By Jim Luebe
U.S. Navigators Collegiate Director

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I’ve been reflecting lately on what true “success” looks like in collegiate ministry. Is a successful collegiate ministry best measured by the number of students involved in Bible studies, the number that come to our large group each week, or the number who attend conferences or summer training programs? Maybe it is measured by the number of discipling relationships taking place or by something less numerical such as the transformed lives of people in the ministry?

After wrestling with this question for a number of years, I have decided that none of these are the best way to measure the success of a collegiate ministry. The big picture goal cannot actually even be measured by what happens on campus. It is best measured 20 years after college graduation in the lives of our graduates. Our goal is lifelong laborers. The way to measure the “success” of our Navigator collegiate ministries is to visit our grads when they are 40-45 years old. With this in mind, let me share my vision and prayer for each of your lives. These are the things I am praying for you as you continue to follow Christ in your 20’s.

Passion for Jesus Christ

First, I pray that your passion for Jesus Christ continues to grow. In Ephesians 3:17-19, the Apostle Paul prays for the Ephesian people, that

“…Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

This is also my prayer for you. I pray that Jesus Christ would become more in your life each day and that His love would compel you (2 Corinthians 5:14) and fill you. I pray that with each day you might understand a little more fully what it means to live the crucified life Paul talks about in Galatians 2:20 in which he says that, “he no longer lives, but Christ lives in him.” In order to foster and build your own walk with God, I pray that your intimacy with Christ grows through your regular intake of God’s Word and in your prayer life. Like Paul in Philippians 3:10, let it be our desire “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.”

Laborer in the Kingdom

Secondly, my prayer is that you will grow as a laborer in the Kingdom of God. As your passion for Jesus continues to grow throughout your life, I pray that you will minister out of the overflow of your life into the lives of others. God, in his sovereignty, is placing you in the middle of people who are often looking for life apart from God. Psalm 16:4 tells us that the “sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods.” As you walk alongside people day after day, week after week, month after month, you will have opportunities to serve as Christ’s ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20). Continue to remember that you are not the source of power to bring about change in the lives of people, but merely a vessel through which God’s power flows (2 Corinthians 4:7). Today, may God remind you of his deep love for you and may you experience His power as you seek to live for Him and labor in His Kingdom.

Keep pressing on to “Know Christ and to make Him known.”

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Jim Luebe lives in Colorado Springs with his wife Beth and three sons. Jim currently serves as the Collegiate Director for the U.S. Navigators.