Campus Frontline: Non-Mainstream Pioneers – Sharing of the IG Ministry of the Inter-School DepartmentCampus Frontline: Non-Mainstream Pioneers – (Issue 492)
Adrianne Lee, Associate Staff of Inter-School Department
[email protected]
Our lives, culture, preferences, favorite songs, favorite brands, etc. are all influenced by the “mainstream”. We all love to follow the “mainstream” because it is safe, it will not make any mistake, and it will not be strange. This also affects our church life and campus fellowship life. Fellowships are often short of people to lead worship and small groups, and mainstream always recruits people who love music to be on the worship team, and people who are “talkative and social” to be the group leaders.
However, during the 2-3 years of the pandemic when everyone stayed at home, how could those students who were neither interested in leading a group nor joining a worship team continue to live out their campus ministry life? Or …… what were the ways in which they chose to talk to their classmates about their faith, if they were not willing to conform to the established framework of the mass mainstream?
Curious, we went to the campus with ISCF IG’s new series, ” Non-Mainstream Pioneers”~! 👥👥 Campus Interviews Series”. Let’s hear how these low-profile but stylish, innovative and passionate “Pioneers” developed a new order:
IG Wall of Questions Attracted the Messages from Unbelievers. Faith Questions Were Lining Up.
// Janice, a gentle, soft-spoken woman in charge of promotion, recalled that she once used True Light’s ig@ to set up a “question wall” where students could leave anonymous messages and have their questions about their faith answered by the fellowship committee members.
Several of the committee members found this to be a good opportunity for them to learn about their faith together (probably different from the usual Religious classes where people don’t raise their hands to ask questions). They would seriously approach teachers and search for answers in the Bible. Once a classmate anonymously asked what she could do when her family opposed her to go to church. Several committee members did not imagine that after they answered the questions, the fellow student would use her own Personal Account to thank them! Everyone was encouraged by this student! //
Fellowship Committee Members of the True Light Middle School of Hong Kong
Observe Classmates’ Emotional State, Create Handmade Colorful Stones Postcard
//The theme of this year’s Gospel Week at Heep Yunn is (meaning peace). One of the lunchtime activities was the colorful stones handcraft activity. The fellowship committee members explained, “This come and go booth was inspired by the open workshop that the school social worker usually organizes, without the need to register, and it was located in the middle of the ground floor, so it was easy for everyone to come to the workshop. Also, we observed that our classmates enjoyed making handcrafts.” The colorful stones were a way to introduce more students to the gospel. //
Fellowship Committee Members of the Heep Yunn School
Vision to Serve God through Art Christian Art Group
//Some of the students may not be very interested in music and worship. We tried to find new ways to serve and coincidentally, a few students initiated the idea of using paintings to share the gospel with their classmates!
…… A teacher realized that they indeed had the gift of painting and encouraged the students to use their brushes to serve! Just like their annual theme for this year’s Gospel Week, “Discover You in Me,” the teacher wanted to help students discover that they have God’s gifts in them, and that others can see God’s wonders through their artwork. …… Through the gifts of students’ paintings, they can actually discover God. The teacher set up a Christian art group to gather these students. //
Fellowship Committee Members of the Mission Covenant Church Holm Glad College
For more details, please refer to the Inter-School Department IG @iscf.fes.
The emergence of non-mainstream may give people an impression of “exclusion and rejection of traditional things”, but non-mainstream is not meant to be confrontational! The key point is to renew – to revitalize the mainstream; not to overthrow, but to hopefully restore – to restore the original intention behind! Without the experience of those who have gone before them, students in non-mainstream ministry may need to organize and experiment a lot more than the regular positions. May we all have the courage to create new ways of responding to the needs of our generation, to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, in order to present the true and living Word of God!