Summer is coming to an end, and students are already beginning to make plans for their upcoming semester. Grizzly Christian Fellowship is heading into its fifth year of ministry on the campus of the University of Montana, and we are excited for another year of evangelism and discipleship.
Reaching our campus is essential to reaching our city and beyond. The University is the largest employer and cultural center in Missoula. If we can influence students here with the gospel of Jesus, we will have begun to influence the greater Missoula area as well. Not all of us are able to sit in class on campus, but we all are able to participate in the ministry of GCF through active and faithful prayer. Here are five ways to pray for our ministry this year:
Pray for a Culture of Student Disciples
GCF will grow healthier as our students are able to help each other follow Jesus day by day. One of the key areas our staff works is to develop student leaders who are enabled and empowered to disciple other students. Being a young ministry, we do not yet have culture of this. Pray that God would open the eyes of the students at GCF to realize that the greatest impact they will leave on our culture will be ones recorded in eternity.
Pray for a Culture of Evangelism
This year we are putting a special emphasis on evangelism and evangelism training. We want students to have the urgency and ability to discuss the gospel freely and openly with their friends, roommates and even random people eating in the Food Zoo! This starts by being modeled by the GCF staff and carries on only through God’s convicting and enlivening work by the Holy Spirit. I ask you to sincerely pray that God pushes students and staff out of their comfort zone and into an active lifestyle of evangelism.
Pray for a Diverse Picture of God’s Global Church
Of the 13,000 students at UM, the majority (nearly 80%) are Caucasian. By God’s grace, the past few years of GCF have been far more diverse than we would have expected. Through some strong relationships and intentional work by a few core students, we have had a remarkable percentage of Brazilian students involved with our ministry. These students began to attract more international students, and our local gathering of God’s people began to look more and more like God’s global gathering of his people. Unfortunately, the exchange program with Brazil has stopped and we now have a much smaller influence in the area of international students. Please pray for us as we attempt to once again bring a global influence back into our community. The best missionary GCF can send out is an international student convicted by the gospel here in Missoula who then returns to their native country. We needs God’s help to open these doors on campus.
Pray for Fall Retreat
The climax of our initial ministry efforts is our fall retreat (October 28th-30th). The goal is to cram as many students as we can on this retreat so that we can do two things. First, we want to be able to build discipleship relationships between GCF leaders and underclassmen. Secondly, we want to present in many times and in many ways a clear gospel message at retreat. For some students this is the first time they will ever hear the full gospel. Please pray that God will bless this event. Pray that solid evangelistic relationships are made and that students see the beauty of Jesus Christ. Also consider supporting the event by helping to underwrite students financially. We try to keep the student price really low to increase participation, but the reality is the base cost for each student is nearly three times what we ask them for. If you are interested in financially supporting this event please contact Tyler.
Pray for our Leaders and Staff
Pray for Tyler as he preaches, and Stephen as he disciples. Also pray for Austin and Caleb as they lead the GCF Bible Study, and for Rachel as she takes the lead disciplship of the women. Here are the names of some people who would love prayer as they seek to evangelize and disciple this semester:
GCF Staff: Tyler and Stephen
GCF Student Leaders: Rachel, Maggie, Jess, Becca, Andria, Johnny, Jackson, Garrhet, Austin, Caleb, and Logan.
