"Awesome" Outreach During Derecognition

As I wrote in my last update, InterVarsity has been derecognized at SSU and throughout the Cal State system.  Ostensibly, it could be easy to assume our leaders would be discouraged and  that the ministry would be hindered.  However, this has not been the case.  Over these first months of ministry it is clear that God is not going to let a policy get in the way of His mission moving forward on the campus!  The student leaders were excited to try new ways of outreach and be creative in reaching the campus ("Awesome" themed outreach).  Christianity Today even wrote an article explaining how InterVarsity "will reinvent" student ministry, and the article's picture is from our SSU group doing outreach on the first night! (yes I'm proud!)  Please be praying for us as we continue to pursue creative outreach under these unfortunate circumstances.

An anecdote that I think summarizes how God is at work despite the institutional situation: The week before school started a campus higher up told us that we would have "no presence" on campus, but through boldness, creativity and free speech rights, we were able to still do good outreach.  In a turn of poetic irony, for the first month of school, the picture on the front of SSU's website was a picture of several of our leaders talking to someone during an outreach the first week!  I couldn't help but laugh at the awesomeness of that.

Here a two more links to helpful articles about the derecognition:

Press Democrat Article (Opinion piece written by my supervisor)

Atlantic Article (A personal favorite that looks at the bigger picture)

Sonoma State InterVarsity Will Be Derecognized

Is it discrimination to require InterVarsity student leaders to be Christians?  The Cal State University Chancellor says it is.  A policy was signed into effect over a year that derecognizes any campus group that discriminates.  The Chancellor gave InterVarsity one year to work with him on an agreeable solution but that year is up.  (A New York Times Article on the CSU Situation)

"We can have campus access only if we change our constitution.  If we don't, we will not recognized as a club."  Our student president received the news a week ago.  The Chancellor's policy was catching up to us.  We will not change our constitution since it is imperative for influential student leaders to have Christian faith.  

Please pray for us as we try out new strategies for advertising and meeting new students.  Please pray for us as we meet with SSU administration tomorrow 8/13. Pray they will approve us renting space on campus for Large Group and tabling.  Pray for the CSU Chancellor and our national InterVarsity president to have a meeting in the next week.  Pray for our students to commit together to live out our faith on campus and be even more bold for the gospel.  

The first 3 weeks of school are when students are most spiritually open, and when we will be having many outreach events.  Pray for the gospel to spread on campus no matter what!

"InterVarsity Has Thrown Everything Off"

I met Silvia* this year during her very first week of school, at Large Group, when she got up in the middle of the speaker talking, left the room, and listened from behind a Peanuts statue in the hallway.  She appeared so uncomfortable that she was actually trying to hide, yet didn't leave.  I wanted to make her feel welcome so I went out to her and checked to see how she was doing, but she wanted to just stay in the hallway behind the statue.  Fast-forward eight months, and during a recent conversation I had with her, she decared, "InterVarsity has thrown everything off....At the first event, everything the speaker said was so relevant to my life, it made me so uncomfortable I had to leave the room and hide behind the statue, but I couldn't stop listening...I'm agnostic and I had my set beliefs about God, but because of everything I've learned this year and the signs in my life, I don't know if I can deny God any longer...I feel like every message is exactly what I need to hear and have been thinking about...I'm this close."  Would you please pray for Silvia to take that step and invite God into her life?

Hard Questions

An important part of faith is being able to ask and search for answers to hard questions; this is particularly relevant during the college years.  Many people are searching for truth, or having the truth they held challenged.  We are currently in the middle of our Large Group and Small Groups focusing on "Hard Questions" about Christianity.

In small groups we have looked at the questions "Is Jesus the Only Way to God?", "If God is Good, Why do Bad Things Happen?" and "Is Christianity Judgmental?"  At Large Group, two weeks ago I spoke on the topic of "Is the Bible Reliable?"  It was a blessing to be able to teach on how to have an understanding of the historical, reliable, authoritative and trustworthy-ness of the Bible.  I fear I may have covered too much material, but I heard good feedback from students, whom shared that they now have more confidence in the reliability of the Bible and a stronger foundation for challenges that arise to the Bible in their courses.

The next two topics are "Faith and Science" and "Creation and Evolution."  These topics are so crucial for college students to think through, would you please pray for these events?  Specifically that they would help students in their intellectual faith journey and that they could be used to outreach to the campus?

More Transfers Than Ever

Coming into this school year I was excited about reaching out to transfer students.  Transfers can have a hard time getting plugged into campus life and InterVarsity, so I felt led to try something new by creating a small group aimed at transfers.  After one of the leaders stepped off leadership during the summer, we were down to just one leader for the small group, Mallory.  I committed to helping her lead the group and coach her until we could raise up a new leader.  When school started, we went around, met many transfers and invited them.  At our first gathering over 20 people showed up!  This was awesome, but was going to be too big to meet weekly in a dorm.  So we shared a vision and challenged the group by saying, "We are excited that there are so many of you here, and since there are so many of you, our hope is that in the next couple weeks that we would be able to multiply into two groups, and that some of you would step up to help lead it."

Me, Kelsey, Mallory, Nick

Within a week, Kelsey (a returning transfer) and Nick (new transfer) expressed interest in helping lead.  So, by the third week of school, we had two transfer small groups, with Nick/Mallory leading one and Kelsey and I leading the other.  To be honest, coming into the year, I was hopeful but not certain of how having a transfer small group would go, but more transfers were interested than I imagined, and new leaders are being developed within the group!

God Provides!

In my last update I shared about "Audacious Goals" that we had coming into the semester, and for the first two months of this semester we feel as though God has been providing an abundance.

At the beginning of last school year we met around 200 students who filled out interests cards, so this year, we set an audacious goal of meeting 400 students in the first two weeks.  Well, we not only surpassed 200, we met about 400 in the first week!  The student leaders stepped out in boldness to be a witness on campus.

This influx has led to growth in the rest of the ministry.  Specifically...

- Small Groups: We started the school year with 12 and wanted to grow to 18.  We already have 17.

- Fall Camping Trip:  Last year we had 44 students go, this year 69 went.

- Large Group: Last year's first gathering had 87 people, this year 164.

Campus Access Update

This is an update on the campus access issue, from my colleague Bethany,  "Currently, our fellowship has been granted affiliation through school administration.  This means that we can continue serving and functioning on campus as normal.  We are grateful, humbled, and appreciative of the favor we have found with campus administration.  However, the CSU Chancellor has yet to give any exception to religious organizations on the order.  Therefore at any time we could lose our affiliated status because we are not in compliance with the order.  While the conversation continues between IVCF and the Chancellor, SSU administration has said that we can continue as a campus club.  Pray that the conversation will continue to remain open until a resolution comes about in our favor."  Our fellowship is very fortunate, so please keep praying for the issue and for all the other CSU fellowships that have been derecognized (Chico, Sac, Fresno, etc.)

Audacious Goals

In my last update, I shared that we had "unprecedented growth" last semester.  We are praying, hoping and planning for the same thing to happen this school year.  While we know that numbers aren't everything, they also help us set goals, and each "number" is a person that God cares deeply about.  Our staff and student leadership team has set some audacious goals, that will only be met with God's help.  Would you be praying for the following goals for this school year!

Overall students involved:

- To grow from 149 to 200

Number of Small Groups:

- To grow from 12 to 18

Students Coming to Faith:

- At least 15 new believers

Unprecedented Growth!

Our chapter applied and was selected to take part in an exclusive Chapter Building program put on by IV national.  The program runs for 18 months, gives us a growth coach who gives us feedback, advice, challenges and coaching.  He has a lot of experience in helping chapters grow across the country and is giving us a lot of good coaching. (One of our fun diagrams is above)

Since starting the program this semester, we've experienced unprecedented growth.  Normally in the Spring semester we see the amount of students involved slowly dwindle until the school year ends.  This regression is normally due to older students focusing on graduation, people getting jobs and people just losing time and energy as the school year wraps up.  Across the board we've seen growth overall in our small groups and at Large Group.  This is unprecedented because I cannot recall a time in my 11 years at SSU, as a student or staff, that this has happened.

We've also seen six people come to faith this semester! One transfer student, Stacey, quickly stood up when I gave a call to faith at the end of one of our Large Group meetings.  She said that she had known that God was real, but finally wanted to make the step of giving her life over to Him.  And after hearing about God's love through the Prodigal Son story, she was ready to make that decision.  Since making that decision, it has been a blessing to see her get more involved in the fellowship; she has been growing through her small group community and by connecting with some of the student leaders in our fellowship.  Please thank God for and pray for Stacey.

CSU System Derecognizing InterVarsity Chapters

Some of you may have heard about how some schools in the California State School system are derecognizing their InterVarsity Chapters, including Sonoma State. It is an important and complex situation, so I wanted to keep you all in the loop.  My colleague Ryan White recently wrote this up summarizing the situation and I've added an update at the bottom of it.

"Some of you may remember a few years ago when a case called Christian Legal Society v. Martinez was before the US Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision, the court decided that Hastings College of Law in San Francisco had the right to de-recognize CLS, an evangelical campus ministry, because the club had violated the school’s discrimination policy by requiring the club’s leaders to sign a written statement affirming Christian beliefs and committing to live by Christian principles. The Supreme Court did not find this to be an abrogation of the campus ministry’s First Amendment rights to religious freedom and the chapter was de-recognized and kicked off campus.

The California State University system is now feeling the implication of this decision. Prior to his retirement in May 2012, the outgoing CSU Chancellor Charles Reed signed Executive Order 1068, an order intended to ensure non-discrimination in membership and leadership requirements for all CSU campus clubs. Someone within the new chancellor’s office has chosen to strictly enforce EO1068 on all CSU campuses and has pushed a strict no-requirement policy for campus clubs. Since InterVarsity’s constitution requires that student leaders in a chapter “to indicate their agreement with InterVarsity’s Doctrine and Purpose Statements and exemplify Christ-like character, conduct and leadership” by signing a statement of faith, InterVarsity has been targeted in particular. (While this executive order affects all religious organizations on campus as of right now InterVarsity is alone in the crosshairs.)

At the beginning of this year, Fresno State’s InterVarsity chapter was targeted and de-recognized and as of last week InterVarsity groups at the Cal State East Bay, San Marcos, Chico, Long Beach, and Sonoma State were informed that we had two weeks (until March 8, 2013) to change our constitution or be de-affiliated as a sanctioned club on campus.

As a movement InterVarsity has decided to refuse to comply with the requested constitution change. There are several reasons we feel compelled to stand by our leadership requirements: 1) leadership requirements are required by Scripture and are consistent with 2,000 years of church teaching; 2) our leadership standards describe necessary skill requirements for our leaders to accomplish their tasks; students who cannot affirm our core beliefs are not able to lead our group; 3) many colleges, including the Ohio State system, Florida's state university system, UT-Austin, University of Minnesota, etc. explicitly permit religious groups to use religious criteria in leadership selection; 4) we desire to have diversity and tolerance on college campuses which would enable and make room for differing viewpoints and opinions.

So though we are risking de-affiliation, InterVarsity is appealing this reading of the non-discrimination rules and pushing for a religious exemption within EO1068 for all religious clubs and organizations on CSU campuses."

Update: Our fellowship's student president and our staff team leader met with a campus administrator right before our deadline.  The administrator was very gracious and positive towards our club and is going to keep IV recognized for at approximately the rest of this semester, while the appeal process continues to play out.  Also, the President of IV and others from the legal team have been working hard on connecting with the Cal State School system higher ups, as well as building partnerships with other college religious organizations that can stand with us.

What You Can Do:

- Right now the most important thing you can do is pray.  Pray for the Cal State School system leaders, pray for IV's President and legal team, and pray that our fellowship will grow even stronger during this mild persecution.

- In an effort to not make the situation more dramatic and polemic, please don't respond strongly to the State system, or with social media posts.  There may be a time and a place for that in the future, but right now IV's national leadership is trying to gracefully solve things before it needs to get taken to that next level.

- Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns you have to me.

What Are You Thankful For?

The week before Thanksgiving, we had an outreach week on campus in which we asked the campus, "What Are You Thankful For?"  Over the duration of the outreach, we were able to ask hundreds of people this question, and then share with them how we are thankful for the things that God has done in our life. We would then ask people if they thought God had anything to do with what they were thankful for.  The most common responses were either "yes" or "I've never really thought about that before." Obviously every person is in a different place, but if people were open to talking more, we got to dialogue with them about God, invite them to a small group, and/or share the Good News with them.

The Family Grows...

On November 18th at 9:47am, Evan Daniel Johnston came into the world at a generous 9lbs 3oz and 22". The labor and delivery lasted for around nine hours and I was so proud of Erin, she even did it without an epidural.  I was blessed to have three weeks of paternity leave and vacation to be able to spend time with my family and take care of the baby.  But, as you can tell by me writing this, I am back at work.  Evan has been good to us so far, doesn't cry too much, hasn't gotten sick, and doesn't spit up often! Please keep us, especially Evan and Erin in your prayers.

47 People Camping!

The new school year is in full swing and in September, our fellowship went on our first annual "Fall-Bond" camping trip together to Spring Lake in Santa Rosa.  We hoped to get as many people as possible to get together, go camping, and get connected to the fellowship. 47 people came and had a great time hiking, roasting s'mores, having morning devotionals, and hanging out around the campfire.  I directed the trip which consisted of a lot of logistics (note the pic below in which students are making faces at me while I'm taking care of business on the trip); shopping for food, getting tents, finding the campground, etc. Seeing the students "Bond," and connect with nature made all the prep worth it!

Pilgrimage To Israel

In the summer, I was able to take a seminary course that did a study trip to Israel.  Walking the land of Jesus and the Bible, the scriptures came alive for me in new ways.  There were many impactful experiences like walking around the temple area, visiting Ceaserea (Acts 10), and the Sea of Galilee.  One morning our class took a boat ride on the Sea; as I looked across the sea, there were no boats visible in any direction.  We stopped out in the middle, and besides the waves from our boat, the water was still as could be. As a group did a devotional, worshipped and sat in silence.  Not having a strong imagination, I often have a difficult time visualizing scripture, but this made many of the Gospel stories that take place on or near the water feel so real.  Specifically, the still water was just like when Jesus calmed the storm (Mark 4: 35-41).  Needless to say, it is even more clear to me now that the Bible is not longer just ink on a page, but has geographic and historical grounding. Here is a video that I took of the Sea that day.

World Changers Developed!

Part of my emphasis in ministry this year was with upperclassmen and graduating seniors.  To do that I hosted graduating seniors several times this last semester in order to talk, train, pray, study scripture with them about life after college.  Some of the topics that we focused on; finding community after college and financial basics.  In the picture above, we are working on budgeting and applying Christian principles to how we use our money.  Many were very thankful for the practical advice and said things like, "Thank you so much for that, I had never been taught how to budget, this was what I needed."  An SSU alumni from '04, Geoff Andrews, helped lead part of the financial training, thanks Geoff!

I also went to lunch with the senior men.  We started a tradition of dressing up, getting lunch and just looking dapper!

Johnston Family Summer Update

There is a lot going on for our family this summer...

- We are growing by one! We recently found out that we are with child and due Nov. 25, here is a pic of the first sonogram.  (sorry that its sideways)

- Israel: For a seminary class, I will be going with a class group for 2 weeks to Israel (June 17th-30th).  I'm very excited!

- Seminary: After this summer I will be about 50% of the way done with my M.Div degree...there is light at the end of the tunnel. I estimate to be competed in late 2014.

I Set a New Record!

Twenty five people in a row said "No" to me (I was counting), which is a record, at least unofficially.  For our outreach to kick off the semester we were asking people to take part in our campus survey in which we were asking people if they thought, "God is a God of love or wrath?" (Pictured)  They would answer by putting a sticky dot on our board.  Even though many people didn't want to talk, we were still able to talk with hundreds of people on campus about God.  We then invited them to our outreach event in which our speaker addressed the hard question of "God of Love or Wrath?"  (His answer was both)  I've seen at least two of the people we met at the outreach be actively involved in the club since, and for the outreach talk, we had our highest attendance of the semester, including many new faces!  Please be praying for the people we met and the new people that have been coming.

Is Christianity Just a Crutch?

We started off this Spring semester with a talk series called "Hard Questions About Christianity," and I had the honor of giving two, the first being, "Is Christianity Just a Crutch?"  It is fun and challenging for me to sincerely dive into these types of questions because I have to research, be articulate, and give what is hopefully a satisfactory answer.  This question is relevant because people often see Christianity as something that merely gives people comfort during hard times, that weak people use to find meaning, or that people need to not feel alone. I explained that Christianity at its essence is not a crutch, but oftentimes is used as a crutch.  Everyone turns to some sort of crutch in their life (needing to be liked, substance abuse, pride, etc.), so I asked people to reflect on what they find dependency in other than God.  As Christians, we believe that we are weak, which is why we need God, and God's power is made perfect in our weakness. (2 Cor. 12: 9-10)  I challenged the non-Christians to make God the thing they rely on and I challenged the Christians to be active in their faith, rather than just use it as a "crutch."  Pray that these students would rely on God alone, and be active in their faith.  Also, consider whether you have been using Christianity merely as a crutch...

Hello Upperclassmen

Last school year, I oversaw all of the freshmen small group Bible studies. This year I have a new role, which is overseeing all of the upperclassmen small groups, as well as leading one. This is exciting because this is a role I have never had, and God is using this to grow me as campus staff worker! Reaching out to upperclassmen is very different than freshmen!  It's been a blessing because it means I get to spend more of my time continuing relationships I've built with past freshmen (as opposed to focusing on a new class of freshmen).

One of the girls from my freshman small group last year, Stephanie, is co-leading a small group with me! Initially not wanting to lead, she has grown from a place of fear to faith, and is now one of our strongest young leaders. Please pray for she and I as we lead a small group of around 15-20 students (pictured above) including sophmores, transfers and grad students!

Transfers Galore!

Over the years the fellowship has generally had a hard time getting transfer students plugged in, on average we might have 1-3 new transfers get involved each year. This year, God has blessed us with an unprecedented amount of transfer students, there are at least 12 actively involved this semester!  After meeting all these transfers, I've happily made it a priority to help keep them involved.  Recently, I hosted a dinner for Transfer Students (pictured).  We enjoyed a time of food, getting to know each other and talking about what it's like to be a transfer student at SSU and in InterVarsity.

One of the transfers, "Tom," started the semester as an atheist who regarded gravity as his ultimate truth.  As he has gotten involved he has taken steps of faith towards God, and no longer identifies as an atheist.  He has said that he can see God present in the community and that he was committed to further exploring Jesus and wrestling through his questions.  Please be praying for him!