#65 | Jon Elam & Kent Bailey | Season 5 STRENGTHEN Intro

Season 5 of the Campus Outreach StaffCast will launch in September 2026.

We at Campus Outreach SERVE desire for the StaffCast to encourage, equip, and STRENGTHEN those laboring in God's harvest field, on the campus and beyond.

Season 5 will focus on the Ministry Strengthening Needs that we believe every Campus Outreach location has in this current season: 

• spiritual fervency, 
• evangelism culture, 
• multiplication, 
• contextualized strategy, 
• church alignment, 
• partnering culture, 
• expansion commitments. 

Join us for new episodes every 2-3 weeks during Season 5. 

Music by QubeSounds and Bamboo Corporate

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Would you like to hear more stories like these? Check out our blog, which publishes stories about what God is actively doing through Campus Outreach ministries around the world. Visit serve.campusoutreach.org/blog/

The Campus Outreach StaffCast is a production of Campus Outreach SERVE. The mission of Campus Outreach is to glorify God by building laborers on the campus for the lost world. To learn more, visit www.campusoutreach.org and serve.campusoutreach.org.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:05

We are only days away from season five of the Campus Outreach Staff Cast. This is John Elam, your staff cast host and producer, and with me is Kent Bailey, Executive Director of Campus Outreach Serve. Kent, I know I'm ready for another promising season. You ready to join me?

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Hard to believe that we're in season five, but I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Great, great. Well, Kent, one of the things that you bring to our show is that you have your ear to the ground and interact with so many leaders in the campus outreach movement all over the world. So share with us. What is the context of ministry on the college campus currently? What are we stepping into in this season? What are the needs?

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Yeah, John, I think we're in a really interesting moment where we have a lot of needs and a lot of opportunities. And we can look at that several different ways. We can say, oh, you know, it's really difficult, or oh, it's all great. It's always a mix of those two things. And so in this season, we have talked about how our need is to be strengthened, both individually as staff people, but as teams and ministries of staff particularly to meet those needs and to step into those opportunities. And so I'm excited that here in season five, we're going to focus on what that looks like to be strengthened personally, but also for each of our teams and our ministries to be strengthened. You know, when we talk about it, really it's kind of two elements. I think there's an element of endurance, being strengthened to be able to continue in the ministry.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

But there's also equipping that needs to happen. And that's what we've really focused on over the past few months is trying to identify what are those critical areas in which we need to be strengthened. And so, you know, for me, it's been interesting, and I know we'll talk about this as the season goes along. You know, as the Holy Spirit was inspiring Luke to write the Acts of the Apostles four times when he was giving a general summary of the ministry of Paul, he said he was strengthening either disciples or the hearts of disciples or churches. It's it's listed several different ways, but this idea that we're focusing on strengthening is just a biblical one, and we hope to really build on it during this season.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Well, that's that's very insightful, Ken. I can see clearly how there is a need to strengthen not only the campus outreach teams, but honestly anyone seeking to be a laborer in God's harvest field. And we talked a lot about that, about what it means to be a laborer in season four. So if you haven't listened to the great episodes from season four, there's still time before season five drops in mid-September.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

Yeah, John, I would say that our season four focus was more individual. What are those characteristics of a laborer that are needed to be what the Bible is referring to in terms of being a labor and how to be fruitful in that? I think season five is much more about who are the people that you're laboring with and what are the needs that you have together in order to be most fruitful in the harvest today? So I think it's a good blend, a good uh segue, if you will, from season four to season five.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Now, Kent, focusing on season five, in order to do that, how exactly are we going to dive into our theme? Like what can our listeners expect to hear the season as we double click on this need to strengthen?

SPEAKER_03 3:16

Yeah, we've really focused on seven different areas, and I think they would be applicable if you're ministering on a college campus or if you're seeking to have a ministry in your community anywhere. And so we feel like these seven characteristics or these seven marks are what it means to be strengthened for this season of ministry. And so we talk about seven things: spiritual fervency, having a culture of evangelism, having multiplication really mark the way that you're doing ministry, having contextualized strategies, having alignment with your churches, and that's particularly uh true for in the campus outreach staff, having a partnering culture, and then really having expansion commitments. I think all of those are applicable to campus outreach staff, and most of those would be applicable to anybody who's seeking to have a ministry today. So just the idea of spiritual fervency, that really is, you know, what's the spiritual temperature of our team? Are we ministering out of an overflow of our walk with God? Are we ministering out of our identity in Christ versus, you know, a performance mindset? Evangelism culture, are we normatively engaging with lost people? You know, multiplication, are we constantly thinking about who is it that I'm raising up to do what I'm doing? Just that idea of multiplication. We could go through all seven of them and we'll do that over the course of the season. But really, I think uh we've seen that it really flows out of those first two. If there's not spiritual fervency and there's not a culture of evangelism, then the rest of them are almost meaningless. But when those two things are present, then it almost forces you into the other five. So I think it'll be interesting to see the interplay between those as we develop those over the course of this season.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

That's great. Well, let's preview some of the outstanding content you can expect from season five of the Campus Outreach Staff Cast.

SPEAKER_04 5:13

Spiritual fervency is not spiritual knowledge, it's not having information. Spiritual fervency deals with transformation and being changed and motivated internally. When you're doing spiritual things without that spiritual fuel, you're being disingenuous. And I just think that's what this generation can smell from a mile away is they need to see someone who actually does love the Lord and not want to magnify the name of Camp Satreach, but to see people love God.

SPEAKER_05 5:46

The times together as a team of just praying and opening up our hands and asking God to do something supernatural. I think realizing that our relationship with Christ is everything to us. It's all we have, it's our source of everything we do in ministry.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

That tension is in there, like to go, I want to do a good job in my role. I'm gonna continue to do the things that I'm doing and do it well. And if I'm raising up somebody behind me, I'm putting a timestamp on myself, right? Uh it's usually kind of the the understanding and the the picture. And so there could be a tension and even a desire to fight that off. I guess there's maybe sort of things that we are grappling with all of the time.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

The first is that we believe in partnership. So we believe that it is better for us to do something together than we could on our own. And so therefore, it's a mess worth making. But that is actually so important to keep remembering because when things get difficult, that's when it's very tempting to kind of go our separate ways or just kind of say, Well, we're a partnership, but you know, you do your thing, we'll do our thing, and you know. And effectively, things naturally, I think, when they go difficult, they tend towards being a bit more siloed, they tend towards actually tend towards probably parachurch. It's like you just organize yourselves how you want to organize, and we'll kind of bless you from over here, but actually we're not gonna really truly integrate. So that primary commitment, and actually that is a theological conviction at the end of the day, that the Bible calls us to partnership, that it's that actually partnership matters, that as costly as it may be, we can do more together than we can on our own, and that that is good.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Man, I am excited about that. I'm excited for our guests to join us. I'm excited to dig into this and really just be encouraged and equipped as we are laboring. And so I'm ready. Kent, are you ready?

SPEAKER_03 7:41

I'm ready. I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Whether you are a regular Staff Cast listener or joining us for the first time, join us this season as we encourage, equip, and strengthen those laboring in God's Harvest Field on the campus and beyond. Make sure to follow the Campus At Reach Staff Cast on your favorite podcasting service so you can catch each new episode every three weeks during season five. While you're at it, if you've been encouraged by the Staff Cast, rate our show and comment on how you've been encouraged in order to help others find that same encouragement in the midst of laboring on campuses around the world. The Campus At Reach Staff Cast is a production of Campus Outreach Serve. The mission of Campus Outreach is to glorify God by building labors on the campus for the Lost World. To learn more, visit www.campusoutreach.org.