Campus Outreach – Ohio State University

InterVarsity’s mission field is the college campus. This past April, regional evangelist York Moore directed a campus mission at The Ohio State University. Following is a short report on how it went.

The No Ordinary People evangelism campaign focuses on the arts, postmodern evangelism, social justice, and gospel proclamation. The campaign began with three training events and operated under the theory that the best way to engage a campus is through multiple teams. Photos of the No Ordinary People campaign at OSU can be found online at: www.flickr.com/photos/theevangelist.

1. Proxe Stations: These stations are iconic, process-oriented, interactive displays where students are given a gospel presentation in unique and challenging ways and then are invited to make a decision for Christ. Proxe Stations were conducted in multiple locations by multiple teams for 6 hours a day.
2. Human Illustrations: Dozens of students wore “No Ordinary People” shirts and “For Sale” signs during the week to raise awareness about child sex slavery and bonded labor. The No Ordinary People campaign was a partnership between InterVarsity and the International Justice Mission which works globally to fight the human trafficking industry.
3. Conversational Evangelism: Conversational evangelism is one-on-one evangelism that is sensitive to postmodern issues. Conversational evangelism was done each day for six hours.
4. Nightly Outreach Gatherings: Each night we held a different outreach meeting designed to engage the campus with the gospel and the social justice issue of human trafficking. From an outdoor candlelight vigil, to an Asian-targeted “Bubble Tea” party, to the main banquet outreach, each event was geared to proclaim Christ in an effective and culturally relevant way.
5. Grad/Law School Outreach: We conducted three additional focused outreach gatherings targeting the School of Social Work, the OSU law school and another nearby law school.

I praise God for the 45 students who came to Christ during our Ohio State University outreach. I’ve seen more people receive Christ this year then in any year in my ministry. College students are turning to Christ in great numbers, not only through InterVarsity but also through many other ministries.