For the past four days I’ve been with a group of 30+ Evangelism Champions here in New Orleans.  I was selected to be an Evangelism Champion (yes that’s the official title) for my region in Grad and Faculty InterVarsity.  We’ve been exploring ways to intensify and improve evangelism in our movement in light of a renewed commitment nationally to planting new groups.  Staff from all over the country are here – staff from a variety of ministry groups (Greek, Undergrad, GFM) are at the table.

Yesterday we took a break from all the analysis and conversation to actually make campus visits.  E-champs divided into three groups and headed out for a day of interaction on campus using a tool called a Proxy Station (a visual, interactive Gospel communication station positioned in a visible, high-traffic area on campus).  One group went to UNO (University of New Orleans) another went to Tulane and the third was sent to Louisiana State – up the road in Baton Rouge.

I got to be with the LSU group.  An outdoor proxy near the student union.  Most of the team made contact with students passing by the proxy or took off for fraternity row looking to connect with greek students.  My teammate and I headed across campus to connect with a Christian faculty member in the Department of Mass Communications.

By the end of our day at LSU we’d had a really helpful conversation with our faculty member who was delighted to learn that InterVarsity would be coming to her campus.  The groups reaching out to undergrad students had generated over 40 contacts and visited 17 fraternity/sorority houses.  Before returning to NO, every student we made contact with was invited to a vision casting follow-up session at the campus chapel.  A small but promising group of students gathered to explore next steps for launching Greek IV at LSU.

I’m really grateful for my Regional Team freeing me up to be a part of E-Champs.  The idea this tactical team is to join E-champs, get oriented to what they do then engage in an assignment that’s funded from national resources.  Tools, strategies, groups, events are all generated in a climate of careful experimentation and development.  More on E-champs in a future post.  My last morning session is about to get started.

E-Champ Team of IV staff at the end of our planting-day at LSU.