When Jesus gave the Great Commission, his scope was the world. In Matthew 28:16-20, He said it just to the 11 disciples, but His plan was for all nations to hear the gospel and worship God through Christ. We serve on college campuses, but our scope must also be the world. Our plan must align with Jesus’ plan, so that all nations hear the gospel! How might your campus be a launchpad for missions to the unreached? 

CMT exists to catalyze evangelism, disciple-making, and mission mobilization on our campuses. But let’s face it… with over three billion unreached people, mission mobilization is an enormous task, and we can feel overwhelmed, not even sure where to start. In this post I’d like to share with you just one simple step to start mobilizing your college students to the unreached around the world. 

One Simple Step: invite mission agency mobilizers to visit your campus large group meetings this fall semester. 

One of the simplest but most effective methods we’ve used the past few years in our ministry to help create a flywheel momentum of mission mobilization has been bringing into our large group meetings the mobilizer staff who represent mission agencies. I email them in the summer to get them on the calendar for the fall semester. When they visit, they recruit students for their upcoming summer opportunities. We intentionally limit the outside guests in the fall to only these mission agencies. All the local or regional groups (like summer camps) we bring in the spring semester. This timing allows students to pray and apply for a summer mission trip or internship abroad by the end of the fall semester, and then raise any needed support during the spring semester. Some of these summer internships have resulted in long-term commitments for students after graduation. We praise God for these amazing fruits! It will likely take years to build the momentum of your mobilization flywheel, so be patient. A culture of passion for missions takes intentional cultivation. Keep learning about the unreached, keep sharing opportunities with your students, keep training them how to reach God’s world, and above all keep praying. 

If you’ve never brought The Traveling Team to your campus, that would be my #1 recommendation as a first step of mobilization. They are an amazing catalyst for missions! I first heard them at Penn State as a young staff member back in 2010, and it changed my life. I took Perspectives the next semester, and I’ve been passionate about missions ever since.

You can invite mobilizer staff directly from mission agencies like Pioneers, AIM, or Ethnos360. You don’t even have to do your own research to find what agencies you can partner with. The Traveling Team has done that work for you on their Mission Agencies page! They have a “Mission Agency Partnership Guide” PDF that has a visual graph which connects student majors to which agency would be a good fit. Here’s a real life example: one of our student leaders was an accounting major, and he was connected through their visit to do an internship with TWR in summer 2019. He loved it, and after he graduated in May 2021, he’s moving to North Carolina to work fulltime for TWR! 

You don’t need to create your own mission sending agency. You don’t even need to lead your own trip. You don’t need to learn a language or get a passport. There are plenty of trusted and fruitful mission organizations that have studied the culture, learned best practices, and built a global support network. As a campus staff, you can be the bridge to connect students with these sending organizations. We are sitting on a gold mine of potential, as millions of students in the United States are deciding what they’re going to do with the rest of their lives. What if the college campuses became a launchpad for missions to the unreached? What if your campus was a sending base? 

Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations was perhaps overwhelming to the 11 disciples. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus has advanced His kingdom for the last 2000 years, and it has reached you and your campus. Jesus has all authority, and He has passed the baton to you—“make disciples of all nations.” One simple step is to bring in mobilizers this fall semester. I pray God uses our ministries to reach the world!