Like I’ve said before, Spring at The University of Texas is pretty much my favorite time of the year. Why? Because getting to celebrate Rez Week (Resurrection Week) on campus is like nothing else. Not for me anyway.
One of the best things about Rez Week is our 24-hour prayer tent. As you might have guessed, this tent has on-going prayer throughout the duration of Rez Week. Students from all different ministries sign up to take an hour or more and intercede for the campus through prayer and worship.
This week, instead of meeting at the Campus House of Prayer (CHOP), like we usually do, the student Fusion group decided to have prayer in the prayer tent at Rez Week.
There, amidst prayer and worship, we got into a discussion about the unity and partnership between campus ministries and what we’ve liked best and learned from it. The discussion was not only fun and encouraging, but brought up some good reasons for partnership that I thought I’d share.
Partnership Brings Perspective
One of the best things about partnering together through things like our Fusion prayer meetings is getting to hear about what God is doing in other ministries. Hearing about how God is moving through prayer, or reaching people groups that your ministry has never had much success with is not only a cause for rejoicing, it reminds us that there are others around us who are also working hard to further God’s kingdom.
Partnership Builds Community
Sometimes when we plug into a campus ministry, it’s very easy to become “exclusive” and start viewing other people as outsiders, even if they are Christians. This kind of mindset not only can lead to further division in the Body of Christ, but can also cause us to bicker over small differences instead of focusing on our uniting factor – Jesus.
When we partner together on mission trips, prayer, evangelism and other things, this widens the pool of “laborers in Christ.” Additionally, you might find that you *gasp* actually like some of these people and become friends with them. Christ calls us His body and family for a reason. We are meant to be a community. ALL of us.
Partnership Creates a United Christian Presence
Rez Week is a great example of Christian ministries, students and leaders banding together for a specific purpose on a college campus. This isn’t just a celebration of what Jesus did for us on the cross and His resurrection 3 days later, it is also our way of saying to others at UT that we stand as one.
The fact remains that no one person or ministry can reach an entire campus. But together, when we pool our strengths and resources, we are not only able to do bigger and better things, we also get more opportunities to love one another. And as Jesus once said, the best way for people to know us as Christians is to witness us loving each other first, and then loving those who don’t know him.
Kimberly Chung is the National Media Director for Campus Renewal Ministries, a ministry focused on forging partnerships in prayer to build missional communities that transform college campuses with the gospel of Jesus. She is a campus minister to The University of Texas at Austin and can be reached at kim@campusrenewal.org
