College, Faith & Leadership

In this episode, Doug Schaupp joins for a conversation about evangelism in a postmodern context, and keys to building a culture of evangelism within a group such as a campus ministry or a local church. 

Doug Schaupp has served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for the past 25 years. He is the National Director of Evangelism with InverVarsity USA. He also has co-authored three books, including Breaking the Huddle: How Your Community Can Grow its Witness.

Matt Rasch, international missionary and church planter, and current Director of Every Nation Campus in Europe, joins in this episode for a trans-Atlantic conversation! We talk about outreach to international students, planning for short-term mission trips that support local ministry, and long-term missions. Matt also shares a number of supernatural experiences he's had throughout his life and ministry. This episode with stretch your faith and expand your vision!

In this episode, David and I talk about what his upbringing was like as a church planter's kid and what things he things his parents did well that helped to nurture faith in Jesus in his life, instead of the kind of bitterness that, sadly, one often sees in the lives of pastor's kids. 

David also shares about his journey from college minister to church planter and numerous actionable insights and principles from his personal journey to develop into a better preacher and communicator.

Please see the episode webpage here for photos and resources related to this episode.

In this episode, Clayton Bullion, co-founder of the Campus Multiplication Network, shares how his ministry at Tarleton State University developed an internship program to serve as a key step in their discipleship and leadership development pipeline. See show notes with additional episode resource links here. 

Frans Olivier, European Director for Evangelism with Every Nation, tells us about his journey as a missionary and evangelist from the U.K. to South Africa and then back to the U.K. and now serving throughout Europe. In this episode, Frans shares numerous stories of evangelistic encounters and how he's learned to adapt his methods of evangelism to a more secular context. He also shares helpful advice and perspective about how to stay encouraged in the work of sharing the Gospel.

“Follow your heart.” “You do you.” “You are enough.“

We take these slogans for granted, but what if this path to personal happiness leads to a dead-end? Trevin Wax joins in this episode for a conversation about his recent book, Rethink Your Self. 

Trevin  encourages us to rethink some of our society’s most common assumptions about identity and the road to happiness. Most people define their identity and purpose by first looking in (to their desires), then looking around (to express their uniqueness), and finally—maybe—looking up (to add a spiritual dimension to life). Rethink Your Self proposes a counter-intuitive approach: looking up before looking in.

See the episode webpage for links to referenced resources. 

In this episode, Every Nation Campus missionary Heather Heck  shares how God met her in the midst of tragedy and brokenness as a young adult and and led her into a life marked by grace as a follower of Jesus Christ. 

She also talks about why and how she's relocated multiple times over the past few years to extend the Gospel to college and university students. Heather gives a challenge to joyfully sacrifice and move (in some cases geographically) outside your comfort zone for the sake of the cause of Christ.

Adrian Crawford has a passion for engaging people with the Gospel. His ministry approach and preaching style at Engage Tallahassee, the church he planted in 2011, attempt to engage contemporary culture and lead them into devotion to Jesus. 

In this episode, Adrian joins for a conversation about engaging culture in the context of ministry in the local church and in particular ministry with young adults. 

Additional bio and related links for Adrian Crawford on the episode webpage here>>

As a college campus minister in the late 90s and early 2000s, Gabe Bouch saw significant fruit in ministry and developed many young leaders.  But after a decade of fruitful ministry on campus, he decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Mathematics.

Upon completion of his degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey, his path took an unexpected detour. Instead of pursuing a career in academia as he had planned, he became the senior pastor of Freedom Church of Philadelphia. 

As an analytical person himself, Gabe is passionate about engaging thinking people with the Gospel. In this episode he shares the story of his personal conversion to Christ as a teenager and his faith journey throughout college. He also gets practical about how to ask good questions and how to effectively engage in rational dialogue relevant to core Christian beliefs.

Thirty years ago, while an undergraduate student at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Michael Kruger’s faith was shaken intellectually by some of the views he encountered in the classroom with well-known skeptic and professor Bart Ehrman. However, he didn’t give up on the faith. Instead, he did some deeper study outside the classroom and arrived at a re-affirmed belief in the Gospel and confidence in the integrity of the New Testament scriptures. 

Dr. Michael Kruger is the now the President of Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina where he also serves as a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity. In this podcast, we talk about his personal faith journey as an undergraduate student and his new book, Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College. This well written and highly readable book is aimed at helping college students navigate the intellectual objections to the Christian faith common on college campuses.

>>Additional links on the episode webpage here