A couple years ago I was with a friend looking over the pier in the Port of Hong Kong as the sun set. He queried, “Scott, in one sentence, what does Chi Alpha do?” That was an easy answer for me, “We disciple university students to fulfill their mission in God’s global plan.” This is how Chi Alpha fulfills its mission of reconciling students to Christ, transforming the university, the marketplace, and the world: through discipleship.
The season of life the university student is in is definitely unique and provides an unequivocal opportunity for discipleship. Students have discretionary time, set their schedules, live together, eat together, play together, and for the most part are unattached. They are seeking meaning and truth. It is a season of life like none other they will experience.
Chi Alpha is a disciple-making community on university and colleges campuses. For Chi Alpha, discipleship is not a program or a course; it is a progressive, deliberate, relational impartation of the kingdom of God into a person’s life. We like to say it is “life on life.” Chi Alpha doesn’t only disciple believers; we disciple pre-Christians as well. For example, we may disciple an agnostic Chinese international student and move them closer to belief in Jesus and hopefully, eventually into relationship with Jesus before they depart for home.
Our goal is to disciple students to fulfill their purpose in God’s global plan. This includes instructing students on how to systematically read the Bible daily, how to pray, the power of biblical community, the importance of the local church, and our individual responsibility to participate in Jesus’ global mission.
Our discipleship results in a percentage of our graduates going overseas in mission as well as over two hundred new Chi Alpha interns this year. These interns become the new generation of pioneers in Chi Alpha, planting the flag of Christ on campuses here in the U.S. and beyond! As they pioneer, the continued cycle of discipleship and advancement of the kingdom of God is carried on; the flag of Christ being planted on more campuses.
Thank you for partnering with Chi Alpha in these historic moments of spiritual awakening on the most strategic mission field in the word, the secular university!
All views expressed on this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, U.S.A., U.S. Missions, and The General Council of the Assemblies of God.