×
Editors’ note: 

The weekly TGCvocations column asks practitioners about their jobs and how they integrate their faith and work. Interviews are conducted and condensed by Bethany L. Jenkins, director of TGC’s Every Square Inch.

MattFranciscoMatt Francisco is the campus director of Campus Outreach (CO) at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, where he works to build Christ-like leaders through evangelism and discipleship. He grew up in Marietta, Georgia, and graduated from Samford, where he met his wife, Erin. They have a daughter, Sarah, and a child on the way in December.

How did you come to do this work?

When I was a student at Samford, I saw several of my friends who were uninterested in spiritual things come to faith in Christ through the work of CO. At the same time, I was trying to grow and share my own faith in my fraternity, but I was disheartened by the lack of fruit I saw. I started to get involved with CO in part to grow in evangelism, and eventually I came on staff because I saw how much I personally needed to grow as a godly man and as a leader. Also, I was excited by their mission to equip laborers for the lost world—-for ministry and the marketplace.

Why did you decide to work with college students?

College is a pivotal time. In many ways, students’ time in college sets the trajectory for the rest of their lives. During college, students are making important decisions, discovering who they are, and asking big questions about purpose, meaning, reality, and significance. It is also a time when community is usually engaging and accessible. A relationship that might take two years to develop in a marketplace or neighborhood might only take two weeks on a college campus.

What are your fears for college students today?

My fear is that, in general, students don’t know how to be still before the Lord, wrestle with Scripture, and struggle with God in prayer because they’re addicted to amusement and cannot disengage from technology. I’m also troubled that, when most students talk about figuring out God’s will, they really mean wanting some sort of sign—-total inner peace, writing in the sky—-instead of becoming a person who knows, pursues, and reflects God. I fear they’ll drift through life and be unable to say that they “ran the race” to win, simply because they didn’t take the time to consider what it would mean to do so.

How do you speak into and heal this brokenness?

These students—-like the rest of us—-want to be a part of something greater than themselves. They want to know the why of their lives so that they can endure almost any how. So at Campus Outreach, we talk about God’s grand, beautiful, and glorious plan of redemption. In relationship, we wrestle through how our individual lives—-academics, relationships, extracurriculars, careers—-are a part of that grander narrative. In my work, I’ve been more focused on helping students understand eschatology than I anticipated because it’s a big part of the why. I want these students to catch God’s heart of reconciliation until they’re overwhelmed.

You are successful at your job if . . . what?

CO’s mission statement is, “Glorifying God by Building Laborers on the Campus for the Lost World.” As I work toward this goal, I pray that my students would be bold, broken-hearted servants wherever they go and whatever they do—-bold in confessing their sin and sharing the gospel, and broken for the world. I’m successful if they graduate knowing that their joy is found in seeking God’s glory and in loving others as Christ has loved them. Whether they’re working as accountants, pastors, or nurses, I long for them to embody passages like Jeremiah 29, Philippians 2, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel—-passages that show deep humility and bold cultural engagement.

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.
To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

Podcasts

LOAD MORE
Loading