In our ministries, is our goal simply to make a splash, or to produce fruit that will last? Sometimes we do need to “make a splash”—it is a great way to meet new students, get volunteers involved, and generate enthusiasm and momentum for our ministries. But let us remember that the final goal is to produce fruit that will last.
ISI’s vision is one of full-cycle ministry—reaching out in love and friendship to the international students God has brought to us, seeing some of them come to know Christ, and discipling and equipping those students, or others who have already come as believers, to reproduce themselves back in their home countries (or wherever God leads them). Perhaps the best measure of ISI’s ministry effectiveness, then, is what could be called its total reproducing impact, or in other words, its lasting fruit. Lasting fruit is fruit that not only endures but reproduces.
I take encouragement from Jesus’ statement and promise in John 15:16: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." The promise of answered prayer comes in the context of being sent to bear lasting fruit. Prayer, at least in this context, is not primarily about having our personal needs or wants satisfied, but is a means of seeking God’s help towards the end of bearing lasting fruit. This help could come in various forms—providing laborers (volunteers, staff), providing funding for you and your team, granting favor with students, churches, or university officials, working in the hearts of students to draw them to Christ, helping a new believer to grow in Christ amidst discouragements or distractions, helping you connect a returning believer with a good church in his or her home city, etc. Let us pray specifically for these things with confidence, knowing that God has promised to give us whatever we ask in Christ’s name, when we are asking towards the goal of bearing fruit that will last.
David Larson
Northeast Regional Field Director
ISI’s vision is one of full-cycle ministry—reaching out in love and friendship to the international students God has brought to us, seeing some of them come to know Christ, and discipling and equipping those students, or others who have already come as believers, to reproduce themselves back in their home countries (or wherever God leads them). Perhaps the best measure of ISI’s ministry effectiveness, then, is what could be called its total reproducing impact, or in other words, its lasting fruit. Lasting fruit is fruit that not only endures but reproduces.
I take encouragement from Jesus’ statement and promise in John 15:16: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." The promise of answered prayer comes in the context of being sent to bear lasting fruit. Prayer, at least in this context, is not primarily about having our personal needs or wants satisfied, but is a means of seeking God’s help towards the end of bearing lasting fruit. This help could come in various forms—providing laborers (volunteers, staff), providing funding for you and your team, granting favor with students, churches, or university officials, working in the hearts of students to draw them to Christ, helping a new believer to grow in Christ amidst discouragements or distractions, helping you connect a returning believer with a good church in his or her home city, etc. Let us pray specifically for these things with confidence, knowing that God has promised to give us whatever we ask in Christ’s name, when we are asking towards the goal of bearing fruit that will last.
David Larson
Northeast Regional Field Director