SB#5
21 july 2000



Matthew 5:13-16

Salt and light

and new student outreach



1. Introduction.
Have group members share about what they know about the new student outreach, and more generally, about how to attract and invite non-Christians to the fellowship – whose job is it, how to we do it, etc.


2. Matthew 5:13-16.
Discuss: What does Jesus mean about salt? About light?

What lessons is he teaching us here?

How are we supposed to be salt and light to the world? Why?

How should we as a fellowship or small group be salt and light?


3. Other verses (optional)
Discuss what some of these verses tell us about how to be salt and light to others.


4. the gospel.
Are you familiar with how to share your testimony, share the gospel, or share your faith with others? If not, refer to the ICCF Bible study materials on evangelism from Spring 1999.


5. New student outreach.
Discuss:
How familiar are you with the new student outreach, and year-round outreach?
In what way will you participate?
How do you establish contact with non-Christians, and invite them to our fellowship? How can you do so in a non-threatening way?
For what purpose do we cultivate friendships witn non-Christians? Is our friendship conditional upon them becoming Christians? What if they refuse to believe in Christ?


6. Conclusion.
You should talk about what the fellowship and your language group is planning to do for new student outreach, and even use this time to do further planning with your small group members, in order to get them involved. Get each member (excluding non-Christians who may be there) to get involved and commit to some aspect of new student contact and outreach, both for the official outreach period of September and August, as well as beyond. They should be aware that this is an on-going need throughout the year, involving outreach to friends, new students, and to whomever they have contact with, and that it's not just the job of the evangelistic Bible studies or EBS coworkers.


7. Prayer and sharing.
Pray for the new student outreach, and for each member's commitment and involvement in this work. Here are some specific suggestions1.

    Share Colossians 4:2-6; Use this as a guide to prayer.
  1. Pray for good relationships with the Student Associations - Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong.
  2. Pray that God will bring to our paths people who will be responsive to the Gospel
  3. Pray for God to give us strength as we serve the new students, that we will not have burnout
  4. Pray for unity among ICCFers, so that the devil will not have an opportunity to destroy our witness (John 13.35)
  5. Pray for commitment among ICCFers to help out in new student work - rides from airport, bring them around the university, etc.
  6. Quad Day - for people to help out and be aggressive in contacting people, for follow-up of those who've written down their names
  7. Pray that we will always look to Jesus, so that we will not be discouraged if some people don't respond, or make use of us.
  8. Pray for more coworkers - VP for Mandarin & English groups, BS leaders for Mandarin & Cantonese groups.
  9. Pray for the Missions' Team sharing on 8/19 - Christians and non-Christians will come and learn.
  10. Pray for the dinner for new students in Hong Kong - good planning, turnout and sharing. Some HK Christians already contacted Tsz-Lung about joining ICCF. Thank God!
  11. Pray for pure motives when we befriend the new students and be a witness to them. Pray for 'words seasoned with grace' as we interact with them.
  12. Pray for new student nite cum dinner - people to help out and give rides, etc.
  13. Pray for more students to join the English group. Pray that the flyers that we'll be putting up in the dorms will be effective in drawing the ABCs, etc, here.
  14. Pray for more non-Christians to come, so that they can hear the Gospel. Pray for more young Christians to come, so that they can become discipled and grow. Pray for more mature Christians to come, so that they can serve and be a blessing to us.




8. Notes.
Leader's notes: Pick whatever is relevent from the above items for your Bible study, adding whatever material of your own you feel is relevent and helpful. This should be more like a mini-Bible study / refresher course, plus specific discussion about new student work. Be sure to spend plenty of time on prayer afterwards.


Text notes.

1. Matthew 5:13-16.
v13. salt. Generally in ancient times, salt was used to flavor and preserve food during its storage. The Romans also used it to pay soldiers, but to the Jewish audience here, the preservative and flavoring purposes of salt are most relevant. The salt used in Israel came mostly from the Dead Sea, which was full of impurities, causing it to lose some of its flavor.
v14. city on a hill. E.g., Jerusalem, or other similar cities; this is not only an ideal location for a city in this time and culture, but an obvious location that couldn't be missed.
v15. lamp. Ancient Jewish people used small clay lamps. Part of the lamp rim was pinched together to form a spout on the top. The inside of the lamp contained olive oil, and a wick was placed in the spout into the oil. The wick fed by the oil was burned, much like oil lamps of other cultures. Lamps were often placed on a metal pedestal with a ledge on top to hold the lamp.
bowl. A bowl that held about 8 liters of ground meal or flour.

2. Rev. 3:14-16.
In ancient times and today, Turkey (a.k.a., Anatolia, Asia Minor) is famous for its natural springs and spring baths. In the first century, Laodicea was famous for its textile industry, banking industry, and for its spring baths, as it had many natural springs in the area. People valued hot spring baths, because the hot water with its minerals were considered to have medicinal or healing benefits. But people also valued the cold spring baths for their refreshment. If you sit for a while in a hot spring bath, after a while you will go to the cold bath for refreshment (you can try this in areas with spring baths, like in Turkey or Japan). For a bather, a lukewarm bath would be useless; it would have no curative value or refreshment. Likewise, we Christians are supposed to be a source of healing and blessing to the world. If God is unable to use us for this end (say, e.g., due to our spiritual lukewarmness, sins, unholy lives, prayerlessness, lack of concern, spiritual weakness, etc.), we are useless in the kingdom of God.


1 Thanks to Elbert for these prayer items.