Unity is not about doing the same thing at the same time at the same place. Unity is about having one heart, one purpose, vision & mission. For Student Led Movements (SLM), it's about having the same heart in seeing growing student-led movements in campuses to reach a city, region or country (scope) for Jesus so that:
1. Every student heard the gospel.
2. Every campus has a movement of Christ-centered multiplying disciples.
3. Every nation raises up leaders who multiply from generation to the next and so on.
The bottom line: to help fulfill the Great Commission.
SLM has two strategies to effectively reach a scope:
Base Campus Strategy - one team of about 5 staff or more working full-time on one campus.
Catalytic Campus Strategy- one team of about 5 staff or more working full-time on one city/area/region with about 40 or more campuses.
The purpose is to help fulfill the Great Commission among and through this generation of college students, and raise Christ-centered laborers to continually build movements after graduation by:
1.Developing strong, sustainable movements on most strategic campuses. (Base Strategy)
2.Raising up at least one group of students who are building sustainable movement in every campus. (Catalytic Strategy)
3.Partnering with churches and organizations that also have a strategy of building multiplying movements in campuses.
Our Base & Catalytic strategies were intentionally created so that these two will have their FOCUS on a specific TARGET AREA and yet, complement in reaching a scope rather than to compete. We know in the aforementioned description that these strategies differ only in SCOPE. Base: one campus. Catalytic: One city/region/area.
I am personally encouraged by having witnessed it myself how our Base & Catalytic strategies unite here in the Philippines. This week, as I was going to the Unibelt Area for my Field Ministry, I saw a group of students from University of the Philippines- our Base Campus. I learned from them that, since their school opening was moved to August, they decided to have a week of Hybrid Manila. I later on learned that student leaders from our catalytic campuses like UP Pampanga, UP Manila, UP Tacloban & UST composed the groups in partnership with the Base Campus UP Diliman. Hybrid is a project wherein students commit themselves to help start new campus ministries outside their own campus, trusting the Lord to raise up new laborers in the harvest field through their obedience. They initiated this plan and formed the groups to reach out to the campuses of the unibelt area. Our unibelt area is our Catalytic Campuses area. So how does it go with them everyday? Our student leaders strategize on how to share the gospel and disciple the students on campuses they are assigned to. They meet every morning for prayer, devotion, encouragement & planning. They go to the field in the afternoon. They post updates in their FB Group. Most campuses are restricted with many guards on the look of any activity they could do inside, with the cctv around, but they were so resourceful enough to get inside and get engaged with their fellow students.
Today is their last day of Hybrid Manila. But during these days, they have been transitioning a lot of their contacts to the staff assigned in this area as well as to the student leaders here. It's so encouraging having these students from the Base Campus helping reach other campuses. Good job, UP Diliman, UP Manila, UP Pampanga, UP Tacloban & UST student leaders! Indeed, we are not limited in the four walls of our university. We can do more beyond this as we are led by the Spirit. We can even do it through our church, our family, our neighborhood.
Our Catalytic campuses have been an encouragement to our Base campuses too as students engage with one another on how to increase ownership of their campuses and on how to lead, not depending on staff.
More stories on unity in my next blog.
What is Unibelt?
According to the Wickipedia...
The University Belt (or simply called Unibelt) is the unofficial name of a de facto subdistrict in Manila, Philippines. It refers to the area where there is a high concentration or a cluster of colleges and universities in the city.
The University Belt is commonly understood as the one located, mainly, in San Miguel district. But technically it also includes nearby Sampaloc, Quiapo, and Santa Cruz. Generally, it includes the western end of España Boulevard, Nicanor Reyes St. (formerly Morayta St.), the eastern end of Claro M. Recto Avenue (formerly Azcarraga), Legarda Street, Mendiola Street, and the different side streets. Each of the colleges and universities found here are at a short walking distance of each other.
However, Manila also has other clusters of universities and colleges, such as the one found in the long stretch of Taft Avenue from Ermita through Malate, although not as compact, and another one found inside the walled city of Intramuros, although not as many as the one found in San Miguel.
Nevertheless, the three clusters are close enough together that many consider it as one huge University Belt. All are found within no more than four miles (six kilometers), in an irregular crescent string shape, across seven of the sixteen districts of Manila.
