Big Attendance for Public Campus Ministry Leadership Event in Indiana

More than 150 attendees were able to choose from five different learning tracks, with another two for online participants. These classes included how to start an ACF chapter on campus, how to avoid spiritual burnout, and how to cope with religious trauma.

This year, Adventist Christian Fellowship Institute (ACFi) celebrated its ten-year anniversary. This annual conference is held on a different non-Adventist campus each year. ACFi brings together student leaders and public campus ministers to network and learn how to reach the 21.1 million students at non-Adventist universities across the NAD.

This year’s theme was “Christ on Campus,” with revivalist Lee Venden as keynote speaker. Venden challenged ACF to carve out time for a devotional life with Jesus and illustrated the importance of Bible study, prayer, and sharing Christ with colleagues, friends, and family.

One of the greatest dangers for any student in higher education, whether on an Adventist campus or not, is allowing the pressures of class deadlines and commitments to crowd out time with Jesus. “Start your day with Jesus when your day starts,” Lee encouraged. He explained that your day may not start at 6 a.m.; it may be much later, so before you do anything else, begin it with Jesus.

Outreach

On Wednesday afternoon, the conference left the classroom and spread out over the 2,000-acre campus. They took with them games, water, and frozen pops for outreach and reported back with stories of the people they met. Students were introduced to the local ACF chapter, and new friendships were made. Leaders demonstrated how to start conversations organically and were given examples of outreach to take and duplicate on other campuses.

After the outreach, students were introduced to their union leaders, who invited them out to eat and discussed plans on how to strengthen and grow ACF on their home campus. Almost every union in the NAD was present.

Even from across the pond (London specifically), Keven Johns, British Union Youth director, joined to learn how ACF was reaching the campus mission field. He wanted to learn so he could implement ACF strategies on the campus in his union.

Ron Whitehead, Lake Union Youth director, says he was happy the Lake Union was host to such an important event because “the Adventist Church has a mission and responsibility to tell public and private high school students about Jesus and the Adventist Church’s message of hope and healing.”

Next Year

At the closing ceremonies, a video message from Mansfield Edwards, president of the Ontario Conference in Canada, was shared, welcoming ACFi to Ontario, Canada, for next July’s conference.

John Leis, Indiana Conference Adventist Christian Fellowship director, says, “We are living in exciting times, with young men and women taking up the gospel banner and spreading the love of Christ and the three angels’ messages on campus across the NAD. Is there a non-Adventist campus near your church? We need you to see that campus for what it is: a vast, underserved mission field.”

If you haven’t yet, get your passport because you will not want to miss out on the next ACFi, which will be held at the end of July 2023 in Ontario, Canada.

[Credit - Joshua Pedroza]