Ethnic Student Ministries

The campus population is changing rapidly. As more and more ethnic students come to campus, they are increasingly immersing themselves in an ethnic student subculture on campus. If we are to reach these students, we cannot rely on traditional means of ministry. The challenge of this generation is to believe God to do something radical, something different, whatever is necessary to give every ethnic student a chance to hear and respond to Christ.

Ethnic Student Ministries (ESM) came out of a burden to see that ethnic college students have at least one chance to hear the gospel. Continuously evolving, ESM has never strayed from the original vision of seeing movements of ethnic students raised up to go out and reach students for Christ, to mobilize students to reach out to students in their communities, and to join God's Great Commission army around the world.

One purpose of the ESM conferences planned for this year is to cast vision for what we believe God can do. The ESM Leadership School will be a time for ESM staff to come together and share ideas, to explore new ways of thinking outside the lines of traditional ministry, and to encourage and pray for one another. Plans for leadership conferences for specific ethnic students (Hispanic-American, Asian-American, African-American) are also on the calendar. We want to see students mobilized and carrying out practical strategies of contextualized ministry that effectively reach the ethnic populations on campus. These conferences are crucial to helping develop a national network of ethnic students committed to believing God for effective outreach.

The Impact conferences have provided a springboard for the launching of an Impact Movement by helping to identify a constituency of students who want to make an impact on their campuses and their communities. The Impact Movement seeks to equip, encourage, and provide materials to support these students' outreach.

The Destino (Hispanic Leadership) conferences held the past three years have helped lay the groundwork for making inroads to reach Hispanic students, a campus population largely untouched by any other ministry. The staff team at the University of Texas at El Paso, a predominantly Hispanic campus, is pioneering a ministry that intentionally reaches out to Hispanics.

Epic has been formed as a contextualized approach to reach the growing number of Asian-American students. There are Epic ministries on both coasts.

Ethnic students are on God's heart. We have the vision and are developing the strategies to make practical our commitment to reach them.

One the web:
www.impactmovement.com
www.destinomovement.com
www.epicmovement.com