state missions offering Archives

12 06 2022

Students are actively sharing their faith on Weber State Campus

Jason McNair College Ministry college ministry, evangelism, missions, state missions offering

Ogden, UT – Semper Veritas has just completed their Bible study through the book of Galatians for the semester. This Bible study proved to be extremely fruitful and generated lots of great discussion. One Weber State faculty member saw one of our posters advertising for our Bible study and decided to attend. He said that there weren’t very many genuine Bible studies that he could attend, but this one worked with his schedule. He and I talked for a while after the Bible study. Through our conversation at the Bible study and a later lunch conversation learned that he attends a local ward, but holds mostly to orthodox confessional Christianity. The reason he hasn’t left the ward is in order to avoid conflict in his family. I am maintaining contact with him and plan to meet with him again to help him walk through some basics of what it means to follow Jesus according to the Bible.

One of our student leaders, Connor, has been engaging other students as he goes to the gym. He said that he met a student named *Stephen who is LDS, but was curious about Connor’s beliefs since he was wearing a Redemption Church shirt that said, “Bringing Hope to the Valley.” Stephen asked Connor if he had ever read the Book of Mormon. This began a long conversation between the two about the differences between the LDS faith and biblical Christianity.

Connor had a similar encounter with another LDS individual named *Mark. They engaged in the same conversation where Mark was very intrigued by what Connor had to share about biblical Christianity. Mark ended up attending a Semper Veritas Bible study and Connor is staying in touch with him.

Another student leader, John, was able to connect with an agnostic classmate named *Dennis. They discussed together evidence for the existence of God and the validity of the Bible. It was a challenging conversation for John. As he invited Dennis to attend the Bible study with him, he politely declined the invitation. John hopes to continue to engage with his classmate.

We are excited to pick up a new teaching series in January for the start of the Spring semester. There is much planning going into reaching the campus with the gospel next semester. We will have mission teams helping engage the campus, we will have a “Perspective” event with Dr. Jamie Dew, President of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he will give a presentation on “What happens after we die?” We are praying for God to continue moving in the hearts and lives of students at Weber State. Thank you for praying along with us and for your support. – Casey Swails

Casey is a volunteer collegiate ministry leader from Redemption Church in Ogden and leads Semper Veritas college group on the campus of Weber State University. Check out this recent report of the work being done on that campus through resources you provide through the Utah Idaho State Missions Offering. 10% of the State Mission Offering is designated to do work on our college campuses across Idaho and Utah. Thank you for supporting collegiate work through your prayers and giving through the York-Dillman State Missions Offering.

*names have been changed to protect the identity of students who are questioning their current faith traditions on our college campuses.

10 06 2022

State Missions Offering fuels Collegiate Evangelism in Happy Valley

Jason McNair College Ministry college ministry, evangelism, Gospel Grace Church, missions, state missions offering, stewardship

Orem, UT – When you give to your state missions offering, do you sometimes wonder if your money is actually making a difference? To the students at Utah Valley University, it certainly is. UVU is located in Orem, UT and Utah County, the number one most unreached county in North America. Aaron Marshall is a college ministry leader for Gospel Grace Church in Salt Lake City. Last month, he made a trip up to the UVU student union to look for an opportunity to connect with students and possibly open the door to a gospel conversation. Here is his testimony of how that went:

We were tabling at Utah Valley University a few weeks ago. When we table we set up a table with all kinds of Christian literature and information that people can take. We also have a whiteboard that we write a question on to try and get students to engage with us. On this day the question was, “Could you be wrong in your religious views?” We had some good conversations but one in particular stood out. *Arthur is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He actually said that “he could be wrong in what he believed” which I appreciated. “Because of the kinds of claims we are making, religious claims are either true or false for all people, at all times and in all places. They are not just my personal truth.” I responded. He agreed. So then we started talking about ways that we could investigate to determine if our religious views were correct.

We talked about how we needed to have objective, external evidence that we could look at that could give us more confidence that our position was true. We also agreed that if there was good external evidence that went against our position that would mean that there would be good reasons to not hold our current position. So I challenged him with two Biblical tests regarding his faith position. The first test was from Galatians 1 where Paul says that there is only one Gospel and any other Gospel is false. Arthur and I agreed that the gospel that I was sharing with him (the Biblical gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone for eternal life) is different from the Latter Day Saint gospel. We agreed that both of us could not be right. I then challenged him with the Biblical test for a prophet in Deuteronomy 18 and whether Joseph Smith met that test. I gave him two prophecies of Joseph Smith to look at:

(1) the prophecy that a Temple would be built in Independence, Missouri in his lifetime and

(2) the Civil War prophecy.

I challenged him to read those prophecies and determine if they came true. We had a great conversation and he said he wanted to keep talking. Please be praying for Arthur that I can continue to challenge him with the truth claims of Biblical Christianity and the lies of the LDS church.

(*name of the student has been changed to protect his identity)

Plans are currently in place to bring noted apologist, Dr. Frank Turek to the campus of UVU later this month. He will share his message to UVU students titled “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist”. A similar event to this one was hosted on the UofU campus last year. The event takes place on Tuesday, October 18. Please pray for students to hear and respond.

Stories like these happen on a weekly basis across Utah and Idaho campuses, and the leaders who have those conversations are funded in a small way through money you give to the state missions offering. 10% of every dollar given to the State Missions Offering is designated to start, maintain, and facilitate ministry on college campuses across our two states. Our Convention Collegiate Network Coordinator, Ben Neiser, maintains direct connections with these volunteers and missionaries serving on these campuses. He uses these funds to fund free lunches for students, outreach events on the campuses, and retreats that disciple and equip future campus leaders from the students they serve.

I hope you pray about what your church will give towards the State Missions Offering this year. It is not too late to participate in this transformative work happening to reach the next generation of our church leaders studying on our Utah and Idaho campuses right now.

If you want more information about how you can partner to reach a college campus in your area, please contact ben.neiser@gmail.com. He would love to connect with you and your church.