STANFORD MINISTRY NEWSLETTER From Jim Black

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are many parts of this work that are effective: leading, teaching, directing, etc. However, in my estimation, nothing compares to one-on-one discipleship for deepest Kingdom impact.

Over the course of my years at Stanford, one-on-one discipleship has formed the core of my ministry. For me, this looks like weekly, hour-long meetings with Stanford students, often at Jimmy V's Sports Cafe, where we talk about life, pray, and usually study the Book of Romans in a deep and thoughtful way. On average, I meet with 15 students a week, representing Stanford football, soccer, wrestling, crew, swimming, baseball, volleyball, gymnastics, and track teams. After nearly 12 years combined at Columbia and Stanford, it's a joy to have former students serving Jesus all over the world, in finance, engineering, education, tech, the arts, the NFL, medicine, etc. What a joy to see intentional mentoring produce this Kingdom fruit.

There is a great heritage for this type of work at Stanford. One of my dearest mentors, Jim Stump, served Stanford students in this way for 45 years! Jim wrote a wonderful book on this topic, "The Power of One-on-One", which details his ministry and experiences at Stanford from 1970 to 2015. Like Laurie and I, Jim is a Wheaton College grad, and his legacy at Stanford is profound; thousands of Stanford athletes were impacted by Jim's ministry over the years. Check out some thoughts from Jim on page 4!

Please pray for great fruitfulness in this mentoring ministry!

HOWHAVEYOUGROWNASACHRISTIANATSTANFORD?

Before transferring to Stanford, I worked with a local church/churchplanting organization in Southern California called Genesis Collective as an intern, community leader, and musician. I think the Lord worked to shield me by timing my college journey. I was able to skip much of the nonsense of underclassman social life by coming into the school as an older student, volleyball player, and Christian. I only began walking with FCA in my senior fall (because of the pandemic), leading worship for the group.

Being in this position has taught me much about servant leadership throughout the many different stories and narratives from across my two years with the program. The Lord has continually softened my heart and healed my own wounds as I’ve learned to lead from behind a guitar, play for him in a high-level athletic program, love friends in truth and grace, and allow him to shine through my life.

Many of these lessons have been shared, prayed through, cried over, and celebrated with Jim. FCA has shown me that this story is not about me, in the best way. It is about Jesus, the gospel, and the beauty of reconciliation. For me, much of the FCA story (and my own walk for that matter) has, in a contemporary university context, been Ephesians 2: 8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Since arriving on campus, I have drawn nearer to the Lord and he has refined me through triumph and tragedy, joy and sorrow, in every way working things for good.

Birthplace: Pretoria, South Africa

Hometown: Huntington Beach, CA

Bachelor's Degree: Political Science

Current Stanford graduate student: Department of Communications

Stanford Volleyball hitter & setter

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE LORD IS CALLING YOU TOWARD AND HOW DO YOU THINK FAITH IN CHRIST WILL IMPACT THAT CALLING?

I laughed as I read this question. In complete honesty, this has been quite the Jonah question for me. This year, I was ready to settle with my two Stanford degrees and move to either Southern California or Tennessee and start a life, working in business (or fire fighting like my uncles), leading in local church movements (based on the picture of the Church in Acts 2:46), and starting a family. However, I feel like the Lord may be calling me to Law. I do not know how this story may unfold, where it may land me, or if it will even work; however, I know the Lord keeps placing this path before me. I believe my call is to be an advocate for the unspoken. I still have no idea what this will look like moving forward. But I know if this is the Lord’s call on my life, there is nothing that will stop it. I humbly ask for prayerful and faithfilled support from those who may read this. I want to be completely in-step with the Lord and attentive to his voice, particularly in this career-altering decision. I am asking for clarity, provision, and daily direction.

Praise Prayer

PraiseGodforastrongtransitionfromWintertoSpringquarters.Inmanyways,Winterquarteristhe mostchallengingseasonforstudentshere;theLordwasfaithfultomeetstudentsduringthattime. AndweareexcitedaboutalltheLordhasforusthisSpringquarter.

PraiseGodforcontinualopendoorsandfavorintheathleticdepartmentI'mregularlyamazedatthe opportunitiesIhavetoserveasanambassadorforJesushereatStanford.

PraiseGodforbringingFrancisChantospeakatourMondaygathering.Wellover100studentswerein attendance(arecordforus)andwerechallengedandencouragedintheirwalkwithJesus

Praywithusforthebeginningofourstudentleadershiptransition.Ouroutgoingleadershaveserved theLordfaithfullyhereatStanford.

PleasepraythattheLordwouldraiseupavibrantstudentleadershipteamfornextyear!

Pleasepray-we'dlovetoseemanystudentscometoknowJesusastheirSaviorandLord.

JB: Jim, can you share who you are, when you were at Stanford and what you did there?

My name is Jim Stump. I graduated from Wheaton College where I played 4 sports. Upon graduation I became the European Director of Athletes in Action, living just outside London for two years and meeting with the European Olympic Committees setting up the AIA program.

I came to Stanford in 1970, and for the next 45 years I mentored the athletes there before moving to the Dallas area to be near our 9 grandchildren. As it turned out, athletes from these three teams – Football, Baseball and Tennisseemed most responsive to meeting with me through the years, though I never turned anyone away.

JB: What was your philosophy of ministry at Stanford? How did you decide on that and how did you see it being used by the Lord here?

If I could put it into one phrase it would be, “It’s all about Jesus!” Doctrine and theology come up in discussions as we open up the Scriptures, but that is not the focus.

I also spent a good share of time answering questions they had. That was a priority! I wanted them to know WHY they believed what they believed, so that when their faith was challenged, as it inevitably would be, they would have well-reasoned answers.

I never gave assignments and did my best to love them unconditionally, never judging them, and being authentic about mistakes I had made. My only request was that they show up each week with their Bible for our hour together unless they let me know ahead of time that they had a conflict.

Click HERE to read the rest of Jim Stump's interview.