In the decentralized structure of Campus Outreach, comprising 36 like-minded churches working together on over 100 campuses worldwide, Campus Outreach SERVE and its financial partners hold a privileged role within the movement. Investing in SERVE multiplies Kingdom impact as its staff strengthens every church, leader, and campus with what they need to flourish and fully focus on reaching students with the gospel. The blue dots above represent the 36 churches; the red dots indicate locations with churches requesting an expansion team.
Pete Ketterman, director of the Africa Network for Campus Outreach SERVE, leads by “dreaming big” for the network he oversees. To that end, Pete brought three African pastors to participate in a missions conference at First Presbyterian Church Augusta, the hub church for the CO Augusta (GA) region. This conference focused on the continent of Africa. Two attendees are pastors of CO hub churches in Johannesburg, South Africa. However, the third pastor lives in Accra, Ghana. The church he pastors is a red dot Campus Outreach SERVE hopes to see turn blue in the near future.
Time in Augusta Bears Fruit
Upon returning home, one South African pastor wrote Pete an email. Specifically, he wrote, “I was really inspired by the vision for global missions that I experienced in Augusta. We are taking a hard look at our church and how we can be involved in other places in Africa.”
Spurred on by this vision, the pastor from Johannesburg reached out to the Redeemer City Church in Ghana, and they subsequently organized a mission trip. Members of the church in Johannesburg joined church members in Accra and worked side by side on a local campus!
Campus Outreach SERVE eagerly awaits an open door for a full-scale ministry expansion partnership in Accra with Campus Outreach staff on the ground. In the meantime, Campus Outreach Charleston continues to nurture their ongoing relationship with the church in Accra by sending annual Cross-Culture Projects.
An Additional Opportunity for Encouragement and Training
The church in Accra has three dedicated campus workers. For a long time, Pete has longed for the Ghana campus workers to visit South Africa and spend time with the staff there. This dream became reality this year, and the Ghanaians saw Africans ministering in their own context. For a week, they shadowed the Campus Outreach team, accompanying them to investigative Bible studies and discipleship groups with students. They also attended staff meetings and church meetings, making observations about how the ministries in South Africa integrated.
The following week was the Africa Network Conference. The presence of member care staff, the staff development team, and a women’s leader development staff member multiplied investments in CO SERVE. All of those parts came together, making significant contributions.
Solomon, an attendee from Ghana, gave feedback after the conference. He said, “God knew I needed this time of refreshing, and he gave it to me. I feel the sense of urgency to bring his word to others who do not know him.”
Those two little sentences seem at odds. They make you ask,’ What was this? Was this a time of refreshing? Was it a retreat where leaders poured into others? Or was this a forward-looking, vision-building, gospel-advancing kind of thing?’ In two sentences, he describes feeling it all. The refreshment that the Lord gave him and the sense of urgency to bring his word to others.
The Impact Goes Beyond Africa
These stories are from Africa, but there are equally exciting reports from Europe, Latin America, and Tasman Networks. Campus Outreach SERVE staff is thoughtfully and purposefully investing in the blue dots of the Networks, enabling others to encourage churches, sharpen staff, and reach students with the gospel.
Pray with us that the Lord will multiply our labors, build the leadership pipelines, and strengthen the “blue dots.” We trust the Lord will change the red dots, such as Accra, Ghana, to blue according to his perfect will.
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