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Nearly 500 students attended DM's Fall Conference in October.
A few weeks ago DiscipleMakers hosted the largest Fall Conference in our 42-year history, with nearly 500 students from more than 20 schools in attendance.
I share those numbers because they’re exciting and easy to grasp. But if you’ve been reading our updates for a while, I hope you’ve seen that DiscipleMakers’ ministry strategy doesn’t emphasize big events. Rather, we firmly believe that the best long-term Kingdom impact comes through patiently ministering to students in small groups and even one at a time. That’s what our campus staff do on a daily basis, while the big events happen just a few times a year.
So why did we just hold a big event, and how does it fit into our mission? While there are many reasons I could describe, I’d like to highlight two ways that bigger events like our Fall Conference contribute to our mission of individually investing in students: targeted teaching, and helping students see a bigger picture of how God is at work.
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Targeted TeachingDiscipleMakers is strongly committed to faithfully teaching God’s Word, which we do primarily through expository teaching of biblical texts. But gathering all our students and staff together gives us the opportunity to supplement our expository teaching with carefully-selected topical teaching in breakout sessions at Fall Conference.
Twice during the conference, students got to choose from a slate of six breakout sessions. Talk titles included:- “Lost in Translation: Sharing the Gospel without Confusing Your Friends”
- “Enduring Affection: Life & Love after 30 Years of Marriage”
- “From Isolation to Intimacy: How Jesus Combats Our Loneliness
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Our co-worker Mike taught a breakout session called “Science and Christianity: Allies or Enemies?” Among other things, Mike equipped students to respond to those who would claim that science has “disproved” Christianity. Teaching on topics like these helps equip students to apply the Scriptures to their lives in areas of felt need, and students often mention these talks as a highlight of the conference when our campus staff follow up with them one-on-one afterward. (You can watch or listen to all the teaching from the conference on our website.)
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Helping Students Gain a Bigger Vision
Attending Fall Conference is sometimes a student’s first exposure to the idea that they’re part of something bigger than the (sometimes small) student fellowship on their own campus. This is especially true for students who didn’t grow up in the church—a group who make up an increasingly large portion of college students every year. Worshiping the Lord together with 500 other students communicates something about the scope of God’s work that mere words never could.
This bigger picture is not just about DiscipleMakers, of course. Our mission is to raise up students who are ready and eager to go and make disciples wherever God leads them after college. But to do this, students need to see themselves as part of God’s broader church in the world (including being part of a local church wherever they live). Getting off campus to a conference that encourages them to embrace their calling to make disciples gives students a concrete experience of this larger reality.
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On Saturday evening, we spread out to the Whitaker Center. We've seen the need for some extra time for fellowship among the students to just hang out together - which of course always needs snacks!!
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In some of our previous newsletters and updates we've shared how this past year has been pretty overwhelming and busy for us in our Headquarters office. In most departments, we're feeling the crunch of some short staffing. We fully trust God in this leaner season, and we cling to Him in the busyness. However, we also are earnestly praying for more laborers!
We are aware of this need in our Headquarters, but also have a need for more full time staff on our campuses. More staff are key to helping us reach our current 10 year goal to reach 25 campuses by 2025. To push us forward in this goal, this school year in particular, we are praying towards a goal to raise up 12 news full time staff with DiscipleMakers.
One of our main recruiting efforts is through the students we currently minister to on campus. They're pretty well aware of what the campus side of ministry looks like, but what we do in the Headquarters can still remain somewhat of a mystery.
So, our Media department created this video (below) to showcase and explain what we do here. And it features both of our stories!
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One way God has already answered this prayer is by sending Taylor Maslin to work with Kate in Event Planning! The Lord quickly raised her support, just hours before her arrival at Fall Conference! His timing is perfect! It's been a joy to get to know Taylor more and work alongside her. I am fully confident in her ability to help plan our events, especially in the Spring when I'm on maternity leave with little Asher! We'll introduce Taylor more in an upcoming newsletter, but for now you can read a short bio about her on the DM website.
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Prayers & Praises - Praise God for the continuing opportunity to minister to students through our conferences!
- Please pray for the interactions our campus staff have with students following up on the conference teaching, that our staff would have the opportunity to encourage and deepen what students are learning.
- During the conference, students heard about many different ways they might use their lives after college to help build God’s Kingdom. Pray that many would commit their lives to this mission in whatever vocation God leads them to after college, perhaps even with DiscipleMakers
- Please continue to pray for Kate's pregnancy and for baby Asher's growth! As she nears the third trimester, energy levels have been decreasing and it's been hard to accept the limitations this brings.
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Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We are constantly in awe of God's work on the college campus and delight to share it with you. If there are any ways that we can pray for you, please let us know!
In Christ, TJ & Kate Renninger |
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At the beginning of November, we went to Virginia Beach for the weekend. It was a sweet time to get away after the busyness of Fall Conference!
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Later that month, we also got to see our SON, Asher! He is growing well and we can't wait to meet him!
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We spent Thanksgiving with Kate's family and it was delicious! |
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Contact Us: TJ & Kate Renninger 548 Easterly Parkway State College, PA 16801 717.673.2359 | 610.401.7441 |
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