“The One Who Called You Is Faithful and He Will Do It.”
In the early months of 2020, the Campus Outreach staff at Elon University met with Maclean Wilson and the two other student ministry leaders. Maclean was a junior at the time and remembers sitting and listening as she was told that there would be no staff leadership on campus the following year. They told her they believed in her and trusted her to continue laboring. Maclean went home and cried!
The seriousness of the situation pushed the students to rebound quickly and to start planning for how ministering would continue without staff help. They came up with a plan they called Leaders In Training. Realizing they had one year to replace themselves if they wanted the movement at Elon to last, each invited potential leaders to join them at planning meetings, took them along as they evangelized the lost and led Bible Studies on campus, and found mentors in the local church to partner in challenging them. The sense of urgency led to systematic and purposeful discipleship and in the spring, the senior leadership took a step back and flipped roles with the Leaders In Training. Maclean shares excitedly, “Now they were inviting new potential leaders in for training, making the decisions for weekly meetings, and delegating to us!”
L to R Back: Julia, Sruthie, Anelisa, Kyla, Katie, Maclean Front: Megan
This picture shows five generations of laborers at Elon University! Anelisa was one of the first Leaders in Training. She helped train Megan and Julia. Megan and Julia are now training Katie and Kyla. Katie and Kyla are pouring into students like Sruthie. “These students are living in a true Gospel community with each other and bringing others along with them,” Maclean says. “They are seeing firsthand that it is God who is ‘doing ministry’ while they are being faithful in their daily lives.”
These girls came together at the New Year’s Conference last December. In a few weeks, hundreds of students will attend this year’s NYC … what might God do there?