CAMPUS OUTREACH MEMPHIS 2016/17
ANNUAL REPORT
LETTER FROM OUR DIRECTOR
beginning to walk in Him. Please pray with us that these students would be established in their faith, equipped to multi-
As Jesus looked out at the crowds in Matthew 9, He saw
ply, would integrate into local churches, and would be mobi-
those who were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a
lized as laborers in God’s harvest.
shepherd. He turns to His men and asks them to pray for the
Father to raise up laborers for the lost world. This past year
that God is raising up a multi-ethnic generation of followers.
we’ve seen God answer this prayer over and over on our cam-
Half of our students who professed Christ this year are African
puses. God has shown up, laborers have been raised up, and
American, and 30% of our 231 students on Summer Projects
we’ve had the privilege of serving and stewarding all He is
are minorities. As our students and staff teams become more
doing.
diverse, we’ve been trying to educate ourselves and think
Part of the uniqueness of Campus Outreach Memphis is
our
proactively about leading
staff this year has been
this movement well. This
“Reign Down.” We claimed
year we hosted the Eth-
the promise in 2 Chroni-
nic Diversity Summit again
The
theme
for
cles 7:14, that, “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their
NONE OF THIS WOULD BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOUR PRAYERS, FINANCIAL SUPPORT, AND THE PARTNERSHIPS
in Memphis, with 131 staff and students from all over the world in attendance. We brought in Dr. Carl Ellis and many other phenome-
WE HAVE TO ADVANCE THE
nal pastors and speakers to
KINGDOM OF GOD.
ter understand and engage
help equip our staff to bet-
land.” God has brought us
different cultures.
as a staff team through
It would take an entire
a
book to begin expressing
season
of
humbling,
prayer, seeking Him, and turning from sin. God has been
all that we’ve seen God do this year, but we hope these next
faithful to hear from heaven, forgive many, and heal the land.
few pages with updates on our ministry will be an encourage-
This year we’ve had the privilege of engaging over 1,100
ment to you and will inform your prayers. None of this would
students in evangelism through building personal relation-
be possible without your prayers, financial support, and the
ships, leading bible studies, and following up over lunches
partnerships we have to advance the Kingdom of God. We are
in the cafeteria or doing life with them in the dorms. 173 of
deeply grateful for each of you and for the privilege we have
these students professed faith in Christ this year and are now
to continue laboring in the harvest. On behalf of the Regional Leadership Team, D E NNY CATA LA NO
REGIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM
DENNY CATALANO Regional Director
BRETT POWELL Area Director
KENDALL MAGANA Area Director
TONY DENTMAN Area Director
TABLE OF CONTENTS C A M P U S U P D AT E S
Arkansas State University
1
Middle Tennessee State University
3
Murray State University
5
Rhodes College
7
Southeast Missouri State University
9
University of Memphis
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S U M M E R P R OJ E C T U P D AT E S
Orlando Project
13
Tampa Project
15
901 Project
17
East Asia
19
South Africa
21
Thailand
23
Mobilization 25
JENNA MATTHEWS Area Women’s Coordinator
Regional Expansions
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Resource Team
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DeANNA DEERE Area Women’s Coordinator
CHRIS DEVINE Mobilization Director
JON McGUIRT Resource Director
CAMPUS
ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY JONESBORO, AR In Matthew chapter 9, after seeing the crowds as harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, Jesus tells his disciples to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. This past year at Arkansas State University we have been praying that God would raise up laborers on this campus for the lost world. This year we have seen 39 students come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There are three generations of spiritual laborers in some of the Greek sororities on campus. Over 13 football players have come to Christ over the last year and a half. God has been incredibly faithful to go before us and allow us to walk into these good works! Looking ahead, we as a staff team are praying that God would continue to multiply us at Arkansas State so that his name may be glorified on this campus, as well as far beyond our campus.
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CAMPUS
MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE We have been trusting the Lord through 2 Corinthians 10:13-18 that He is a God of “No Limits.” Through His work on our campus this year the Lord showed us that we serve a God that has no limits, and that He is faithful to use the students at Middle Tennessee State University. We had the privilege of seeing 33 students profess faith in Christ! We also saw 24 students praying weekly for God to do a work on our campus that is immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. We want to continue to walk in the light of the Lord, and trust Him to change our campus. We believe that He’s a faithful God and when we ask anything in His name He will provide opportunities for us to do the works He has prepared for us. We ask for
WE SERVE A GOD THAT HAS NO LIMITS
continued prayer as we trust Him for 30 faithful professing followers of Christ in this next semester.
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CAMPUS
MURRAY STATE UNIVERSITY M U R R AY , K Y Acts 5 speaks of two types of move-
We saw God challenge and transform the character of many of our students,
ments: a movement of man that will
especially in the areas of sharing their faith, fleeing from the world, and serving
fizzle out and die in time, and a move-
our local church. We saw God use our staff and students to bring 48 people to a
ment of God that cannot be stopped by
decision to follow Christ as their Lord and Savior. This was more than we could
any human power. This year as a staff
have asked or expected. Of these 48 students who professed faith in Jesus, 12
team we set our sights on a movement
of them were students who had primarily been influenced with the Gospel by
of God– which means we had no option
another student. God answered our prayers and grew our faith and trust in Him
but to orient our lives around asking
as we watched Him do what only He
God to do this work through prayer. An
could do. There is no God like our God
often used quote on our campus this
who brings life from death, light from
year has been: “If you’re not praying, you’re playing.” We saw a consistency in prayer at Murray State that we have not seen in the past 4 years. Students were moved by God to do the private work of asking God to transform their lives and redeem their friends on campus. We could not have asked for more evidence of God answering prayers as the year went on. Our “trust God list” was aimed at gospel character, salvation, and multiplication.
STUDENTS WERE MOVED BY GOD TO DO
darkness, and faith from unbelief. As we look ahead to the next year we are asking God that we as a team and a
THE PRIVATE WORK
body of believers would live every day
OF ASKING GOD TO
going to step out on faith often. We are
TRANSFORM THEIR LIVES AND REDEEM
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are asking that a multigenerational movement would be raised up that changes the face and leadership of our campus.
THEIR FRIENDS ON
We are asking that God would continue
CAMPUS.
the world through their lives.
to change students’ lives and change
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CAMPUS
RHODES COLLEGE MEMPHIS, TN Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Having been at Rhodes the past 2 years doing ministry we have seen the sad reality of this truth being played out in a postmodern and progressive culture that would claim that there is no such thing as an absolute truth, and to claim such a thing would make you a close minded bigot. In ministering in the midst of hard soil God has continued to be faithful to His promise to usher in His kingdom through faithful labor. Some of the things as staff we were able to praise and thank God for this past year was Him saving 5 students who did know Christ before coming to college. God has also provided many opportunities to share Christ in areas of the campus that we were praying He would open doors. As a result of his provision 120 students were able to hear the gospel throughout this past school year. Lastly our staff has been claiming the promise that if we are following Christ, He will indeed make us fishers of men (Matthew 4:19), and we were able to see 10 students involved in discipleship relationships this past year. It’s encouraging to know that in Christ we are victorious, and Rhodes has been blessed to see tangible expressions of that this year both in our own lives and in the lives of those to whom we minister.
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GOD IS ON THE MOVE
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CAMPUS
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO God is on the move at Southeast Missouri State (SEMO). We have seen Jesus glorified on a whole new level this year with over 45 students professing faith in Jesus Christ, 127 students attending our annual New Year’s Conference, 13 students traveling overseas to Khon Kaen, Thailand to share Jesus with an unreached people, and 58 giving up their entire summer to grow in their faith on the Tampa Project. We are also about to send 6 SEMO grads to serve in Thailand for 2 years. God is moving through SEMO to impact the world for His glory! It is amazing to see so many college students loving Jesus so passionately. Praise God for what He is doing at this school and around the world! 10
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CAMPUS
UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS MEMPHIS, TN At the University of Memphis we saw God do only what He can do countless times! There were at least 40 students who professed faith in Christ, and 30 students involved in discipleship relationships. In the context of these relationships we saw firsthand the next generation of spiritual leaders being raised up and equipped. God gave the students a burden to reach their friends, teammates, floor-mates and classmates. We saw students leading 8 different evangelistic Bible studies, and some students even sharing their faith for the first time ever. We also had a bible study for the Sigma Chi fraternity–hosted in their fraternity house–where there was an average of 12 freshmen in attendance in each week. One student who professed faith in Christ in February expressed an increasing appetite for the Word of God, which compelled him to read for extended periods of time out of joy and gratitude. The Lord was gracious to give us a front row seat to His work as He transformed the lives of students who had been living in rebellion against God. Time after time we got to see students finally recognize their desperate need for Jesus, and see them liberated from destructive strongholds and empty promises of satisfaction from the world.
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S TAT E S I D E P R O J E C T
ORLANDO PROJECT ORLANDO, FL There are more than 10,000 reasons to bless His name! This summer there were over 100 students from Middle Tennessee State University, Arkansas State University, the University of Memphis and Rhodes College who committed 9 weeks of their summer to invest in their walk with Christ. As part of our summer theme “Behold & Become,� we built our project around the powerful reality that true transformation happens when we see Jesus. We saw many people Behold the glory of Christ & Become more like Him as students came to faith in Christ, grew in Christ-like character and grew in their desire to make Him known. It is our deep desire that this summer project would result in these students glorifying God by laboring in the lost world for a lifetime!
THERE ARE MORE THAN 10,000 REASONS TO BLESS HIS NAME!
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S TAT E S I D E P R O J E C T
TAMPA PROJECT TA M PA , F L
The Lord showed up in our midst as 108 college students from Murray State University, Southeast Missouri State University, and Louisiana State University descended on Tampa, FL on May 28th. The next 9 weeks were bound to be nothing less than miraculous as God chose to bring a redemptive work in and through these students. The cry of these students this summer was “Relentless.” They chose – in view of God’s relentless pursuit of them – to relentlessly pursue God and relentlessly pursue the world around them with the good news of Jesus Christ. God impressed upon them His command to
WE HOPE TO SEE
“love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” As this fleshed out in
THE STUDENTS
their lives sin patterns were broken, gospel communi-
RELENTLESSLY PURSUE
in this city professed faith in Christ and were connected
GOD AND OTHERS FOR A LIFETIME
ty was built, God’s Word transformed habits, and many to our local church partner through their witness. Tampa is among the top 35 most unchurched cities in America, and the brokenness can be evidently seen everyday. We prayed that God would change that statistic because of the movement He began this summer in these students
and this city through them. As students leave with these convictions and commitments rooted in God’s Word, we hope to see them serve their families, cities, local churches, and the nations with the compassion and love that the gospel gives us. We hope that they will relentlessly pursue God and others for a lifetime because they never forget how God has relentlessly given His Son for our sake on the cross.
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S TAT E S I D E P R O J E C T
901 PROJECT MEMPHIS, TN
Our theme for the 901 project this summer was “Invest to Impact” based on Jeremiah 29 and the importance of seeking the welfare of the city. We had 15 students from Memphis and surrounding universities come to the city to learn how to follow Jesus in a post grad context. They lived in different neighborhoods and worked at a variety of jobs including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Kroc Center, Agape Marketing, Pickering Engineering and more. We also had a weekly Bible study that averaged around 35 people where the students invited their coworkers and neighbors with hopes of continuing to share the Gospel with them. It is clear that the Lord put a burden for the city of Memphis on the hearts of the 901 Project students and our hope is that these students would plant their feet in the city to see long term impact for the sake of the Gospel!
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OV E R S E AS P R OJ E C T
CROSS CULTURAL PROJECT EAST ASIA This summer 12 students from Louisiana State University, Murray State University, and Arkansas State University joined together to travel to a major metropolitan city in East Asia. Our team spent 6 weeks developing friendships and relationships with university students in the city with the hopes of connecting them to local long term missionaries who serve full time in the city. The students on our team spent the majority of their time partnering with local students as language partners. The local people are a very generous and hospitable people and it was a joy to be with them. Our goal this summer was to learn to truly abide in Him and out of abiding, that we would serve and love our neighbors. We are looking forward to our students taking these lessons back home, where they know the language and culture, and using that for Christ’s glory and honor.
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OV E R S E AS P R OJ E C T
CROSS CULTURAL PROJECT SOUTH AFRICA JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Praise God for raising up 7 student laborers from Arkansas State University, Rhodes College, The University of Memphis, and Sam Houston State University to give their summer and prayerfully their lives away in Johannesburg, South Africa. The students on our team served for 7 weeks at the University of Johannesburg where they were immersed in the culture while sharing Christ with college students from all over the continent of Africa. This included starting/helping Bible studies on the campus, sharing the Gospel with over 50 students, and equipping the local student leaders for ministry. Our team also got to play a role in advancing the efforts of the local church and developing ourselves as leaders. Going into the summer our goal was to contribute in four ways: service, sacrifice, being a cultural learner, and humility. The theme for our summer was “United.” Our team included a diverse mix of students from different schools, backgrounds, and ethnicities. The unity we saw on the team testified to the power of God at work in our team! Our staple for the summer was Ephesians 2:13-21 where we see that regardless of background and culture we are “one new man” in Christ, united to God and each other through the blood of Christ. Our hope is that as a result of the summer each student would develop a vision to multiple their lives and to serve in the light of the Great Commission while stewarding their talents to the Glory of God.
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OV E R S E AS P R OJ E C T
CROSS CULTURAL PROJECT THAILAND KHON KAEN, THAILAND This summer 13 students from Southeast Missouri State University spent six weeks in Khon Kaen, Thailand partnering with the long term Campus Outreach Thailand team to reach students. Khon Kaen is a part of the Isan people group in Northeast Thailand, which is one of the largest unreached people groups in the world at less than 1% professing Christians. The team co-hosted (along with Campus Outreach Thailand staff and students) a 4-week English camp for around 50 Thai students who were mostly non-Christians. Through the summer camp, the CCP team was able to build relationships and share about the love of Christ with many non-believing Thai students. Not only were Thai students impacted, but the CCP students were able to see first hand God’s work among the nations. Our prayer is that God will use our time spent in Khon Kaen to draw many Thais to Himself and that the Gospel would continue to multiply through Thai believers on the campus.
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MOBILIZATION
C H R I S D E V I N E · M O B I L I Z AT I O N D I R E C TO R As you flip through this report, you have no doubt been filled with excitement as you see the many eternities that have been changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You see pictures of large events, cookouts, Bible studies, trainings and more. The purpose of all of these events spans further than just the four years that each student will be in school; our hope is that their impact will be for a lifetime! As students graduate our prayer is that they would leave the college campus and enter into graduate life with a clear team, a leader, and mission. Over the past year God has placed the nation of Thailand on the hearts of Southeast Missouri State students. He has raised up a team of 6 students who have committed to laboring in Thailand for two years after they graduate! This year is just a small picture of God’s faithfulness to raising up laborers to send to the nations. In the past 5 years across the campuses in our region we have seen students reached with the Gospel, discipled, and sent out to many places around the world including Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, South Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, Bulgaria, and more! We can also rejoice that many of our students have graduated and decided to impact the workforce! Many have committed to go into the field they studied in college in order to see Gospel transformation in the business field, hospitals, justice systems, schools, etc. We have seen 50 students from our region effectively mobilized into the postgraduate world this past year! One of our graduates, Izaac Robinson, graduated in May from Murray State University. He made the decision to move to Memphis to work in construction management and get plugged into a healthy local church so that he could continue living out his vision of living in Biblical community and reaching the lost world with the Gospel.
Since graduating college and transitioning into the workforce I have seen many needs that can be met by the church within the workforce. One of them is building meaningful relationships with my coworkers. Many people in the workforce use their job as a way to escape from home and other areas of life. Being in this environment gives me a great opportunity to minister and be a voice of truth and light, by building a foundation to share my faith along with the hope and assurances I have in Christ’s death and resurrection. IZAAC ROBINSON
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REGIONAL EXPANSIONS
BRIAN LEWIS · EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Over the years, Campus Outreach Memphis (C.O. Memphis) has sought to follow a guiding principle for ministry: grow and expand from spiritual strength. Spiritual health and strength is an environment that produces fruit and with it, strong growth. Fruitfulness and growth produces not only the possibility for ministry expansion, but also the necessity for expansion. We are grateful to the Lord that He continues to bless us with an abundance of fruit. That is why C.O. Memphis has established 3 new Campus Outreach regions this past year: C.O. Baton Rouge, C.O. Denver, and C.O. Knoxville. In practical terms, this means that 3 teams, 32 staff, and 1.8 million dollars will go toward starting these new works. We are grateful to the Lord for His abundant work and provision!
WE ARE BUILDING LAUNCHING PADS THAT WILL SEND GRADUATES
Each of these new C.O. regions are positioned to reach the campuses in their geographical region and to become “launching pads” to send laborers into the harvest. C.O. Baton Rouge will primarily target campuses in southern Louisiana starting with LSU and reach a culture that is nominally “religious,” but is very works-oriented. C.O. Denver is a very secular culture in which the majority of the students are indifferent
TO TRANSFORM EVERY
about God. While evangelism is challenging there, 11 students have made professions
PART OF SOCIETY
Northern Colorado. C.O. Knoxville is starting with 2 campuses: Tennessee Tech Uni-
of faith in the first year. We have staff at University of Denver and the University of versity and the University of Tennessee. While Tennessee Tech was one of our first
campus ministries in C.O. Memphis, we felt that this campus ministry would fit well in this region. Besides the Tennessee Tech ministry, we are also sending them our summer Mountain Project (Pigeon Forge) as well as our summer Cross-Cultural Project in New Zealand. What are the implications of all of this expansion? More laborers for the harvest! Our goal is not simply to reach as many campuses as possible, but to raise up as many laborers as possible from these campuses. As we multiply whole regions, we are not only reaching more students and building more multiplying disciples, but we are also building “launching pads” that will send them to transform every part of society as well as the nations of the world! University of Illinois at Chicago
C.O. KNOXVILLE REGION
C.O. DENVER REGION
Tennessee Tech University University of Tennessee
University of Denver University of Northern Colorado
CHICAGO
A V I S I O N F O R E X PA N S I O N We are also launching a new campus ministry to the University of Illinois at Chicago. Our aim from day one is to build a multi-ethnic ministry at U.I.C. and our vision is that this would some day grow into a regional ministry.
C.O. MEMPHIS REGION Arkansas State University Middle TN State University Murray State University Rhodes College Southeast MO State University University of Memphis
C.O. BATON ROUGE REGION Louisiana State University 26
RESOURCE TEAM
JON MCGUIRT ¡ RESOURCE DIRECTOR Functioning like the skeletal system of the regional ministry, the Memphis Resource Team supports and strengthens the growing impact of our ministry. Seven resource staff initiate to meet ministry needs in areas such as events, finances, and communications while also contributing on the campus through personal ministry. During this past school year, the team planned and executed New Years Conference (our annual conference attended by 1300 students), the summer Leaders Retreat (a weekend retreat to provide training and development for the 95 student leaders of our 2017 summer projects), coordinated two stateside summer projects, sent three short term teams overseas, as well as executed multiple staff training events for Campus Outreach staff from across the world, including the Ethnic Diversity Summit which was hosted in Memphis. This team also aided the three Campus Outreach expansion teams in becoming new regional ministries in Baton Rouge, Knoxville, and Denver. It is our prayer the word of God would continue to increase and the number of disciples would multiply greatly through the work of this team (Acts 6:7).
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Ethnic Diversity Summit Summer Leaders Retreat
Summer Leaders Retreat
New Years Conference
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