Text Box: The New Evangelism By Seiichi Ariga (from the Vancouver School of Theology, PERSPECTIVES) Text Box: My ministry is among students and employees of UBC. I spend a lot of time in casual conversations but sometimes in serious therapeutic dialogue, and I am beginning to understand what the message “my grace is sufficient for you” really means. After my arrival on campus, I realized that this was a place in which I could utilize virtually all the gifts I have: my background in science, music, pastoral experience, and even my burnout experience. I could make an immediate connection with international students. Once students discover that I speak German and Japanese as well as English, they flock to me! I openly talk about my faith and how I came to become a minister, but what draws students of all faith backgrounds is the sense of community. Few Have Connection With Church While years ago a good number of UBC students had a connection with the Church, those days are long gone. Today it is rare to find a sizeable number of young people in the church pews, much less a few dozen active United Church students among the 35,000 students on the UBC campus.The majority of students on campus have little or no previous connection to any Church or faith group. In this kind of situation, ecumenical, multi-faith, or even more loosely-defined “spiritual” approaches are more appropriate and effective in ministering to students. Home Away From Home Text Box: Most of the students I’m in contact with live in residence. For them, it’s important to feel cared -for, loved and involved in a community - a home away from home! We as United Church Campus Ministry (UCCM), therefore, offer various programs and opportunities to strengthen community: a weekly dinner and casual discussion, mediative prayer, Bible study, music concerts, art exhibition, film festival, ecology day, Taize retreat and more. We strive to make connections. Through my interaction with students I try to be a positive influence. Happily, I find my story of burnout and subsequent faith journey impacts them deeply. It makes the students think, and challenges them to discover and develop their own spirituality and a stronger sense of social responsibility. I’ve become convinced that making connections is the new evangelism. God’s grace is indeed sufficient for me. I now know even my weakest experience is a gift of God that I can use in my campus ministry today. I have already seen many distressed students regain strength after having heard some of my stories. All I need to do now is to share this gift of God with as many people on campus as possible. (The Rev. Seiich Ariga has been United Church Campus Minister at UBC since August 2000).