Leah Stewart's first choice was to be on campus with her students at Sacramento State and Cosumnes River College. During the disruption, Leah has grappled with the bundle of emotions that come when we don't get our first choice. Together with her leaders, Leah came up with innovative ideas to stay connected that may radically reshape the way we minister. Listen to her story.
LINKS:
We've created a website full of resources to help you with Ministering Digitally Through COVID-19: intervarsity.org/online. And we've recently added a training by Jamie Ladipo on Online Leaders' Gatherings.
During the interview, Leah mentions the book Longing for Revival by James Choung and Ryan Pfeiffer (click here to purchase). In this book, Choung and Pfeiffer show how the journey toward revival often includes discontent and crisis before we experience breakthrough.
Leah Stewart's first choice was to be on campus with her students at Sacramento State and Cosumnes River College. During the disruption, Leah has grappled with the bundle of emotions that come when we don't get our first choice. Together with her leaders, Leah came up with innovative ideas to stay connected that may radically reshape the way we minister. Listen to her story.
LINKS:
We've created a website full of resources to help you with Ministering Digitally Through COVID-19: intervarsity.org/online. And we've recently added a training by Jamie Ladipo on Online Leaders' Gatherings.
During the interview, Leah mentions the book Longing for Revival by James Choung and Ryan Pfeiffer (click here to purchase). In this book, Choung and Pfeiffer show how the journey toward revival often includes discontent and crisis before we experience breakthrough.
Steve Tamayo: 0:02
Leah. Would it be okay with you if we prayed for you for just a minute?
Leah Stewart: 0:06
Yeah, I'd love that.
Steve Tamayo: 0:07
Jesus, Thank you so much for the students that you've given Leah the opportunities that you've given her. The insights, the energy, the passion. Lord, we ask that you would take this interview and that you would use it well for your kingdom's sake. We pray this in your name. Jesus. Amen.
Leah Stewart: 0:24
Amen.
Leah Stewart: 0:34
Our guest on the podcast today is an InterVarsity. Campus staff minister. She has been on staff with InterVarsity for five years. She's based in Sacramento. And in addition to all of that, she is a tennis coach. A volunteer women's tennis coach at a community college. She's done this to gain access to not only the community college, but the lives of these students. And she's using it to great effect. Welcome to the podcast, Leah Stewart.
Leah Stewart: 1:00
Thank you. I'm super excited to be here today. When I received the notice that we would be going off campus as a ministry and honoring what the campuses in colleges were asking us to do, my first response was like all the students who I wouldn't be able to reach anymore. So sat, prayed. And then our city leaders, staff team, myself, we came up with some different things we can do. And one of them being doing Hebrew lessons with our students. We're bringing in a seminary student, to theology discussion questions, to ministry people bringing in like, what are different ministries they can do. And so we're trying to use the resources we have and the new amount of time students have because I'm not driving around and they're kind of just stuck there in their apartments.
Steve Tamayo: 1:52
So it's almost like office hours, like daily kind of 4:00 to 4:30 show up, you're gonna be available, something's gonna be available. It's like a space for connection and a space for content.
Leah Stewart: 2:04
Yeah, we're calling like "Speed Dial Seminary". Where we're just letting students get a little taste of it and still learning how to think in trying to build on the values we still want students to have and be gaining during our ministry.
Steve Tamayo: 2:18
And is that for your entire chapter? Or is this just for your student leaders or faculty leaders?
Leah Stewart: 2:24
Yeah, this is for our entire chapter. I'm on staff at Sac State and planting a ministry and Cosumnes River College. And so all the students are being invited to this time and so trying to connect with as many of our students as we can.
Steve Tamayo: 2:39
And are you doing anything special for your student leaders?
Leah Stewart: 2:43
We are currently training them how to lead Bible studies via Zoom and helping them with sources with that.
Steve Tamayo: 2:51
And how are you connecting these students to each other? So they're connecting with you. They're connecting with, you know, the Hebrew professor or the ministry trainer. But how are they connecting with each other?
Leah Stewart: 3:01
Yeah, we've been using the app called Slack the last two years, and so it used to be just something we used with our leaders. But this year we have opened it up for all of our students. And so this is a way we've been communicating with them throughout the school year, as well as using Instagram to making sure like they're up to date with, like, the stories and the posts so they know what they need to know.
Steve Tamayo: 3:26
It sounds a little bit like one thing God has been doing is that two years ago he started preparing you for this moment. You know, in terms of getting the technology in place and just getting your heart in a place where you're like, I'm willing to communicate with students via Slack and to have them communicate with each other in these new technological ways. Like, like he's been preparing the ground for you.
Leah Stewart: 3:45
Yeah, I think definitely. There have been things we've been starting to put in place just because we live in an internet generation. We're still able to connect with. Students were still able to do some form of ministry, even though it's not in person.
Steve Tamayo: 4:00
Does it feel a little bit like God did that for? You know, not Not that, Like Zoom did that for you or Facebook did that for you or Instagram did that for you. But like God did that for you, that he's gonna prepared away.
Leah Stewart: 4:10
Yeah, because my biggest heart is reaching students who don't know Jesus. And I still have some ways to connect with them. Even yesterday we got a bunch of our like, kind of fringe students who don't totally get a Bible study, we got them on Zoom and started playing games. So, like we could still be talking to each other while drawing. And it was like just a fun time and like, oh, yeah, God is still showing ways for us to do ministry, even though it's not my first choice. It is a way.
Steve Tamayo: 4:38
Yeah, I mean, a lot of times in ministry, we don't get our first choice. You know, like like I don't think Peter got his first choice in ministry. He's like, "My first choice is walking on the water'" and then he gets sunk under the water. I have to imagine that for Peter, that moment, where Jesus reaches down and lifts him back up is a moment that he remembered for the rest of his life. It's this moment of "I was sinking, I was drowning. I was overwhelmed. I called out to him and he was there for me."
Leah Stewart: 5:02
Yeah, it's been interesting because as like a citywide staff team, we've been reading the book of Longing for Revival Together.
Steve Tamayo: 5:10
Great book. Available anywhere books are sold. Amazon will delivered to your house. It was written by James Chung. Ryan Pfeiffer. We will put a link to it in the show notes. Go ahead. Sorry.
Leah Stewart: 5:19
Yeah, And so we're even talking like, what is this crucified hope? And I have all these hopes of like, I want this ministry to look this way, especially on the campus we're planting at. And when I first got the email of like, "Hey, look, we're coming off campus." I thought of my atheist student who we had just been having conversations with who had just chosen like, "Oh, I want to be a part of this group." I was thinking about a couple of students that I coach tennis to at this college and was like, I'm just starting to have breakthrough conversations. And I had this moment with Jesus, and I was like, I desperately need them to know your good news. And right now I don't have all the ability to do it. And the word Jesus gave me was like, I care about these students significantly more than you do and I will figure out how to do this.
Steve Tamayo: 6:07
Just to kind of build on that. Would it be fair to say that you don't want them to just be a part of the InterVarsity community, but that beyond that, you want them to connect with God himself?
Leah Stewart: 6:17
Right. And it really shows, especially at a community college, InterVarsity is there for two years. But I want them to know the goodness of Jesus for the rest of their lives.
Steve Tamayo: 6:25
Talk to me a little bit about that. So I used to be a community college staff. I was an area director in South Florida, and we had community college ministry that we were starting and you'd percolated and it would collapse. And we get frustrated and we'd pray and we'd prayer walk and we do outreach. It would come back to life and collapse again. How do you navigate that emotional context in an online space of this? This sense, this feeling of this could be taken from me.
Leah Stewart: 6:54
Yeah, I think one of the things we think of when we do community college ministry is we don't get the four years. So in some ways there's already there's, like preparations like oh, yeah, our students might not be here next week. We really have new students coming every semester, and our core students are no longer core students. And so when you go Zoom, we don't have to deal with students having to be on campus.
Steve Tamayo: 7:19
This could radically reshape the way we do ministry, and it might mean that some of these community college ministries survive instead of popping up and then crashing. I had not thought about this. I've been thinking a lot about how the pandemic, how this this ministry through disruption, is going to change us. But I'd not thought about that. That particular thing. Leah, That's a fantastic insight. You need to share that with people. You should get on a podcast or something.
Leah Stewart: 7:45
Yeah, yeah, I think right, there's just something about we can't control what our country is telling us we can and can't do. But we can continue moving forward and finding ways to do ministry even with what we don't have.
Steve Tamayo: 8:03
There's the story in the Gospels, where Jesus asks his disciples, they're facing a hungry crowd, and he asked them, "Why don't you feed them?" And they come forward with some loaves and some fish, and it's certainly not enough to feed the crowd. And in Jesus's hands, it's enough. Maybe that's what this moment is for us. Leah, Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. Before we go, let me just ask you. Is there anything that I haven't asked you about? That you're like, please ask me about this.
Leah Stewart: 8:32
Yeah, I think something we're seeing, like they're actually itching for a real relationship because they're in isolation and realizing, like, how limited being Instagram followers are. And so we're seeing even students like actually, building relationships who are like, starting to feel that itch of like, Oh, like I accept of conversations with people because I can't just sit there and be on Instagram while sitting next to them. Deep relationships happen. Things all we have are words right now.
Steve Tamayo: 9:00
That is very profound. Thank you, Leah. My pleasure. If hearing Leah's stories has been inspiring for you, making you want to gather students and faculty together to seek God together, we have a training that we think will be very helpful for you. Jamie Ladipo created it for us. It's available at intervarsity.org/online. We would love for you to get a hold of it for you to gather your students, to seek God together, to get connected and to get creative. Thanks for listening.