Exciting Things to Pray For!

Hey Everyone! It’s a full and REALLY exciting time for ministry at USD. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s going on and how you can be praying:

1) “Perceptions…” Outreach – I have been praying for the past four years that God would give us the green light to put on a large scale evangelistic outreach on campus at USD. Praise God, the time has come! Next week from Tuesday, February 15th until Thursday, February 17th, we will be hosting a public outreach on campus where we’re hoping to share the Gospel with as many students as possible! We’ll be asking students to interact with an art display by writing and posting their perceptions of and experience of Christians and Jesus. Then, we will be sharing with students about the true message of Jesus and His purpose for His followers! Please pray:
-For BOLDNESS for me and our students.
-That God would make the hearts of men and women on campus receptive to the Gospel!
-That men and women would make first-time commitments to follow Jesus and commit to exploring Jesus in our community!

2) Fundraising & Transition – Besides the outreach, my focus right now is on the question “How can I finish strong at USD and set myself up to begin ministry well in Ventura County?” Currently, one of my biggest challenges is fundraising. I still have about $9,000 to raise to cover my ministry budget for this year. This means that I have to spend a lot of time working on raising support in order to finish strong. Please Pray:
-That God would provide the remaining funding that I need to spend my energy focusing on students.
-That God would raise up more men and women like you to surround me with their prayers and finances and would commit to partnering with Bekah and I over the next 3 years as we move to Ventura County
-For a strong finish at USD and a smooth transition in leadership as my staff partner Jenny Seawright prepares to take over!

3) Discernment – This Friday, Bekah and I are spending the day in Ventura County discerning which campus God is calling us to begin planting on next year. We’ll be visiting Cal State Channel Islands and Ventura College. Would you please pray that God would clearly call us to a campus, and that we would be able to hear His call?

Thank you so much for your support and your prayers! I can’t wait to update you all on what God does!

What’s Coming Up

Even though the semester is winding down, there are still plenty of things happening. Here are two major things that we’re working on, and ways you can join us in praying!

1) Outreach Planning – We’re in the process of developing a large scale evangelistic outreach on campus that we’re scheduling for mid-February. During this outreach we’re going to be asking students on campus to share with us their thoughts and ideas about Jesus and to share with us their thoughts, ideas, and experiences with Christians. The goal of the outreach is to help students confront their biases and misperceptions about Jesus and the Church and to invite them to take a fresh look at Jesus. Pray that God would prepare us to share the Gospel boldly and that He would prepare men and women on campus to come to faith!

2) Leadership Selection – Since my staff partner Jenny is pregnant and will be stepping off campus at the beginning of April and I not going to be serving at USD next year, we’ve had to move up our annual process of inviting students to be a part of our leadership team. Please pray that God gives us wisdom as we develop our leadership structure for next year, and that students would respond to God’s call to be a part of this team!

Sex and Cookies

Sex and Cookies!

That’s right!

Last week our Sorority and Fraternity students (Greek InterVarsity) hosted an outreach that involved serving free cookies and inviting students to sit in on a panel discussion on the topic of Sex and Dating from a Christian perspective. The outreach was a huge success! It was officially the largest Greek InterVarsity event we’ve ever had on campus with over 50 students showing up at some point during the outreach.

Sex and Dating are obviously incredibly significant topics for college students, and this was a great opportunity for us to tell a large group of students about God’s plan for our sexuality and romantic lives!

Please pray for the students that attended the event, that God would stir in them a hunger to learn more about His plan for living; and for us to continue to have good follow up conversations with students that attended the event.

Discernment Update

Ventura County, California

I apologize for the blog silence over the past couple of months! Despite the silence, there have been tons of exciting things going on!

One of the biggest and most exciting pieces of news is that God has led Bekah and I to decide where we’ll be moving and what we’ll be doing. Bekah and I will be co-leading InterVarsity’s planting effort on college campuses in Ventura County.

Ventura County is North of LA and South of Santa Barbara. There are 3 community colleges and 1 four-year university in the county that serve over 41,000 students. With the exception of a small Christian group at the smallest campus, there is currently no ongoing witness to the Gospel on any of these campuses. This is a huge and humbling opportunity to get to play a role in bringing a contextualized witness to the Gospel to a place where there is virtually no ministry happening.

Bekah and I are overwhelmed with enthusiasm at the prospect of getting to serve together in ministry as a married couple in a new place, but I’m also certainly beginning to grieve the losses associated with leaving San Diego – the place I’ve called home for the past 8 1/2 years.

Please pray: for us as we prepare our current campuses for transition as well as prepare for our own personal transition; that God would provide us with housing, a church, and community in Ventura; that God would provide abundantly for our ministry budgets; and that he would give us wisdom and guidance as we seek to develop a planting strategy for Ventura.

If you’d like to pray specifically for the campuses in Ventura County, here they are:

Ventura College
California State University, Channel Islands
Oxnard College
Moorpark College

On a Personal Note…

I'm engaged!

I’m engaged! A week and a half ago I got down on a knee, and asked my girlfriend Bekah to marry me. And she said yes! I obviously can’t express how excited we are to enter this new season of life together.

Bekah is currently also on staff with InterVarsity and serves at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California. I can’t wait to have the opportunity to introduce her to all of you!

We’re going to be getting married late in the Spring, right after the school year ends. Please pray for us as we balance wedding planning, ministry, and enjoying the season of engagement. And please pray for us as we discern together what God has for us in the next season of our lives as a married couple!

The newly engaged couple!

Gaining Momentum!

Wow. The past week two weeks have been a whirlwind! God continues to show up and surprise us. Here are the highlights:

Two Fridays ago, we set up shop with $200 worth of pizza from Dominoes; eager to serve new students and to get into significant conversations. The pizza was gone within a half hour, but we had a fantastic time talking with people and meeting new friends.

Last Monday, we had almost 50 people show up for our first annual InterVarsity Labor Day Beach Day! Again, we had a great time getting to connect with new students and build relationships.

Last Thursday we had our second Large Group meeting. We had 61 students show up and we ran out of chairs! This was our biggest Large Group in 2 years, and it’s rare to see an increase after the first week!

This past weekend we took 6 freshmen to our regional evangelism conference up in Los Angeles. What a fantastic day. These new students are pumped that God is calling them to be spiritual leaders on campus! We’re going to be gathering with them again later this week to invite them onto a freshmen evangelism team.

Overall, I’m blown away by this year’s New Student Outreach season. Our leadership team is doing the best job I’ve ever seen at pursuing good spiritual conversations and follow-up with new students. And this year’s freshman class is the largest, most excited and most missional I’ve encountered in my 9 years at USD. It feels like a huge wave of God’s Spirit is forming on campus and I’m looking forward to surfing it through the year!

New students hanging out at our Ignite Conference

A swarm of new students coming for tasty pizza and good conversation!

Enjoying time together at the Ignite Conference!

God is on the move!

Wow!

Last night’s Large Group exceeded my expectations. We’ve never done a Large Group during the first week of school. We haven’t had a lot of time to publicize and usually most of our contacts come from USD’s Club Fair which is next week.

But, we had over 40 students come last night and there was an energy and excitement among everyone in the room that I’ve not experienced at a Large Group in a long time! My sense from last night is that this year’s incoming class is very unique. We’ve met a ton of Christians who are excited about joining in God’s mission on campus. Our student leaders are feeling encouraged and excited, and there is definitely a lot of momentum building to begin the year.

However, the most exciting part of last night is that many students made significant decisions. We had 3 students indicate that they were making first time decisions to follow Jesus; and 4 students committed to being intentional about investigating God.

It’s so fun and beautiful to be a part of what God is doing! Please pray for us as we continue to meet new students and follow up with the ones we’ve already met. Pray for even more students to come to our Large Group next week, and that more students make decisions to follow Jesus and enter into His mission at USD!

Here we go…

Tonight I am filled with anticipation.

Yesterday we met with our student leaders to kick off the year and we’ve spent the past two nights in the residence halls inviting students to our events. So far we’ve gotten the best response we’ve ever had from doing invites in the residence halls. Tonight, at the first door I knocked on, a freshman guy answered the door. We explained who we were and why we were on campus. His response? “I’ve been waiting for this moment!”

Tomorrow night is our first Large Group meeting, and I’ll be preaching out of Mark 1 and inviting students to consider that God has much greater plans for them then they have for themselves. Please pray that our invitations and publicity bear fruit and that the room tomorrow night is packed. And pray that God’s Spirit would move powerfully tomorrow night and move students to respond to my message!

I can’t wait to let you know what God does!

Welcome!

Dear Friends, Supporters, and Partners in Ministry,

Welcome to the InterVarsity at USD blog! This blog is designed to keep you all updated on what God is doing through the ministry of InterVarsity at USD. You’ll find stories, pictures, prayer requests, and reflections on what’s happening at USD.

Check back for regular updates, and thank you for all of your support! I can’t wait to share about all the amazing things that God does at USD this year!

Matt Meyer