He held the metallic gold baton out to the seated students.
“Who’s going to take this?” Marty Brown asked.
He paused, waiting, in the awkward silence, as the University of Montana students glanced at each other, wondering if the question was rhetorical.
“Who is going to take this?” He asked again, looking directly at each student. The question hung in the air.
Tyler, a UM student, sat on the front row, only feet from Brown and the proffered baton. He hesitated.
Alright, someone, he thought. Who’s going to go up and grab it?
Tyler had been raised in a Christian family, but he’d truly given his heart and life to Jesus at Cru Conference. Then, he’d gone on a Cru Summer Mission to South Lake Tahoe, where he’d learned to share his faith and how to walk in the Spirit.
Now at the UM Cru fall retreat, God had used Brown’s messages this weekend to call him to a deeper commitment. This morning – the last session – Brown invited seven students to the front as a physical illustration for his story.
Years ago, Brown shared the gospel with one man on campus. That man shared with another, and he, in turn, another. All the way down the line, until the sixth man had shared with the last. And now, that last man was married to his daughter and on staff with Cru.
A chain of seven men – represented by those students.
Tyler could feel God touching his heart as he realized how far the fruit of just sharing the gospel with one friend can go.
Our labor isn’t in vain, he thought.
Then, Brown sent the students back to their seats held out the baton.
“Who is going to take this?” He asked for a third time.
Tyler pushed to his feet. In that moment, he knew there was no way he couldn’t take it. God wasn’t going to let him not stand up and take it.
Three invitations. Just as Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him in John 21. He, like Peter had often misstepped, or failed to follow Jesus’ call.
But now Jesus was inviting him, like Peter, to join in His mission.
After Tyler took the baton, Brown concluded with a charge to all the students.
“The reason we are talking about Jesus today is because people like us have been following him for 2,000 years,” Brown said. “It’s a historic faith that people can’t stop talking about. You must be the ones who carry the baton for this generation.”
