In early 2020, the Campus Outreach staff at Elon University met with Maclean Wilson and two other student ministry leaders. Maclean was a junior at the time. She remembers sitting, listening, and being 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. They began to plan for continuing ministery without staff help. The result was a plan they called Leaders In Training. They realized 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. They took them along to evangelize the lost and lead Bible Studies on campus. They also found mentors in the local church to partner in challenging them. The sense of urgency led to systematic and purposeful discipleship. 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!”
Pictured above are 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?