Evangelism on Campus

If there's one takeaway from the conversations with fellowships, it is this: we all need to do an honest evaluation of our relationship with Jesus before considering talking about him with others. If we have a poor connection to Christ, we're likely to be ineffective in sharing about him with others.

Also, my personal experience is that if I approach the Great Commission (evangelism/disciple making) through any other avenue than the Great Commandment (love God and my neighbor), it can become a shallow task or duty. Love for my neighbor is what I aspire to be motivated by in sharing my faith.

Here are some other concepts.

Prayer is an essential first step.

Prayer increases your love for your neighbor.
It reminds you that evangelism is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit, not all up to you.
One model is: first Prayer, then Care (for their needs as a person), and finally Share (the Gospel)
Ask people to write down names of those God lays on their hearts and keep the paper in their wallet as a constant reminder.
Pray through the school's 'Facebook' pages
Include prayer in regular meetings, e.g., Bible study, leadership meetings, etc.
Compare notes on who you are praying for -- there may be synergy to know God has others also caring for the person..

Strategies can fall into two buckets: inviting people into something like a speaker event, or sending fellowship members out to connect with others in the course of their daily activities.

Capitalizing on Outreach events

While friendship evangelism is perhaps the most effective strategy in MBA programs, public square outreach events are an important complement to friendship evangelism. Hosting an outreach or all campus event can raise the issue of faith on campus by having a 'neutral third party,' i.e., the speaker, raise the question.

Prepare the members of the fellowship: for how to invite others, and how to follow up with them afterwards. One possibility is to ask them to share how they might invite or follow up. Another is to share the registration list and ask chapter members to (1) be sure to connect with those attendees they know about the event within 72 hours after the event and (2) consider who should be on the attendee list and isn't, in order to invite them. Even if a chapter member is not able to attend the event, if they know what non-believers did attend, they can ask them after the event how it went.
Be specific with the speakers about how much faith to season their talk with. Don't be shy about this. Speakers can sometimes be too direct with the Gospel and that can hurt trust with the chapter on campus. Other speakers might not want to say much at all. When I have coached speakers, it has worked to suggest that the faith elements of their talk be tied to their own personal story instead of stating something as a universal truth you must follow.
Co-host events with other student clubs can draw in more non-believers, but does require more sharing of power with the other student clubs. It can also lead to some great conversations between student club leaders about why a Christian group wants to host such an event. The key to co-sponsorship is the pre-existing friendships you have with other clubs' student leaders (plus, of course, the relevancy to the other group of the speaker or topic). It's worth asking your team to do an inventory of what other club leaders they know well.
Offer giveaway prizes for attendees, e.g., ipads.
Utilize other clubs' events to build relationships. For instance, being part of a social impact conference.
A key to successful events is that they are relevant to students at that particular time of year. You might consider asking your leadership team to map out what the relevant topics and needs of students are during the each term of the year. A start on understanding the lifecycle and needs of an MBA student is attached.

Specific strategies you might consider:

A high profile business leader who is a believer: The talk can range from an industry talk, to a talk on leadership, values, success/failure,etc.
An issue driven event, e.g., human trafficking and chocolate around Valentine's Day, Ferguson and how the Gospel reconciles, etc.
Christianity 101 discussion: once school hosted an alum who pastors at Willow Creek Chuch for a straightforward teaching with Q/A session.
Have an organic, relational dinner with a group of non-believing friends where two of the believers share their testimony (and invitees know in advance this will happen).
Put paper "Prayer Request" slips into student mailboxes during the beginning of 1st year recruiting. Even if you don't get a single request, it often stimulates multiple conversations about faith that are initiated by non-believers. Often the non-believer expresses appreciation for the care shown by this offer to pray.
"Off the record" talks: Some schools host a student led series of talks where students are 'off the record' or share personal information. This could be when a student talks about faith. At Kellogg a chapter member did it with a Muslim friend where they both shared how faith impacts their view of leadership.
Relationship seminars: All students find MBA programs put stress on marriages and close friends and family. By hosting a seminar or weekend retreat, there is an opportunity to show love to everyone on campus. Plus, sometimes spouses of students are more willing to talk about life issues and faith than MBA students who are trying to maintain professional images.
Ethics Conference: This one is trickier to pull off well since we don't want the rest of the school thinking we are judging them. Co-sponsoring it with other groups on campus (e.g., Jewish, Mormon, Middle Eastern, leadership clubs). We have a running list of ethics speakers if you are interested. (Mark W)
Schools have hosted seeker studies with The Purpose Driven Life and the Alpha Course in the past few years. The key to success was students boldly inviting friends. Also, having some culmination event or a climax when the question of faith in Jesus is posed is important. In one instance, 2 new commitments and 1 re-commitment were made by students attending an Alpha course, but they were done an an unrelated local evangelistic breakfast with Coach Joe Gibbs. The Alpha Course created the seeking questions and the Gibbs event called the question/gave the answer.
At the beginning of the year, host a panel of second year students or recent alumni who can share advise on how to survive and thrive in b-school.
Many schools host an Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas party.
For the most direct presentation of the Gospel, a Gospel Brunch with the black management club on campus.
Offer a prayer table in a common area (done recently at Haas). Not only does this create more opportunities for conversation, but it also may re-position Christians in the minds of non-believers as being loving instead of being judging haters.

Equipping: For sending students out from the fellowship, training is vital. Here, this idea is that you don't need to put on a special event or yet another item on the calendar, but you are equipping students to share their faith with the people they are already in relationship with.

Ask students to role play: How would you respond in 2 minutes about why Christianity matters or why anyone should be Christian? This often helps people realize that while they understand the Gospel in deep theological ways, they may not be able to simply communicate it and why it matters to them.
Get students sharing with each other what evangelism strategies they have tried and how it worked is one of the best ways for pragmatic, hands-on MBA's. Create a chart of strategies. Having concrete examples and students modeling the behavior for each other is very powerful. One interesting suggestion: if you are on the fence between taking a quant course or a organizational behavior one, take the latter since you'll have more chance to discuss your personal values with classmates.
InterVarsity has a series of great tools at http://evangelism.intervarsity.org/ One popular one is the "stages or thresholds of conversion" materials. See attached and the website.
Some students have anchored themselves from the start of their MBA time as believers, e.g., in orientation. This creates opportunity later on for more conversation (and helps the believing student keep true to their values since others will be watching them).
It is worth noting that those students who are most open to the Gospel are Chinese nationals.

Obstacles to chapters doing evangelism:

Busyness: so consistency and follow up can be hard.
Lack of time to develop deeper relationships given the shortness of the MBA program
Desire to network and not alienate anyone
Sacred/secular bad theology: believing that Christianity is only to be practiced on Sundays; not seeing Jesus as Lord of all, including the MBA world
Cruise Ship vs. Battleship thinking: Students just wanting an oasis in the fellowship (Cruise Ship) instead of seeing everyone being called to mission together on campus (Battleship)