Prayer for a hit-and-run campus

There are nearly 30,000 students at our “hit-and-run” university, and 90 percent of them are commuters. Students hit their classes and run to work, or run home. Engaging the campus for Christ is like aiming at a moving target. It’s a challenge for the InterVarsity chapter to have an ongoing, effective ministry on the campus of IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis). We have made progress in becoming a witnessing community at our school, but we have a long way to go.

One of the things we tried last fall to get students connected to each other and growing spiritually was a Noon Prayer Fellowship. We met from 12:00-12:50 p.m. on Wednesdays, the day before our traditional weekly meeting, which was Thursdays at 5 p.m.

Our schedule each week was the same. The first 15 minutes was community time. Then we took 15 minutes to do a brief manuscript Bible study on the white board. We looked at three or four verses in Philippians each time, and got through the whole book by the end of the school year. We spent the last 20 minutes praying for each other and the campus, often in groups of three. We always ended promptly by 12:50 since many of the students had 1:00 p.m. classes.

This noon prayer time turned out to be a great opportunity for students to use their lunch hour to connect with other believers on campus. We welcomed people to bring their lunch and eat while we talked, studied and prayed. The attendance varied from eight to fourteen students throughout the school year. It was a sanctuary hour in the busy lives of commuter students.

—John Crowder is in his 24th year on InterVarsity staff, but it’s only his second year at a commuter campus (IUPUI). He enjoys time with his three children, Milli, Truly and Keegan. His hobbies are coin-collecting and reading adventure novels.