What Being a College Admissions Counselor Taught Me About Effective Evangelism

I love my job. No, it’s not a job that will ever make me rich, and I highly doubt that it is a job I will do for the rest of my life, but I honestly love it anyway. You see, I am an admissions counselor at Bryan College, a small Christian College just north of Chattanooga, Tennessee. I spend my days recruiting and helping high schoolers walk through the intimidating application process and hopefully convincing them that Bryan College is the place they want to attend for the next four years of their lives.  I love my job because I get to persuade people to attend the school where I spent the four best and most formative years of my life, and hopefully the place where they will have the same experience.

Now I have only been an admissions counselor for about three months, but I didn’t have the job long before I realized that the desire I have to tell others about Bryan College and what an incredible place it was for me and my family (my parents are also BC Grads), is exactly like what our desire to share the gospel should be. The more I meditated on that thought, the more I realized how many lessons I was inadvertently learning about effective evangelism just from being an admissions counselor!

My job is to persuade as many students as I can that Bryan College is the best place for them to spend their undergrad education. Our job as Christians is detailed in the Great Commission, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15, NIV). We are supposed to spread the gospel (literally the good news), to all the world!

Just as in college admissions, some methods of evangelism are more effective than others.  As I have mulled over this parallel for a few months, I have managed to glean a few helpful tips for more effective evangelism that I would like to share with you below.

A Spammy Tale Part 3

There are few things that are certain in this world, but rest assured, the sun will always rise, there will always be death, taxes will always be too high, and criminals will do anything in their power to scam you out of your money.  Usually I'm only thankful that the sun rises, but this morning I found myself quite thankful for criminals trying to scam me out of my money when I received yet another response from our favorite Sgt. Amy Raymond.

A Spammy Tale Parts 1 & 2

We have all received our fair share of spam emails...you know, those emails you rarely read because, like the rest of normal human beings, you don't give a rip what "Russian Girls are interested in you"? Until this summer, I was just like you and never bothered with my spam box, however I recently watched a number of hilarious videos by James Veitch, a British comedian who began responding to some of the more amusing spam emails. (If you haven't seen any of these videos, here is a link to my personal favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N682eopajzA)

Ever since I watched these videos, I have anxiously checked my spam box for an email I could have a little fun responding to. Finally, the long awaited email arrived.  The following interactions happened.

You Are Here

We are all familiar with the big red arrow containing the words “You Are Here” which can be found on maps everywhere.  Whether you are wandering a theme park looking for a particular roller coaster, hiking a trail in search of your car, or simply searching for that “cute little shop” at the mall, there is something comforting about seeing those three words printed across an oversized, upright map.  Everyone from Pocahontas to my directionally challenged mother is able to take one quick glance at the map and see exactly where they are in relation to their surroundings.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have one of those arrows for life?  Whenever you felt lost, you could simply saunter over to the nearest map and see exactly where you are in life and where you need to go to get to your destination. Should I accept that job or not? Should I marry that girl? Should I eat a second piece of pie or not? (Hint: The answer to that last one is always yes.)  Life would be so much simpler with a road map.

Dancing in the Light of the Ghost Lamp

If you ever visit a theatre late at night, you will more than likely see an eerie blue glow shining through the darkness of the stage.  This haunting blue beacon is what we in the theatrical world, call a ghost lamp.

As you can imagine, there are a few different stories explaining the purpose of this light.  The explanations range from the paranormal to the practical.  Some say that the lone light bulb is to light the paths of ghosts as they mill about in the darkness, while the more practical (and true) explanation is that the lamp is to mark the edge of the stage so that someone doesn’t break their foot or neck in the darkness.  (Actors may want you to tell them to “break a leg” before a show, but directors would rather avoid the mess of a lawsuit from someone actually doing so.)

The last ghost lamp of my college career now shines on the stage of Rudd Auditorium.  In just under a week, the Hilltop Players will open Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma, and I will have the privilege of taking the stage three more times as I play the role of Curly. 

It hasn’t quite hit me yet that this is my last time. I’m not sure when it will.  But the truth is that regardless of when the truth sinks in, the orchestra will sound their last note and the red curtain will close one final time.