Coverage 2008 – The Naked I Campaign

This huge Campus-wide campaign I’ve been sharing so much about has finally been LAUNCHED! As we speak, many University campuses in Singapore have started massive distribution of the magazine, Naked I, as the first pre-evangelistic strategy to engage people in talking about love, sex and relationships.

Following that are other multiple media strategies on campuses like lunch time talks on various relevant topics, screening of locally produced short films on related topics, cafe/pub events and even a evangelistic website called everystudent.com which will feature articles on relationships, love, sex and Christianity. All of these are NOT out to make a stand about sex, but more meant to serve as multiple platforms to people to talk and dialogue about relevant life issues and, God willing, share about their spiritual journeys. I am very VERY EXCITED because this is, by far, the most integrated set of ministry strategies that I have ever seen us come up with!

Please pray:
a) for continued favour from authorities to distribute the magazines freely
b) that God prepare the hearts of non-believers we come into contact with
c) for us to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and discern how God wants us to minister to various people as we intentionally interact with non-believers on each of these platforms
d) for divine appointments (both one-on-one and community-level interactions) where people interact at a heart level, feel safe enough to share in their life/spiritual journeys and that people are drawn to Christ in the process
e) for unity within and between various ministries involved in this campaign

Soul2soul in Naked I:

My band, Soul2soul, will be anchoring some of the upcoming Cafe events by playing secular music and sharing a few stories from our personal lives and spiritual journeys. These are meant to be pre-evangelistic, non-threatening events when students can gather, hang out and just talk about whatever the songs or stories trigger in them. There will be a little bit of something for everyone, no matter where they are at in their spiritual journey. In the course of the conversations which take place at the event, some might be talking about relationship issues, some may ask tough questions about how Christianity relate to life issues, some may even be desiring to know what it is to have a personal relationship with Jesus. The beauty of the Cafe idea is all those scenarios can be played out at the same time and all can be ministered to in some way, because the ministering takes place amongst the people there (band included cos we’re going to be mingling with them in between song sets), one-on-one, in those private conversations, rather than just limited to whatever is happening on the platform with the band! How cool is that?! 🙂 This is a pretty new idea that we’re trying out but we’re trusting God to show us how He can use this as a means to drawing more people closer to Himself. 🙂

Our Prep so far:
Soul2soul has been practising since January and our last practice was just yesterday on the eve of Chinese New Year! The face of the band has changed a bit. Some old familiars like Suyin and Jason reprise their roles while we have quite a few fresh faces like Danny, Matt and James. What do I love about this bunch? They work hard, they laugh even harder and they don’t take themselves too seriously! 🙂 Mind you, they are VERY good at what they do so I especially appreciate their hearts of excellence in their God-given craft. And their easy-going natures have been a good foil to my more kan-cheong spirit! 🙂 I think maybe they don’t ‘feel the heat’ yet. 😛

You can check us out at our websites. There’s info on where we will be performing, some profile on each of the members, etc:
http://s2sonline.multiply.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9844621855

Do try and come for our acoustic gig on Feb 27, Wed, 7.45pm at Singapore Arts Cafe, Esplanade! It’s the only performance open to public so it will be a great chance to see what I’ve been sharing about. 🙂 But, FYI, this cannot be too overtly Christian because it’s a public arena.

Given our constraints, our band is prepared as best as we can. 😛 And although the ‘harsh task-master’ in me is concerned that we’re not as prepared as we should be, I’m really praying that God’s grace will cover over our inadequacies and that His Spirit will really move in a powerful way.

This time round, aside from me, there are other members in the band who will be sharing stories from their lives as part of the program. I am incredibly excited about this because I’ve realized that the diversity of our life journeys enables us to minister to a wider spectrum of people. But with more people, comes more coordination (and so more headache!) and I’m sorry to say that I haven’t done a really good job in helping them prepare. 🙁 But even so, I’m praying that somehow God is going to help us pull through and share what needs to be shared. 🙂

Some additional complications are that, although our repertoire of songs are the same for all the gigs,
1) Some cafes are full band and others are acoustic (due to venue constraints) so effectively we almost had DOUBLE the number of songs to prepare!
2) Each Campus potentially has a different sequence of songs and different set of stories from the band because each one has a different focus!
The second complication is actually a happy problem because it is teaching us to learn how to develop the flexibility to flow with the Holy Spirit and serve the needs of our partnering ministries more effectively. But boy, is it a whole lot tougher!

Please pray for:
a) us to be strong in the Spirit so that we will be able to flow with all these different scenarios and walk in step with God as we minister.
b) the skill to play well and draw the audiences in to what we have to share
c) anointing as various ones of us share what God has been doing in our lives so that people will be ministered to and hunger to know Christ more
d) spiritual protection against any evil schemes of the devil
e) God’s presence to really flood every single venue we perform at!

God bless,

Sha
ForeRunner, Music + Mission
A Creative Communications Ministry
Singapore Campus Crusade for Christ
Email: sharonmah@forerunner.org.sg