every school with a Rush Club has a team of prayer warriors that pray on campus each week. Each prayer team is mobilized by the Campus Minister and is made up of students, teachers, and people in the community who have a heart to see the campus transformed by God’s glory. We also order a yearbook from each school at the end of the year and cut them up into sections and make copies. We then pass them out to the people in the Church, and they commit to pray for the students in their section. By doing this, every single student in the school (at least the ones in the yearbook) is being covered in prayer year round. Only the presence of God can bring transformation to a person’s heart—not hype, not emotions, not knowledge, not friendship. We can’t reiterate enough how important it is to pray for the presence of God to show up on our campuses.
The whole purpose of Rush is to impact the campus with the Gospel, and the only way to make this happen is for the students to rise up and reach out to their school. Each Rush Club does at least 1 outreach per month. Some are evangelistic, others are simply meant to serve and bless the school. The goal is two-fold: to practically put the Gospel in front of those who may have never heard the Good News before; and to build in the Club members an outreach lifestyle. Whether you’re preaching through a microphone to a big crowd, handing out a piece of candy with a Scripture verse on it, or cleaning a teacher’s chalk board when he or she isn’t even in the room for the sole purpose of blessing them, reality is you are doing outreach. These are the types of things that, when done consistently and out of the right heart, will go a long way in transforming your campus. You will only reap what you sow, so we encourage the students to sow as many seeds as they can.
Rush Clubs are our on-campus student clubs. Each club has a President, Vice-President, Secretary, as well as outreach and publicity teams and anything else they deem necessary to function. The Campus Minister’s role is to facilitate these clubs and mobilize the students to lead at their respective campus. The Rush Club is the force we use to bring the Gospel to the campus. This is where most everything is birthed: monthly outreaches, service projects, and weekly Bible studies. These clubs are all geared towards outreach, and the target group is always their unchurched peers. The clubs serve as a catalyst for students with a heart to see their campus changed to come together and make a practical impact. There is only so much any of us can do alone, so the clubs are designed to provide the necessary resources, platform, and guidance to empower students to change their campus. Clubs meet either before or after school and must have a faculty sponsor/advisor.
The heart of Rush is for the STUDENTS to change their campus, so one of our cornerstones is leadership training/discipleship. Outside of our Rush Clubs, the Campus Minister spends much of his/her time pouring into the student leaders through the Living Room and mentorship times. The only people capable of truly transforming a campus are the students, so we place a high value on training the students to do just that. We aren’t satisfied with just making converts, our desire is to make world-changing disciples who will grow up to excel in the marketplace and raise strong families when their time comes. Although everything we do in RUSH involves changing the campus, one of the most integral parts of the ministry happens at home—well, someone’s home at least. The Living Room provides the necessary environment for fellowship and discipleship to take place. It’s often hard to connect at a club meeting or a church service, and doing outreaches helps build unity but not necessarily deep relationships. Every week a family opens their home to dozens of students to come and hang out. The night is filled with food, fun, fellowship, and a deeper word meant to spark faith and discussion in every student’s heart. It’s in this atmosphere that the students are challenged with more of the meat of God’s Word, while at the same time building friendships and observing the lifestyle of a solid Christian family. This is a great way for students to grow who got saved on campus but don’t yet feel comfortable in a “church” environment. The more they see and interact with authentic Believers, the more they’ll see the value of the local church and want to get plugged in.
A couple times each semester we hold a city-wide Rush Rally. These events are designed to cast a vision that the students are a part of something much bigger than just their campus Rush Club while at the same time being extremely evangelistic. We intentionally create an atmosphere so the students don’t feel like they’re at another “church” service. The night is made up of live music, dance performances, food eating contests, videos, free giveaways, and a strong evangelistic message followed by an altar call. We will often invite bands and other performers from local schools to perform and display their talents in front of their peers. In the past we’ve done concerts, a 70’s and 80’s party, a Halloween Bash, and an outdoor festival with a Skateboard contest and 3-on-3 basketball tournament running side by side. Basically, we do whatever we can to attract typically unchurched youth and present the Gospel to them through a medium they can flow with.
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