Directional Coincidence
Testimony at InterVarsity Staff Conference 08by Mark Washington
I’m here to tell you about what Jesus is doing in business school. Last year I knew that God was up to something at Kellogg, the Masters in Business Administration program at Northwestern. What I didn’t realize was how big he was thinking. My imagination couldn’t have comprehended it, and as our speaker said this morning, I am not the Messiah. He is greater than I.
Imagine God telling you this: You’re going to host an event that’s twice as large as your usual events, that will be open to the whole campus, that will boldly proclaim the gospel, and that will have worship music at it. Furthermore, it’ll come out of a multi-ethnic partnership on campus so you’ll only be co-hosting it. Non-Christian students will be upset about this event, but only because they can’t get in, because all the seats have sold out. And yes, that’s right – students are going to pay to come to this event. Wow.
One thing you need to understand about MBA programs is that, while there’s not open hostility towards Christianity, there’s just no space to talk about it. It seems to be bad for business. It’s bad for your reputation as a student, some people think – especially if you’re trying to build the “golden Rolodex” while you’re in business school.
The story I’m about to share, God’s story, is about how this all came about. It involves student initiative, evangelism, multi-ethnicity, and collaboration with other student groups. It really is God’s story, because I didn’t do that much to get it started.
I realized that God was focusing us on multi-ethnicity last year when a number of things happened. First, he gave me the most multi-ethnic leadership team at Kellogg that I’d had out of ten leadership teams that I’ve worked with. Second, he opened the door for me to meet one of the few black faculty members on campus, who was heading up a diversity task force for the school And it just so happened that two of my student leaders had joined that task force.
Third, one of my white student leaders and I had debated the previous year about whether or not multi-ethnicity and justice were an “opportunity cost” for doing evangelism. And he thought we really needed to focus more on evangelism. He came back after a summer internship and came to me and said, “I was wrong.” God actually spoke to him over the summer and changed his heart. I knew God was up to something with multi-ethnicity.
But the final thing, the crescendo of the story, is that God opened the door for us to co-sponsor a Gospel Brunch with the Black Management Association on campus. This brunch was usually held every year as part of their annual Leadership Summit conference. Despite it being called a Gospel Brunch, however, there were many years where the gospel wasn’t really part of it and the student planners just saw it as an opportunity to jam another business speaker into a slot.
However, last year, God sent us Lizette, an amazing student leader. She was part of our fellowship leadership team, the Black Management leadership team, and the Hispanic Management leadership team. And other clubs too. Despite some resistance she received from the Black Management team, she was able to convince them to allow our Kellogg Christian Fellowship to co-sponsor the Gospel Brunch, and, more importantly, to actually have the gospel be a part of the Gospel Brunch. Lizette’s initiative really is what got it all started. Next, the student leaders immediately asked me if I could help them identify a guest speaker and gospel artists. Most of my student move from out of town and they’re only there for a short period so they didn’t know anyone in town.
Well, I really didn’t have any leads either. So what I did was I stopped, I prayed, and I sought help. I really appreciated the teamwork I experienced from folks like Paula Fuller, Pete Hammond, Jim Lundgren, and others on staff, as well as some of my prayer partners. The student leaders eventually selected Reverend Henry Soles, the Chicago Bulls chaplain, and he really scored at the event. Here’s what happened, and what the result was.
The event was sold out, with many being turned away at the door. About 10% of the student body was in attendance. The feedback forms were excellent. The Kellogg administration actually was very excited about it too, in part because it was a very multi-ethnic event. Now the truth was, most of the non-black students who were in attendance were part of our fellowship. And we were ready for the event as well. Many students invited their classmates. We had prepared and trained for how to have follow-up spiritual conversations with their friends afterwards.
Part of our vision in InterVarsity is to see not only students and faculty transformed, but also campuses renewed. The thing that really excites me about the Gospel Brunch is that it involves institutional change at Kellogg. It’s now part of the regular experience for students, because we have students who lined up who wanted to host it for next year.
That’s not the end of the story either. Some of my student leaders from the MBA program at the University of Chicago were in attendance at the Kellogg Gospel Brunch and they got inspired. They decided to partner with the Black Management Association at the U of C and host their first ever Gospel Brunch, which also was sold out. And also, they’re planning a bigger event next year.
God’s story of transforming students and faculty, renewing campuses, and developing world changers continues through such student leadership and partnerships and we are all privileged to be part of it. To God be the glory.
Mark Washington is an InterVarsity staff worker in Illinois.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
Print
Email
Comments
Be the first one to add a comment.
To post a comment, please login or register