The Send, an event hosted by campus ministries and YWAM Circuit Riders Friday and Saturday, will be an event to help students to understand how to share the gospel with confidence. An estimated 300 students are expected to attend the event, which will be taking place in Mayers Auditorium, senior intercultural studies major Allison Smith said. There will be worship, prayer and ways to practice evangelism.

“If Biola truly felt the way Jesus does for people who don't know Him we would see thousands of souls be saved and this city transformed by the power of God!” senior journalism major Jamie Corder, coordinator of The Send, wrote in an email.

Born out of the desire to understand evangelism

Corder, Smith, and alumna Rebekah Peace began planning The Send in the middle of September after a trip in August to Kansas City to finish the School of the Circuit Riders which was being held at the International House of Prayer. Smith and her companions wanted the students at Biola to be able to understand what evangelism looks like and to be able to evangelize without being afraid, she said. They prayed for laborers to be sent out and God burned Smith’s heart for Biola to be sent out.

“We are a forerunner school where we can preach the gospel, and so I just began praying for missionaries to be sent out of Biola and for people to live this lifestyle daily,” Smith said.

Corder spent two weeks at a school in London with the group Circuit Riders, which is a ministry from YWAM. The Circuit Riders began in 1703 with John Wesley sharing the word of God through revival and reformations which eventually led to Francis Asbury bringing up a group of “selfless and radical riders,” according to the Circuit Riders website.

Coming back to school with a vision to impact

When Corder came back from her school she felt a desire, along with Smith and Peace, to teach others what they learned in their time with Circuit Riders.

“I came back from the school with this vision along with Rebekah and Allison and we began to dream of what impact Biola students could have on Southern California and ultimately the world equipped with this kind of evangelism training and passion,” Corder wrote in an email.

The event will target fears that students have about evangelism with hopes to combat them directly.

“When you go out and share your faith, you get ridiculed and offended and you begin to live in fear, and so you have to have faith to go and pray with someone and talk to them about Jesus,” Smith said. “The Send is going to focus on who you are and what God has created you to do.”

The seminars will talk about preaching the gospel and who Jesus is by having the speakers explain the best way to repent and turn away from one’s old life during the sessions. People who attend will also have a chance to practice what they have been taught. During the Saturday session, groups will form and go out to different locations and preach to surrounding people.

Equipping students to move beyond anxiety to discuss the Bible

When junior communications sciences and disorders major, Amanda Oceguera heard about The Send, she was excited to hear more information about the event.

“This event will be good equipping with tools that can help someone who is nervous about what to say and how to just talk to random people about the Bible,” said Oceguera.

According to Corder, this is exactly what the event is built to accomplish.

“The training will be in the context of prayer and worship,” Corder wrote in an email, “so a lot of it is declaring the truth of God, bringing personal freedom and a belief that sharing the gospel is simple and can be done by anyone.”