80% of the world’s evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Over the last 50 years, God’s church has grown exponentially in these areas.

These regions have tremendous mission sending potential to help bring the gospel to unreached peoples, but they currently send only 20% of the world’s cross-cultural missionaries!

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This infographic provides a visual score for seven data points ranked on a 0 to 100 scale. Faded icons show scores for other countries on the mobilization index. See below for actual scores and country-specific insights.

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Since Bill spoke those words decades ago, that quote has become a rallying cry for campus laborers everywhere. It all boils down to this; the college campus is the most strategic mission field in the world. Why? There are millions of students coming and going every year on college campuses. If they were to be reached with the Gospel, equipped, and then mobilized on campus, they would carry that DNA with them wherever they end up after college. These students will all naturally be scattered across the country and world, working in hundreds of different professions. What an opportunity for kingdom expansion through Gen Z and then Gen Alpha!
This is exactly the opportunity I Am Second hopes to seize with its Team Second program. Launched in 2020 for college athletes, Team Second consists of over 35 collegiate athletes playing 11 different sports on more than 25 campuses. Leveraging the new NCAA rules for Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), they sign yearly contracts to be brand ambassadors for I Am Second, and more importantly, ambassadors for Christ using their sports platforms and social media accounts for the gospel. Part of the requirements for each athlete is to attend the Team Second Summit, a strategic evangelism and discipleship training each May.&nbsp;
I am blessed to serve as the Collegiate Strategy Coordinator for&nbsp;I Am Second and have witnessed amazing stories of God at work through these Team Second students. Here are a few things we are learning to empower and equip athletes to share with their teammates:

An <a href="https://www.viastudents.org/students/resources/oikos-mapping-tool" rel="follow">Oikos Map</a> is a map of people within a believer&rsquo;s sphere of influence who are far from God as well as those within the initial people&rsquo;s spheres of influence who are also far from God. It helps believers understand the potential multiplication impact those people could have on others, and it helps them pray intentionally for those people and for opportunities to share the Gospel.
At one Team Second Summit, we trained a college soccer player named Abigail to create an <a href="https://www.viastudents.org/students/resources/oikos-mapping-tool" rel="follow">Oikos Map</a>. The first name she wrote on her map was that of her friend, Emma, a soccer teammate and roommate who was not a follower of Jesus.

3 Circles Gospel Presentation

The <a href="https://www.viastudents.org/students/resources/3-circles" rel="follow">3 Circles method</a> is a tool for communicating the gospel using a visual diagram of three circles to explain God's design, our brokenness, and the good news of Jesus. The <a href="https://www.viastudents.org/students/resources/3-circles" rel="follow">3 Circles method </a>is simple and highly reproducible for those seeking to train others in sharing the gospel.
At the Team Second Summit, after Abigail had prayed for her lost friend Emma and others, she learned how to share the Gospel using the <a href="https://www.viastudents.org/students/resources/3-circles" rel="follow">3 Circles method</a>. Upon leaving the summit, Abigail felt she had the confidence and a plan to begin evangelizing her team and campus. Once back at college, Abigail boldly shared the gospel with her friend Emma, who then surrendered her life to Jesus!&nbsp;

Further Training and Equipping for the Next Generation

When we train our Team Second athletes how to create an Oikos Map and use the 3 Circles method to share the gospel, we don&rsquo;t just stop there. We also train them how to disciple people who accept Jesus as their Savior and teach those people how to reach more people for Christ.
After Emma accepted Christ, she and Abigail began a discipleship relationship during their soccer season, and Emma began to grow in obedience and in knowledge. Fast forward a few months&ndash;Abigail, Emma, and a few other friends traveled over an hour to another campus to attend an&nbsp;I Am Second training, where they learned the same tools and principles Abigail had learned the summer before. At this training, Abigail was part of the training team and led other student-athletes in simple and reproducible tools for evangelism. Emma was so fired up about what God was doing that she decided to apply to be a Team Second athlete. During the next Team Second Summit, Emma stood in front of 30 other college athletes and led the &ldquo;Who Do We Make Disciples Of&rdquo; portion of the training. In less than one year, Emma went from being lost to an emerging leader. She is now thriving in her walk with Christ, serving as a captain on her soccer team, and co-leading a team discipleship group with Abigail.

Be like Abigail, or find yourself an Abigail, and you just might find an Emma. Two girls at a small, Division 3 college in Minnesota are using their sports platform for God&rsquo;s kingdom. They are both faithful, available, and teachable, which allows them to reproduce more disciples. And people are noticing what God is doing through them.
It is important to have an integrated process for entry, evangelism, discipleship, church formation, and leadership development in our ministry contexts. Of course, none of this is accomplished without the work of the Holy Spirit. As he leads, we should obediently follow, and just maybe, evangelism and discipleship will lead to missions mobilization. From the campus to the world! Let&rsquo;s go!

Equip Student-Athletes to Reach Their Teammates

Corey Spinks

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