In the midst of the roar of buses outside and plinks from a piano downstairs, Mars Hill College met for the first time last week at a community center in the U District.  Over 50 people showed up, with a range of students from UW to SPU to ECC to PLU!

Here’s a summary of a few of the points we covered: 

• For now, the Wednesday night meeting is a strategic meeting to build up leaders and plan .  We’ll train leaders to plant community groups where students already are instead of making people come to a separate meeting.  Many subcultures already exist at each college.  Instead of pulling out of an authentic group that already exists, add intentionality to it.  Each subculture has its own vices and idols and can be reached for Jesus in different ways.
• Many other student ministries already exist on campus.  We don’t plan on formally partnering with any, but we highly respect them and will pray for and love them.
• Prepare for spiritual battle.  This territory is not ours.  We’re taking it for God, but Satan doesn’t want to give it up.
• Seattleites are extremely bold in talking about spirituality, which presents us with many opportunities to share the Gospel.  Oftentimes we don’t join in the discussions because they spark questions about God that we can’t answer.  We need to be prepared to speak the truth in love.
• SPU has a different culture from UW.  Fewer people are non-Christian, but many walk in darkness.  We may need to first convince people that they do not walk in the light before presenting the gospel again.

Hope to see you at the meeting tonight!