NCM Stories from February

Here are some highlights from your ministry this past month. The following story comes from our collegiate minister in Seattle, WA

NCM at UW was blessed to host a group of 24 college students from Louisiana Tech University, who came to the Northwest for their Spring Break mission trip. The UW weekly student worship gathering (what we call Fusion) is on Tuesday evenings, and the Tuesday that the team from LA was here happened to fall on Fat Tuesday, so we asked them to plan, promote, and put on a Mardi Gras party at the Purple Door. They eagerly agreed in order to help us to promote NCM on the campus.

They arrived a few days ahead of the event, and immediately began distributing flyers in the University District. Overall, they distributed approximately 13,000 flyers. The day before the event, they went to the part of campus called Red Square, with flyers, mardi gras beads, banners, and large pots of gumbo. They passed out about 300 bowls of gumbo to students. They also had students in large inflatable costumes – a gorilla, and a banana – who ran around campus generating quite a bit of attention.

The day of the event, they returned to Red Square with flyers, beads, banners, and t-shirts promoting the event. They passed out approximately 600 silk screened t-shirts promoting the event and the Purple Door. Once again, they had the large costumes, and created a fun commotion. They then returned to the Purple Door and began decorating the building.
At the Mardi Gras party, we saw a tremendous turnout. Over the course of the evening, at least 150 UW students came through the building, enjoyed the Cajun dancing, jambalaya, live music, and festivities. Some of the students clearly came looking for alcohol and some of the sleazy Mardi Gras activity, but the Louisiana group was able to help everyone understand that the carnival atmosphere isn’t necessarily connected with immorality, etc. Both the Louisiana group and the UW NCM students circulated through the party, talking to visiting UW students, and inviting them to other regular NCM activities, such as our weekly Tuesday worship gathering, and weekly Free Lunch on Thursdays.

Toward the end of the party, one of the students with the Louisiana group spoke and showed pictures of his home in New Orleans, which was ruined by Hurricane Katrina. He told the story of how his father had stayed in the city to assist with security at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and the kind of challenge it was getting out of the city when it became clear that they couldn’t stay. This story gave us the opportunity for us to share our side of the story, which includes our NCM group taking a team of people to New Orleans on our Spring Break in March, in order to do relief work.

At 10pm (which was midnight, Louisiana time) we shifted gears and directed peoples’ attention to a side room at the Purple Door, which we had set up for an Ash Wednesday observance. We guided students through various stations of recognizing the history and value of Lent, and invited them to participate personally through identifying a fast or discipline they would voluntarily observe during this season. There were stations of prayer, candle lighting, and one final station for the traditional imposition of ashes. In order to contextualize the experience for our students, we replaced the typical ash smudge on the forehead with a henna tattoo on the hand in the form of a cross. Instead of a one day visible sign of Lent, our students have a sign that they carry with them into the season (as long as the henna lasts on their hands).

Overall, the evening was highly successful. We were able to get many students registered to receive regular e-mail regarding NCM events. We also know that the Purple Door is a known gathering place in the U-District. One of the leaders of the Louisiana team walked on campus prior to the event, asking random students if they knew anything about the Mardi Gras party, and almost without exception, they were able to tell him where the party was to be held and actually gave him directions. Additionally, reporters from the UW student newspaper were there documenting the event. We are also pleased that we were able to make the connection to our own Spring Break mission trip. As we follow up with our party attendees, we are hopeful that the connections we made will bring ministry value to the campus community.


During the Mardi Gras party at the Purple Door, we had a large number of opportunities to get to know UW students. At least half of the students who rent rooms at the Purple Door came to the party, which was terrific, since we don’t require them to be Christian to live in the house. We were able to help them connect the place they call home with a positive, ministry oriented event that was a lot of fun.

The previous day, I had spent nearly an hour talking with a Louisiana student about evangelism. I had talked him through some theological approaches and practices that helped him understand faith-sharing from a different perspective than he had learned growing up. Rather than it being a sales oriented or manipulative experience, I helped him look at evangelism being about the story of God, as it plays out in all of our lives. Since we know that God is everywhere, and always at work all around us, we have to believe that God is at work in peoples’ hearts before we even meet them and begin talking to them about Jesus. Our task is to invite people to share their stories, carefully listen and care genuinely about who they are. As they tell their stories, we will be able to identify places in their lives where God has been at work (whether or not they’ve acknowledged it). As we help them connect the normal things of life to God, we will then be able to share our own experiences of relationship with God, and the ways in which living a Kingdom oriented life have fulfilled us. We also rely on the Holy Spirit to do the work of salvation. We encourage people along the path of the gospel, but ultimately, it’s God’s work.

The next night, at the party, I observed this student speaking with a UW student, seeming to make a strong connection. Throughout the evening, I continued to see him talking at a pretty serious level. Overall, they spoke for at least two hours. After the party, I asked the Louisiana student about his conversation. It was very interesting to listen to his response. He was excited about having been able to share his faith at length with the student, but he was equally enthusiastic about his experience of having listened to the UW student tell his story, and really get to know him. He was able to identify specific things about the students’ story where God was present, and was able to help him connect. The relational, narrative approach to evangelism had clearly had an impact on the Christian student, and in a way that then produced an eagerness to enter the life of another in a significant way.

Two days later, during our weekly free lunch, the UW student returned and joined us. As it turned out, he felt very welcome and comfortable with us. He then told us that he was looking for a room and asked if we had any vacancies. I was able to quickly connect him with our property manager, and later that day he signed a lease to rent a room. This is exciting, because we now have an ongoing opportunity to continue working with him and continue the evangelistic work that our visiting friend began. I believe this demonstrates another clear advantage of a relational, narrative based evangelistic style – even after the conversation that these two students was over, because the UW student did not feel manipulated, we will have the chance to demonstrate the love and lifestyle of Jesus. The Louisiana student is unlikely to ever see his friend again, but still has a long-term impact on him, because of his faithfulness.

As far as we can tell, the UW student has not decided to follow Jesus for himself just yet. However, I feel terrific about this story for multiple reasons. First, because I am able to have an evangelistic impact on my campus without even personally engaging people in conversations. I still seek those opportunities when I spend time with students, but by discipling the Christian young adults I work with, I can indirectly impact others with the gospel. Second, I believe this story demonstrates that one of our goals in evangelism can be to just get people closer to Jesus. God will continue the work in their hearts through his Spirit, other people, scripture, and circumstances. Third, thinking in narrative terms, we are able to more fully access the compassion that God has for the lost – when we take time to really listen to the stories people tell, we can’t help but care that they understand the things of God.