ollegiate Impact
igniting hearts, tranforming campuses
A
fter investing eight years
in campus min-istry,
God surprised me and the staff I wasworking with at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. On a Friday evening, while listening to thetestimonies of two visiting students from a nearbyChristian college, God revealed himself in His holi-ness and suddenly many of us found ourselvesbroken over the sin lurking beneath the surfaceand repenting publicly.Before the evening was over, everything—oftenin tears—was brought into the light: anger, bitter-ness, pride, hatred, self-image issues, deception,stealing, spiritual coldness, and a wide range of sexual sins. Since the vast majority of people inattendance had never experienced anything likethis before, they were somewhat bewildered andhad lots of questions . . . including me.Since that gathering, I have had the opportunityto take part in many similar meetings where Godhas powerfully manifested his presence, bringing students from bondage and spiritual dullness intofreedom, joy, and fruitfulness. In each situation,God accomplished a modern-day version of Johnthe Baptist’s ministry of calling people to repen-tance to prepare the way of the Lord. Undeniably, inmany, if not all of these gatherings, many studentswalked away with a fresh encounter with Christ, and“streams of living water” was no longer just a bibli-cal concept but had become a reality.The following summarizes what God has taughtme over the years in regards to these kinds of meet-ings and what I wish someone had shared with mefollowing that initial life-changing evening at theUniversity of Wisconsin.
suddenly
many of us found ourselves broken over the sinlurking beneath the surface and
repenting publicly
.
Dave Warn
Director of Collegiant Impact
Be ready to explain God’s purposes in public confession
Many will likely ask, “Why is all that is going on so public? I’ve always been taught to confessmy sin privately.” Even so, the power of sin is in itssecrecy. Once a person’s disposition of concealmentis broken, the Spirit’s power can once again do atransforming work.
More specically, even though private prayer
with confession has a key role in the Christianlife, too often sin’s hold is not broken because wecontinue to coddle it at some conscious or subcon-scious level. Instead of the abundant life that Jesuspromised His followers, the result is defeat.But in public confession, very few confess theirwaywardness unless they have a sincere desire toturn, burn bridges, and close the door once and forall. People feel the weight of the issue at hand and,for the most part, playing games with God is over.Another byproduct of public confession is thatmasks come off, real needs are shared, and thebody of Christ at last becomes what God intended itto be. Like never before, students will pray for eachother, encourage each other, and navigate God’swill together.Perhaps this why James urges believers to“confess your sins to one another, that you may behealed” (James 5:16). Through public confession,spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational healing is waiting for us.Often, the real issue is not the sin that needs tobe confessed publicly, but the pride that needs to beslayed so that we will obey the Spirit’s promptings tobe transparent. In other words, fundamentally Goduses public confession to humble us.
the bodyof Christ at last becomes what God intended it to be.
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