Last month I had the opportunity to visit the BASIC chapter at RIT. They’re doing a phenomenal job at reaching a group on campus that they had never reached before. I asked Tim to share about how they have had such success doing this and what challenges they have had to overcome.
In the last couple years at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), we have seen a group that was near extinction gradually turn into a healthy, growing group that is hosting the presence of God on campus every week. While that growth has been exciting to be a part of, even more exciting is the method God has used to grow our group. Let me give you a brief rundown of our story.
My first year as BASIC advisor at RIT, I realized that our group was reaching out to a specific niche of student, namely the ‘geek’. I’m a scientist, so I can proudly place myself in this category as well 🙂 The two previous group advisors were engineers (AND we are at a technical school), so it made sense that most of the students we attracted were engineering, math, and computer science majors. While I was relatively comfortable in this setting, I wasn’t feeling satisfied.
Like many of you have prayed, I was asking God to give us the campus, not just a sub-culture of it. In order to do this, we needed to break out of what was comfortable in order to make room for others that were not like us. On a prayer walk one day, God spoke to me about His desire for us to reach the deaf community at RIT (RIT has one of the largest deaf communities in the country). In response to this word, our group has been on a journey that I hope you can benefit from.
Since we have been open to hosting deaf students at our weekly meetings, we have had to re-evaluate everything we do as a group. It has required significant effort and been a challenge at times, but we have learned a lot about getting out of the comfort zone of our own experience to become a landing pad for the Holy Spirit and His agenda rather than our own agenda. While we are still actively learning about this, here are a couple simple points that stick out to me as I reflect on our group’s transformation:
Develop an atmosphere of family.
The Body of Christ is not a ‘club’ or an ‘interest group’, but a family. In the atmosphere of family, everyone that comes to your group feels accepted, welcomed, and unconditionally loved. This is a sticky factor that your group needs to major in.
Position your group strategically.
When I became advisor, our group with mostly geeks was meeting in a computer science building on the edge of campus. No one except the geeks could even find us! When we intentionally moved into the freshman dorm complex near the deaf community, we sacrificed room quality and comfort, but it has helped us reach a more balanced demographic at the group today than we did two years ago.
Traditional versus Intentional.
You need to evaluate everything you say and do. The question that needs to be in your mind is “how are my actions and words excluding others?” It’s amazing how often I have excluded people simply by functioning out of habit. Great example: When you are wrapping up a message, what does it say to a deaf person when you tell them to ‘bow their heads and close their eyes”? It says “I want you to shut down your engagement in this room and have no idea what is going on.” Wow. I have done this more than once. Lesson learned.
Make the needs of the minority as important as others.
Because we want to host deaf students, we place a very high value on retaining deaf interpreting services for our weekly meetings. To my leadership team (most of whom can hear), I preach this as a non-negotiable. If we have a week without an interpreter, we treat it like everyone showed up without a room to meet in. When we do not place a high value on the needs of others, our omission excludes them from engaging.
Be personally open to becoming the minority.
It’s a lot easier to minister to someone just like me than someone different than me. However, a Kingdom perspective will always place equal value on each and every person that walks into your group. Your leadership approach needs to reflect this value.
As we have focused on intentionally reaching the deaf community, God has begun to move within this campus demographic. This fall we have more than half of our group attendees coming from the deaf community, and most of the significant personal breakthroughs we have seen this year occur in this population.
Our story at RIT is about a bunch of geeks who heard from God and decided to love on our deaf neighbors. Hopefully some of what we’ve learned can benefit you as you respond to God’s will to reach your whole campus with His transforming love.
If you have additional questions for follow up, please feel free to email me at timothychap@gmail.com. Keep reaching!