Jefferson Park Baptist Church

Testimony of a Graduate Student on Youth Sunday

Chris Eller, June 4, 2006, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

I was asked to share a brief testimony today as part of Youth Sunday. Since this is Youth Sunday, I will focus on the journey from high school to college (and medical school), and my relationship with the Lord during that time. As I thought about this transition, I realized that it has in fact been seven years since I graduated from high school, and indeed that time seems to pass quickly. I also was asked to share advice to our youth who will soon be experiencing this time of transition in their lives. I quickly realized that any advice that I could offer would be of little value relative to what we have in God’s word, and so I hope that today I share principles from God’s word that have impacted my walk with Him.

Some 7 years ago now, I began my college career as a freshman at the University of Delaware. The transition to life as a college student certainly represents a change from life as a high school student. One thing that I think that you realize only after graduating from college is that college affords one perhaps the most free time that one will ever have in their lives. With respect to our walk with Christ, this can lead to one of two alternatives. One option, unfortunately chosen by many in college, is to waste this time in succumbing to peer pressure, making choices to engage in activities that do not honor Christ. I went to a large public university, and regularly saw classmates that engaged in alcohol consumption, made poor decisions with respect to guy-girl relationships, and spent their time “partying.” When I look back, there were certainly many opportunities for me to make these sorts of poor decisions while in college. When I think about why I chose not to engage in these activities, it certainly is not a testament of any great strength of my own, but more a testimony of how the Lord was at work in my life. While the believer attending college may choose to join many of their classmates in wasting their free time engaging in unproductive activities that ultimately hinder their walk with Christ, the believer may also choose a second option, choosing to utilize their abundant free time to serve the Lord and grow in their walk with Christ. While I certainly failed on occasion, throughout college I aimed to order my life in such a way that I honored Christ in how I behaved and utilized my time.

As I think about how I avoided yielding to the pressure from my peers to join in activities that would not be pleasing to God, I can identify three principles that I would present as advice to our youth. Firstly, and most importantly, is to set aside time each day for the study of God’s word and prayer. In college, there are many things that will compete for a student’s abundant free time, and it is not hard to neglect the study of the Word in favor of athletics, clubs, or contemporary technological time wasters such as instant messaging and surfing the internet. In the face of these seemingly benign activities which compete for the student’s time, as a college student, one also will experience challenges to the Biblical worldview, face choices with significant short and long-term ramifications, and encounter students every day who lack knowledge of Christ. For these reasons, it is absolutely essential to devote time each day to the study of the Word and prayer. Also consider what God’s Word says about itself, considering the words of Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:14-17:

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul’s exhortation there to Timothy was not that he look distantly back on those things that he was taught as a child from God’s Word, but to CONTINUE in those things. He then recognizes that God’s word is indeed useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction. And so as one transitions to college it is most important that one set aside that time each day to dig deep into God’s word and spend time communicating with him in prayer.

Secondly, I would emphasize the importance of fellowship with other believers. It is certainly easy as a college student, away from home for the first time, to drop out of involvement with a local church. One of the first things that I did upon choosing the University of Virginia for medical school was to begin searching the internet for churches in Charlottesville. I found Jefferson Park’s website, and was able to read some of the sermons posted online, and learn a bit about the ministries of the church, all the while continuing to pray that the Lord would direct me to a church as I moved to Charlottesville. I visited Jefferson Park on my first Sunday in Charlottesville, ultimately never visited another church, and joined this body as a member just over a year later. I would encourage our youth who may head away for college to find an intergenerational church where believers of all ages join together for worship and the study of God’s word. It can be tempting to rely solely on a campus ministry or to join a church composed of entirely University students, but one misses out on the chance to interact with believers of other ages. In facing many of the challenges of serving Christ while in college and medical school, and facing important decisions in life, I have found the wise counsel of older, more mature believers to be incredibly important. For that reason, I would strongly encourage the new college student to seek out a church where there are believers of all ages.

Thirdly, it is important not only to be a name on the roll of a church or an attendee of a church, but to be involved in service. With all of the free time afforded in college, one can serve in their areas of giftedness in the local church perhaps unlike any other time in life. I had the opportunity to participate in multiple areas of ministry as a college student at my former church in Conowingo, as I designed and maintained our church’s internet site, taught a Wednesday evening children’s Bible study and missions class, and assisted with running our church’s sound system during worship services. In addition, I had the privilege of being a part of the missions committee at my former church in Conowingo as we adopted an unreached people group in West Africa, the Fulakunda, who had less than ten known believers and no evangelical witness among a population of approximately two million across five countries back in 2001. I would digress here briefly to discuss how the Lord developed in my heart a passion for serving Him among the unreached, as this journey exemplifies the importance of the three principles to which I have alluded above; personal Bible study and prayer, fellowship with a local church, and active service in the ministries of that church.

In Fall of 2001, I was asked to be a part of our church’s newly formed missions committee. Previously, our church had been neglecting international missions in many ways, and we were challenged to begin seeking ways for our church to be radically obedient to God’s command to go and make disciples of all nations. We began to discuss adopting an unreached people group, and considered and prayed over various regions before feeling unanimously led to West Africa. After more prayer and discussion over unreached people group profiles, we adopted the Fulakunda of Guinea-Bissau. At that time, the Fulakunda had no IMB missionaries on the field. As we began to pray for the Fulakunda, praying that God would raise up laborers to go and serve among them, we quickly learned that Scott and Julie Bradford had answered the Lord’s call to go and serve among the Fulakunda as career missionaries. We planned a prayerwalking/vision trip for June 2002 to go in advance of the Bradfords and prepare the way in prayer for their ministry. I went as a part of this team, and it was here that God really began to instill in me a deep passion for those who have never heard the gospel, and those who were living in the darkness of Islam. The Lord began to develop in me a heart much like that of Paul in Romans 15:20-21:

And so I made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, but as it is written, ‘To whom He was not announced, they shall see; And those who have not heard shall understand.’

At this point, I felt that the Lord was leading me to further involvement in international missions, and so I began exploring opportunities to serve for a summer through the collegiate volunteers program. The Lord led me to be a part of a mountain bike survey/evangelism team for July 2003 in Zambia. Before heading to Zambia, I was able to return to Bissau as team leader for Operation Barnabas, a mission trip to encourage the Bradfords as they served in Bissau, and help them prepare their home for rainy season. It was exciting to be able to return to Bissau and see that the prayers that we had lifted up a year earlier were being answered. While in Bissau, the Lord also continued to develop my heart for the Fulakunda and other unreached people groups of Africa who continued to live in the darkness of Islam and animism. Shortly after the trip to Bissau, I headed to Zambia, for the most challenging and testing month of my life, in which I saw God do awesome things in and through our team. As mountain bike explorers/evangelists, we would bike across challenging terrain, not always certain of where we were headed or when we would get there, but trusting that the Lord’s strength would be magnified in spite of all of our weaknesses. I had felt the Lord leading me toward longer term missionary service previously, but I was unsure that I could go and serve in a place like Africa longer term. It was while in Zambia that I was challenged by the reality of Colossians 1:28-29:

Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end also I labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

Just as it says there that we labor with His energy, I was reminded that as I served in Zambia, it was not by my strength that many were coming to know Christ, rather it was in spite of my many weaknesses and only by God’s strength in me that we were accomplishing the task to which God had called us. This principle of total surrender and total reliance on God was the most important thing I learned in Zambia. Had I been told at my high school graduation that in the following 6 years, I would serve as a volunteer missionary in Africa on four occasions, I would likely have laughed. This is a testimony of the fact that indeed it was only through the Lord’s strength that anything was accomplished through me during my time in Africa, as my strength was certainly inadequate. From Zambia, I returned to the U.S. to begin medical school and seek the next step that the Lord had for me. As I begin to debrief the trip to Zambia and consider how that fit in with my heart for the Fulakunda, I began to dialogue with Scott Bradford about the possibility of doing similar survey work among the Fulakunda. Scott actually had already been having similar thoughts and so together we were able to develop plans for initial survey work. I would come for seven weeks in the summer of 2004 to conduct survey work among the Fulakunda, help prepare a resource CD for churches partnering with the Fulakunda team, and to facilitate a team coming to prayerwalk among the Fulakunda as part of the Antioch 2004 Conference. While I was in Guinea-Bissau, I biked to Fulakunda villages, met with the village chiefs and Imams, prayed for the villages in the name of Jesus Christ, and camped at various locations, all the while enduring a difficult climate, various and sundry intestinal infections, and open rejection by some villages. It was amazing though in most villages to see how the Lord was at work among the Fulakunda, as chiefs, and even Imams (Muslim leaders) would share that they were just waiting for someone to come with the truth of Jesus Christ. This was awesome, considering that even two years earlier, there was not a great deal of openness to the gospel, as the few Fula believers were often persecuted by even their own families. While the Lord used my time serving among the Fulakunda to make clear His desire to use me in longer term service, I still remain open to wherever He leads me to serve, whether that be among the Fulakunda in West Africa, or among another people group elsewhere in the world. I know that the Lord has laid those who have never heard the gospel and those who are living in the darkness of Islam on my heart, and I feel that He is leading me to service among a people group in those areas, but I will remain flexible and receptive to His leading. My desire is to follow Christ and do whatever it takes to see His name glorified and His Gospel spread. My calling could be summarized by the words of Paul in Acts 20:24, as the Lord brought me to the point where I have totally surrendered my life to Him, that I would be willing to go and serve to spread the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ, even in a challenging area beyond my comfort zone. I recognize that many of the darkest places on earth, where the light of the Gospel has never shone, include places where being a missionary or believer can be quite challenging. I place my life in the Lord’s hands that He would use me for His glory according to His will. Like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:15, I would give all that I have, even myself, to see God glorified among those who have never heard the Gospel.

I share this digression into how the Lord worked in my heart in the area of international missions, as I think that often as believing college students, we spend a great deal of time searching for “God’s will for our life.” Unfortunately, I think we often seem to think that God’s will is some hidden secret that we must discover by use of some special technique prescribed by a “Christian self-help book.” Instead I would suggest that it is through the same three principles mentioned above that one can ensure that they are within God’s will. It is only through the study of God’s word, the wise counsel of fellow believers, and service through my local church that the Lord developed in my heart a passion for serving him internationally. God’s will for our lives is not a hidden secret, as God’s word clearly states that our primary purpose is to glorify God. Whereas Christ’s life on earth was the perfect example of a life that glorified God, we could also state by the transitive property that God’s will for our life is to follow Christ, as in so doing we bring glory to God. Therefore I would suggest that as believers, and certainly as young believers facing many life decisions as college students, it is absolutely essential that we spend time each day in the study of the Word personally, that we worship and study God’s Word corporately as part of a local church, and that we also serve actively in a local church, such that we can know how to follow Christ, thereby fulfilling the call to glorify God in all aspects of our lives.

Finally, as a word of caution to our youth, I pose the question, How does one who follows these principles of regular study of the Word, active involvement in a local church, and active service of Christ fit in at a large secular university? The answer, although not surprising, certainly did present at least a bit of a culture shock to me. Indeed these values are very counter-cultural in the typical American college or University. One does not “fit-in” at the typical university, but of course as believers we are not called to try to fit-in to the man-centered value system of this world. Still, I can remember numerous classmates in college and medical school, some who even called themselves believers, who looked on in shock when I would decline their invitations to join them in the consumption of alcohol. Others who were shocked that I chose not to involve myself in the serial dating and physical relationships that are prevalent on many campuses, as I held a high view of marriage as a future union ordained by God that I would never want to corrupt by poor choices made as a student. Perhaps most shocking to them was the fact that these actions were not out of adherence to a set of rules, but rather out of devotion to serving and glorifying an awesome God. Unfortunately to many of them, God was an invisible abstract concept, rather than a living, active Lord. I would close by asking that you pray regularly for our youth who may soon be heading out into the college and university campuses where they will encounter worldviews very counter to that of God’s word, and pray that they may remain strong by continuing in God’s word, continuing in fellowship with a local church, and continuing in service of our Lord.