Sunday, September 10, 2006

Not a coke but a Coke Machine



Many years ago I heard that Robert Goizueta (former CEO of Coca Cola) once told his shareholders that it was his desire to put a Coke within reach of every thirsty person in the world because he knew that about 5.5 billion people in the world wake up thirsty each day. Why not give them a refreshing Coca Cola?

In a compelling way I heard, we know that about 6 billion people of the world wake up spiritually thirsty each day looking for love, significance, truth all found in the person of Jesus. Why don't we just give them Jesus within arms reach so they can quench that thirst? That became a great visionary picture of what we want to do as Campus Crusade for Christ. Let's get the Gospel within arms reach to each and every person in the world.

I have thought about this statement a lot in the past 10 years. How do we do that. Well churches, organizations, mission agencies have been thinking about this and have many different solutions. I think for years we have talked about just getting everyone a coke product so they can quench their thirst.

Now that I'm in Mexico City this vision again has surfaced. How can we get a coke product (the Gospel) within arms reach of the 1,000,000 students on over 300 campuses? To be honest, if our goal is just to get the Gospel to them we could probably with about $300,000 do this by December of 2006. Our goal is not just to give them a coke to drink. We don't just want to expose them to the Gospel. We could do that by dropping Gospel tracks or Gospel videos on each campus and make sure that leach student reads the Gospel. That vision is too small, too easy, too attainable.

Our dream is to make sure that each and every student, on every big and small campus, knows where a coke machine is so they can go back over and over again to drink a coke. We want to make sure that each and every student, in each and every faculty (department) on every campus in the city knows where a Missional Christ-centered community is so they can hear about Jesus, learn about Him, know Him, grow with Him and share Him with others. That is ongoing life changing, campus changing, city changing, country changing, world changing.

Not just a coke but a coke machine.

Pray with us that each and every student, on every campus, in the city and beyond has within arms reach a Missional Christ-centered community so they can know and follow Jesus.

That will require new thinking. That will require thousands of student leaders reaching their campuses, praying for the lost, organizing their own groups, sharing with their friends and experiencing the mission and presence of Christ.

That is what we're all about. Join us! Pray with us! Come down and take a campus.

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