How to Equip Students to Make the Gospel Known on Campus

I can still remember the first time I heard the phrase “Students reach students.” It’s a cultural refrain repeated over and over in college ministries across the country, reinforcing our belief that the best person to reach a college student is another college student.

Not only is equipping a college student to reach college students a local application of a near-culture approach to missions, but it’s also formative for the student for the years after graduation.

If I reached a student when I was a student, why not reach people in my company as a member of the company? Why not reach other moms when I’m a mother? Why not reach other people in my neighborhood as a member of my neighborhood? Equipping college students to make the gospel known on campus is one step in a lifelong journey of life on mission. 

So, how do you do it? How do you equip college students to make the gospel known on their campus? 

1. Remind Students that Before the Gospel Goes Through Them, It First Comes to Them

In 2 Corinthians 4:1, Paul writes about having a ministry because we received mercy. Making the gospel known on campus doesn’t start with what I do for God; it starts with what God has done for me. The danger of skipping this portion of equipping our students is that without it, we run the risk of turning the gospel into a commodity, where the gospel goes from passion to product and becomes something I make known to others without taking the time to remember it for myself.

I’m convinced that the greatest catalyst for making the gospel known is the gospel—to teach students to return to and live in the undying truth of who Christ is and what he’s done over and over again. A great tool that we use for this is our Gospel 101 classes. It’s not just in classes, but it’s every sermon, every leader equipping, our small groups, and conversations. From staff and students, we remind one another to remember and return to the gospel and share with the person we once were as the person we are now in Christ. 

2. Consistently Equip Your Students to Pray

Across The Salt Network, staff teams and many students set their alarms at 10:02 every morning—and some in the evening—to pray Luke 10:2 “And he said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” We ask them to pray for the lost and for laborers. “The harvest is plentiful,” so we know there are people who are looking everywhere for what only Jesus can offer them. 

While different churches have chosen different tools and tactics to make the gospel known on their local campuses, what is consistent is that we are asking God to let us get in on what he’s already doing in the lives of the lost around us. We pray and ask him to help us see and believe that the harvest is plentiful. As we pray for laborers, we pray not only for ourselves and for each other, but for the student who doesn’t yet know Jesus but will one day become a laborer and a leader. For the student who is terrified of talking to someone in their class, for them to have a gift of boldness from the Spirit of God and get in on what God’s already doing around them. While students are trained across our Salt Companies in a variety of ways of doing this, we know that prayer reaches further than any training could ever hope to. 

3. Have a Plan and Teach a Tool

So, your students know that the gospel came to them before it goes through them and you have equipped them to pray—now what? How do you lead them? What vision are you giving them? What do you ask them to do? When should they be doing it? Where? With who? How?

Each plan for the beginning of a school year at each Salt Company generally follows a similar pathway: we equip and send student leaders to meet new students; we engage returning students; we kick off our weekly large group gathering with a clear invitation to the gospel and to a group; we start our student-led small groups; we have staff and students meet with new students to share the gospel; we have Fall Retreat.

Along the way, Salt Company teaches students different tools to continue ongoing relational evangelism on campus like the Three Circles. Others teach how to share the gospel through your God Story. Some do both or something different but all have a plan and teach a tool.

Here’s the thing: While we share similar pathways, each plan and tool is a bit different because each campus is a bit different. Good stewardship of the ministry you’ve been entrusted with requires making wise decisions and having a plan. Teaching a tool starts with knowing your campus. So, do you know your campus? Do you have a pathway? Do you have a plan? Do you know your tool?