College campuses contain many people groups that can be identified by any number of distinctives: students and faculty, athletes and nonathletes, Greek life, race, major and career goals, socioeconomic background, and many others. Today I want to draw a simple distinction to define two basic target groups that all people on our campuses fall into—and challenge you to reach both groups with the gospel.
Campus Group 1: “Low Hanging Fruit”
This group is made up of the students and faculty that are more accessible, open, or ready to respond to the gospel compared to others. This term often applies to those who are easier to reach or disciple due to their circumstances, openness, religious background, or relationship with us or our ministry. That’s why we call them “low hanging fruit.” They are not redeemed; they are unregenerated. They’re in need of Christ, but they’re ready. The spiritual soil is good; the harvest is ripe.
Campus Group 2: “Hard Soil”
In contrast to the Low Hanging Fruit is the Hard Soil. This group is made up of those who are spiritually resistant—or spiritually apathetic. They might be hostile toward the Christian faith; they might have bitterness and resentment from past experiences with Christians. They might never have heard the name of Jesus or read the Bible. Or they might appear to have no need or desire to hear the gospel. These are students and faculty living, walking, working, and studying on our campuses who are distant and resistant to God.
Where do we focus?
Most campus ministry workers earnestly desire to reach both for Christ. But it’s natural, whether intentional or not, to spend most of our time and energy with those who are more open or ready. Hard soil is, well, hard. Hard soil takes longer. It doesn’t fill up our statistics and boost our reports. And it can be discouraging.
Jesus modeled and taught the importance of persistence in reaching people who may initially seem resistant or are in harder-to-reach areas. Pursuing “low-hanging fruit” can be a strategic way to build momentum, but it shouldn’t be the sole focus, especially if it means neglecting those who might require more effort to reach. Ultimately, identifying “low-hanging fruit” in disciple-making is about recognizing opportunities that God has already prepared while remaining faithful to the broader call to reach all people, no matter how challenging.
Let me encourage you: keep reaching both, and be intentional in striving toward that aim by doing four things:
Remember
Remember Jesus’ call to all nations. The Great Commission commands Christians to make disciples of all nations (see Matthew 28:19-20). This includes our campuses where all nations are represented, and it includes every segment of people on those campuses. Jesus’ instructions didn’t exclude difficult places but rather emphasized going to the ends of the earth (see Acts 1:8).
Remind
Remind others of God’s heart for the unreached. The “hard places” on our campuses are full of people who have had little or no access to the gospel, or whose experience with Christians has had the opposite effect by pushing them further from Him. If we do not go to these students now while we can, the chance may be lost in the future. God’s desire is for all people to know Him (see 1 Timothy 2:4), and we, as campus missionaries, are often the means through which that happens.
Reflect
In these hard places on campus, we must be about demonstrating the love of Christ. Let us steadfastly till this hard soil, all the while reflecting the sacrificial love of Christ, who left heaven to enter the brokenness of the world (see Philippians 2:5-8). Our willingness to endure difficulty mirrors Jesus’ own mission to seek and save the lost (see Luke 19:10).
Recall
When we get tired, when we get weary, when we get discouraged, when we have few victories to share with our associations and churches, let us remember the example of early missionaries. The early church set a precedent for going to hard places. Paul and other apostles faced persecution, imprisonment, and hardship as they brought the gospel to unreached regions. Their example inspires us to press on despite obstacles we face on our campuses.We are called to plant and water; God is the one who does the growing (see 1 Corinthians 3:7-9).
Don’t Forsake the Low Hanging Fruit…or the Hard Soil
The hard places on our campuses are often marked by some very deep needs. Our ministries bring hope, healing, and tangible help to our students and faculty, showing how the gospel transforms not only individuals but entire campus communities.
Don’t forsake the low-hanging fruit; they need Jesus. But don’t forsake the hard soil, either; they need Jesus, too.
