MTP 65: Denis LaClare Pt 2, How to Launch Ministries at Community Colleges and More

Dr. Denis LaClare, Professor of Education at Porterville College in California, shares his inspiring journey of launching both faculty and student ministries. With experience in both campus ministry and higher education, Denis opens up about his outreach to international students, creative tabling strategies, and bold witness alongside fellow professors. He provides a practical, Spirit-led model for engaging students and colleagues through friendship, prayer, and partnership with ministries like InterVarsity and Bridges International.

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Transcript

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My name is Paxton. I'm a sophomore here at UNCW. I study Nursing. And my question for professors is how do you partner with campus ministries to reach students with the gospel? Hey everybody, welcome to Meet the Prof. This is the podcast where we take questions from college students just like you heard from Paxton and we ask them to Christian professors and our goal is to encourage Christ-centered conversations on the college campus. We are so glad you're here. Thank you if you're watching this on YouTube or if you're listening to this as a podcast. We don't take that lightly. And we think that this is going to be worth your time. You're going to hear my interview with Denis LaClare. Denis is a Professor of Education at Porterville College in California. And Dr. LaClare is very unique because he not only is working as a professor, but he has quite a bit of time being a campus minister. So I think you'll enjoy hearing about his experience and how he lives in both worlds. So, well, let's jump in. Here is part two of my interview with Dr. Denis LaClare. So I want to ask you more now about what you've experienced with international students as a faculty member. And for listeners who aren't familiar, Bridges International is the Cru ministry to international students on college campuses. yeah, what have you experienced then since you've been a faculty member and seeing God work with international students? Yeah, so most of my international student ministry now is at a university walking distance from where I'm sitting today here in Bakersfield, California, Cal State Bakersfield. But I teach at a place called Porterville College. I'll advertise it with my shirt here, which is about an hour away. So there are not very many international students at that smaller college. think that college that I work at has about 3,800 students and the international students there are mostly athletes. baseball players, basketball players, and I've met a few of them. One really fun opportunity is we have an Afghan student who had to pretty much escape Afghanistan. And she's in one of my classes wanting to become a teacher. And she's been teaching kind of these underground schools for girls since she was 14. Like a really sharp gal was literate, was... reading and she's literally been teaching I'm not exactly sure but probably English and maybe some other subjects and she was 14 years old like not in any accredited way but just had a heart to be a teacher and now she's a freshman college student in my class. She's a practicing Muslim and we've had some very interesting conversations in some of her assignments giving her feedback so that's been just a great opportunity somewhat from Afghanistan in my class but my my Greatest contact is here at Cal State Bakersfield when we, you I don't really, they don't really know that I'm a professor necessarily unless we get into a conversation. Although when they ask what I do, cause we just call ourselves friendship partners. ah If we're not full-time Bridges staff and we have a team of volunteers and I just call myself a friendship partner and they say, well, most of the friendship partners are retired. They kind of do this kind of coming alongside us as international students. We love it when they take us to the beach or take us camping or to a local sporting Mm-hmm. event, what do you do? And then I say, well, I happen to be a teacher at a local college. And they say, really? And then it kind of opens doors even further than my missionary status, right? uh So that's just opened a lot of doors with students. They'll come to me with all kinds of questions. They have academic questions. But of course, we're interested in sharing with them. So for me, the second week of September, We take a large group to the beach on the central coast of California. And I schmooze with all the guys and really exchange phone numbers and try to get their contact. And then I'm very upfront with them and I will send them a text or give them a call. Or I actually have a gym membership at a very good gym at that university. And I run into them there and I'll say, Hey, this guy named Hui is a Vietnamese guy. And I'll say, Hui, I've got your number. You know, I'm one of the friendship partners. We're all. people of faith. Could I take you out for coffee and share a little bit more about the Christian message and get your feedback? And I'd love to hear more about your own religious background. If you have one. I've never had a student say no. They just say sure, why not? And so that's sort of my bread and butter is getting the number, being very upfront. There's no bait and switch. They know from my very first conversation and over coffee, I hear a little bit about their background and Interestingly, this Vietnamese student back in September, October, when I first got some time to meet with him on campus, I took him for a coffee. And I said, tell me a little bit about your background. his story ended with this spirit came with me across the Atlantic. This Buddhist, he described her as sort of like this saint. You know, we might call it as a familiar spirit or this. you know, something you don't want following you from your homeland overseas. And uh he described these intricate practices and this, what I would refer to as spiritual bondage. He was into this spirit from his Buddhist background. And I just patiently listened. I said, wow, that's really fascinating. And when I shared the gospel and we continue to have conversations, he said to me, I guess that was the penultimate comment about this spirit that followed him and is with him. He has a Christian boss on his campus job that had been sharing a little bit of the gospel with him. And when I shared the gospel with him, he went like this. says, Denis, I feel like I'm in a cosmic battle between Buddhism and Christianity. So when we meet, that's sort of the theme of our conversation. And he said to me, we were right out here. Last Sunday, my wife and I had three international students over. We had an Indian, we had a Vietnamese, and we had a Cambodian. They all came to our vision conference last December. And I said, Hui, what's going on in your life? And he said, well, I went to church with this American student that also came to our vision conference. And he said, I had a really interesting answer to prayer from Jesus at that church. I said, that is awesome. So. It's like, would like him to, you know, make a decision immediately because of what he knows. He is in this cosmic battle. There's a lot of history that he has with his religious practices that he needs to be freed from. So that's just one example of kind of these really fascinating, interesting, thoughtful conversations I get to have with international students that require getting involved in praying for them. really sticking with them for the long haul. You it's been full, his full freshman year now as a college student here in America, he'll be with us for at least three more years. You know, I'm hoping he'll make a decision soon, but he lives nearby and we have this friendship and he's over into our home. And that's very typical to just be able to jump into their lives and have these ongoing conversations about their spiritual journey. So one of our fellow partners, her name's Jeralyn, she'll get on there and say, hey, we're having a beach trip in two weeks. It costs $20. It includes lunch, includes your gas money to the beach. On the way home, you have to bring a little bit money. We're to stop somewhere to eat. And we just spend the entire day at a gorgeous central California beach. And we just play frisbee, go swimming, hang out with them. And we tell them, we tell them. One of our objectives is to get to know you better. So our friendship partners and our American students who are Christians are going to they're going to initiate with you. They they want you to improve your English. They want you to hear a little bit about our faith. They want to hear more about you. So we're very upfront and they don't they rarely mind. So, yeah, we have we have a calendar that they get to see. And pretty much every month we have a significant party line dancing. sporting events, baseball game, football game, going to the beach. We have, I tell you about our line dancing party, that's really popular. A little bit country, Western line dancing and they all come and we bring in a caller. they totally get into it. In fact, they're dragging me onto the dance floor, which I really like to throw my stuff out there. yeah, so just lots of fun events and they know we care about them and that's why the university involves us. And in fact, we're the only group that I know of that they entrust to be on this chat to that when they have a welcome lunch for international students, they invite us every single time. So it's really fun where they'll get to hear about their courses and where the gym is and how to catch the bus. And then they say they'll ask someone from our group to stand up and give them a little orientation of who we are as Bridges or we call it Friendship Partners. And we get to just tell them about us and they can give us their phone number right there at that very first meeting. So God has really shown us a lot of favor. Had a few bumps along the way where you have to go in and I've had to go in and talk to the Dean one time where someone complained, an American professor complained about us proselytizing, which we actually weren't doing it in that event. So I had to go into the Dean's office and say, no, it wasn't what you think. I explained what happened and he just shook my hand and gave me his card and said, anytime there's any complaints, come directly to me. We love you guys. We think what you're doing is great. He was a Jewish professor, this dean, uh academic, and he actually apologized that this professor of theirs had complained about what we were doing. And so the Lord just continues to give us access. uh I'm really thankful for that. Well, I recognize on a lot of campuses, it's not quite so easy Well, and on this campus, to clarify, you are probably officially viewed as a volunteer, right? You're not employed by that campus at all. Correct, correct. None of us are. So while my own campus, I don't know if this is a good time to tell you about how we got ministry going where I teach. Okay, so I was teaching at another university a couple hours away. Now in all those, all these jobs, they've graciously allowed me to put all my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So I've never had to go up there five days a week. Of course, you have division meetings and other faculty meetings where I do have to go up there, but generally I go up Tuesdays, Thursdays. So I wanted to apply to Porterville College because it was only an hour away instead of two hours where I was teaching sociology and now was done my PhD and I applied for a position in education and was hired. And so I did not know one person in that town and I did not know one person on that college. So I began to pray like, Lord, I'm not there just for a paycheck. I'm not there just to do what I like to do. I'm here to have a ministry. That's my primary purpose with taking this job. Like you're going to need to open some doors here. So my wife said, Hey, contact Paul, the local staff member with InterVarsity, because he was great to partner with when she taught linguistics at this other college. And of course, some of the people in our friendship partner group here at Cal State Bakersfield also knew him. So I took him out for lunch and I said, Hey, This is what's going on. I didn't really know him well. And I said, ask around, see if you can surface any names, pastors, where we can try to start something with students or faculty at Porterville College. He said, yeah, I don't know a soul. Let me get back to you. A couple of weeks later, he had contacted, I think another person that used to work with InterVarsity that knew a professor up there. So I had one phone number. So I searched him online, found his email. and went that route and said, Hey, I heard you are a believer. I'm a follower of Christ. I'm coming from a different university. I feel like God wants to do something through available professors on this campus. Could I take you for lunch, hear a little bit more about your story and see what the Lord's doing? He said, I'd love to. So I meet this guy. He suggested a restaurant because I'd never even been in the city before. And we met. and talked about it. He said, absolutely, I'm all in. Let's do something. In fact, he had been there for so long that he remembered when there was a ministry, and I believe it was an inter varsity ministry somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago. He said, this is great. We can restart, you know, some sort of thing for Christ. And so I said, well, Joel, do you know anybody that I could talk to next? And he said, I think this guy is a believer. And this guy was the philosophy professor right next door to me. So I met him one time at the beginning of the semester, shook his hand. There was something about his smile and his countenance. I thought maybe he's a believer from Alabama. I thought maybe he's from some solid Christian roots. And so I sent him an email and said, Hey, Matt, it's been great to meet you last week. This is what I'm doing. I met a guy named Joel. I think he knew who Joel was in natural sciences. We meet. different restaurant of his choosing, he says, I'm all in, let's do it. I said, well, do you know anybody else? And he had one more name of a guy, met a third professor, I'm all in. then after our first semester, so we started using the signature book by Rick Hove and Heather Holleman , A Grander Story, that's it. We didn't use it this last year, we used other sources, but we... started with that book, just the four of us. It was just awesome. We didn't even get through the book in two semesters. So in our third semester, at the very beginning of the semester, I was in a food line for this faculty day of meetings. And I heard this guy say that he was in a Bible study. And he said it quite loudly. And I thought, this guy's pretty bold. He's letting people know. So I sent him an email and I'd never really talked to him on campus, but I'd seen him. And I said, hey, Dustin, I heard you say you were in a Bible study. I didn't know what kind of tradition he was from, but Bible study sounded good to me. And I told him about our study and I said, could I take you for lunch? Sure. So we get together for lunch. He goes, I was wondering when you were going to contact me. I want in on that faculty Bible study. So he's joined us. Now there's five and he's they're all just great guys. And just real quick, we have this thing called Cultural historical I have it written down here somewhere cultural and historical awareness program that a Mormon professor in my division is leading and she provides speakers for this year of culture and historical awareness and it's just public lectures so this year two of the guys in my faculty Commons group John and Matt the astronomy and Cosmology guy and the Philosophy guy have been asked to give two of the, I think it's six or eight public lectures this year. Well, John just did a great job in this theater. It's on a Friday night. People from the community come.

His last slide was John 3: 14:33

16, just boldly explaining that in light of the cosmos, we can know God, we can know our Creator, just very boldly and appropriately bringing his faith integrating into this public lecture. And then Matt. would you say were there that night? Probably about 150 people, I think the theater was full. Yeah. And then this spring, about six weeks ago, Matt gave a talk on David Hume's objection to miracles. And he was reflecting and countering on Hume's conclusion about miracles. And he very appropriately sowed seeds that maybe we should reconsider that miracles are can't remember what Hume thought illogical or impossible or whatever it was. ah Talking about if miracles are a violation of the laws of nature, then maybe you ought to pay attention to that if you've had some encounter. And that was just a great seed sowing lecture. And I've been asked to give a lecture next year, they extended the theme, which is religion and spirituality. And the tagline is don't stop believing question mark. So both these faculty in my study, call it my study, our study, very appropriately answered that question. Like, no, don't stop believing. And here's why, giving their apologetic appropriately for an academic and community event. then mine will be tentatively, at least I don't have a date yet, something about the topic of trans-culturality. That's where I did my PhD research on. this idea of how can you be effective in multiple cultures simultaneously? So the idea that the missionary goes from culture A to culture B, you have to do a lot of things to become effective in culture B. But what if you're a professor that has students from eight different nations or languages or worldviews in your classroom? How do you become a culturally responsive professional? So I'll be doing that as a professor, but my research is rooted in missionaries who are effective as trans cultural people. so I'm going to bring that research, not in a Trojan horse way. I'm not going to do any bait and switch. I will be very upfront about the subjects of my research were actual missionaries. And here's what we can learn from it, because of course, now the hot topic is that all missionaries are colonizers. Well, my research has demonstrated that no, if you're trans culturally effective, you don't have to colonize anybody. You're there for a primary purpose. And these are some of the attributes of those people who are effective when they're working in these very multicultural contexts. And so I actually gave a little mini 15 minute seminar in David ZagRodny's Faculty Commons group a couple of months ago. and did a similar seminar at a Faculty Commons conference, well, at the mid-year. And I'm pretty passionate about that. So I hope to be able to continue to do that. uh then I contacted Paul and said, hey, the faculty ministry is going great. I think it's time we do something about a student ministry. And me and Matt and a gal, a female professor named Elisa, had been praying. doing prayer walks on the campus. We did that for two semesters. So when I contacted Paul, I said, you know, we've been praying about a student ministry because Paul talked to us about that. Hey, one day you all need to help help us start a student ministry. He goes, when should we start it? I said, now I think we're ready. We've been praying for a year, two semesters. So Paul came up. We did some tabling and this was in September of last year. And then we did it again in January or February of this year. And we got 45 names back last fall And then we got another 35 names this last semester in January. So we've had 70 names at our little community college. And God raised up a student president. God raised our, our, our student club president. I'm the faculty sponsor. We had to jump through some hoops, but the college treats us very well on our first day of tabling. The college president walked by, looked at our intervarsities. It just says InterVarsity Christian fellowship. Hey Denis, you know, have a nice day. I'm like, Hey Claudia, at that time it wasn't Claudia. We have a new president, but, uh, we have favor with our administration. We were pretty much. We are the only Christian outreach, but we have something and we have about 10 to 12 students that come. We meet outdoors on the grass. We're here in California uh once a week, every Tuesday. And uh me or Matt usually facilitate that time. And we kind of take turns all year and Paul can come up when he can. He lives here in Bakersfield, so he's not up there very often. uh we've got Believers, non-believers, they come and we do a Bible study every week and they can ask any questions they want. And so we're up and running with a student ministry. Wow. can you tell us and make some practical things? What did you have on the table? How'd you get names? Tell us some about that. I think we had a big awning, like a pop-up, and we had InterVarsity stuff, giveaways, some Mexican candy. About 81 % of our student body are Latino, Hispanic. So they love the Mexican candies, just these hard candies. And we had some other candies. We put just a sign up sheet. on the table, some QR codes that they can scan. And it was just Paul and I, because we didn't know anybody. We didn't know any believers. think Matt was able to come by during those hours and help us, the philosophy professor. And we just, said to Paul, said, as a faculty member, I'm not going to be as bold as I would be as a Cru staff or as you as an InterVarsity staff, because he was just, he was going out there, putting his hand on people's shoulders. Hey, this is what we're doing. Probably the best tabling guy I've ever done this with in 30 plus years of tabling. He was amazing. I would kind of tease him like, you're a little overboard, bro. But he's very warm, very friendly. But he would have, mean, more than once I would look up and there'd be a student crying as Paul was sharing with them. He just has a very great way of ministering to students. He'll have gospel conversations right there on the spot. while we're tabling and I'm just observing this praying, you know, move that he's just ministering right now and he's not waiting to follow up with these students. He just sees himself as quite apostolic right in the moment. Anyway, so I told him, he goes, yeah, that's fine. I just, you kind of hang out with right around the table and I'll be the one out there. Cause I didn't want to have a reputation as, you know, buttonholing students and faculty. You know, I just had to have a certain decorum. not to not be bold, but to just appropriately be involved as a professor and as a faculty sponsor. But I was talking to students saying, hey, why don't you pop by? We've got a survey you can do. So yeah, we have sign up. They can ask questions. They can scan the code. We'd offer a piece of candy, whatever. And we just had lots of warm interactions. We had zero negative. It's a fairly religious community. Not so much with evangelical faith, but it is a religious community. And we just had a very positive, it was just a lot of fun. And so we did that for a couple hours, like on a Monday and Tuesday or whatever days that were set up from the college to do that. And at the end of the day, we had 35 names. like, Paul, from zero to 35 names, like this is a great start. And we did that in the spring semester and got 35 names as well. Yeah. 70 students, some of them might've been repeat students, but we just didn't have the bandwidth to start a lot of studies.

So we just started with the one and went with that all year, every Tuesday at 2: 22:21

30, meet outside. So yeah, it's faith stretching because people see you. They see me setting up, and every week they see me with the dolly. And we've got two signs that we stick in the grass in big black foam board with white letters, Bible study. And then the other slide says, come and find out who Jesus is. So we have two of those. So I'm the Bible thumper professor putting these things up. And it's like, well, Lord, I'm trying to identify with you here. It's not that... from other faculty? Like, how can Denis do this? Wow. had one guy come up. Interestingly, he also had a Mormon background, did his two-year mission. I think he, I want to say he went to Stanford, sharp guy, and he was tabling next to us and he came over to our table. He goes, I have completely renounced and rejected my religion. And there was a bit of anger in his voice. I said, well, I'm sorry to hear that. And he asked a question and I just said, yeah, he asked kind of what we're doing. What was the gist of it? So I gave him in a nutshell that we're a Christian club. Anybody's welcome. You do not have to be a believer. You could be an atheist, a Satanist, a Mormon, a student from any background or faculty. And we are exploring what it means to know God through Jesus Christ. And we do use the Bible as our as our playbook sort of thing. And he's like, cool. So even though he had deconstructed. And two of the faculty members in the study that we have have had spiritual conversations with this person. So it's like, well, interestingly, we were right next door. And that's what I noticed. One of the coolest things that happened about two months ago. So I have a tenure committee and one of the ladies on my tenure committee I think is from this prominent religious background in the community. She's Hispanic. And we had a meeting together. We were leaving the meeting. She goes, Hey, Denis, I just want you to know I've noticed you and Matt, the philosophy professor, setting up and doing whatever you guys do there. I said, oh, yeah, like our weekly InterVarsity Bible study. She goes, yeah, that thing. She goes, I just want you to know, like, I'm with you. I've been watching you guys and I'm sort of in it with you. She has some faith is what she was trying to say. Mm-hmm. a believer, maybe on her way to clarifying her relationship with Jesus. And so I'm just very happy to be doing what we're doing there. God has been so faithful to us. It is stretching every time you get out there to just realize there's eyes on you. Like I've had two of my fellow students while we were tabling came up, hey, Dr. LaClare what are you guys doing? Well, we're a Christian group. Oh really? That's interesting. And one of the two left their name. She couldn't join our study, but she said to me later that she was a new believer. And I tell them I'm a Christian in my classes. So she knew I was a Christian, but she didn't know we were starting a Christian group. One other quick question about tabling. When Paul and I were setting up that very first semester, like in the fall of 2024, we didn't even have everything set up yet. And Paul was already out. talking to the table next to us as they were setting up. Students weren't even around yet. It was early in the morning, like eight in the morning. A girl comes jogging up, about 35 years old, a mature student, I think a mom with a couple kids. Her name was Lindsay. She goes, did I hear you guys say Bible study? And I said, yeah, that was Paul, kind of the leader with InterVarsity explaining to this other club what we do. She goes, well, I've been praying all summer that God would do something at Porterville College, because there's nothing here. I says, well, come on over you're in the right place. Let me tell you who we are. So she scans the QR code, signs up. She became our student president. So now she's got her associate's degree. She's got a full-time job in the Porterville Unified School District. And she's been a real fireball for us, wanting to share her faith, being involved with our group. helping in any way she can. And so the very first person that came to our table was someone that had been praying. So it was just, you you know what this is like, you're trusting the Lord, but you don't see any physical evidence. Then you put yourself out there. And he shows his faithfulness by bringing students, faculty, favor, resources. And even though we're small, I know that the Lord is in it and wants to do more in this coming year. So Paul and I just had lunch this week and or last week and we're already talking about things we want to do this summer or next fall. So when God starts something, you just got to keep trusting him and continue to be involved. That's amazing. I want to ask, like, is there anything else that you would like to share that maybe could be an encouragement to faculty who are maybe wanting to start an international student ministry or a undergrad ministry like you have on your own campus? You know, when I was a new believer, I remember a staff member with Cru saying, don't despise small beginnings or God doesn't the small despise small beginnings, something to that effect. And I never forgot that. It's OK to start with nothing. Right. Ex nihilo, I guess God is great at doing something with nothing. And. You know, it's. can be discouraging, like, what am I doing? What do I know? How is this supposed to look? Am I gonna feel like I'm kind of muscling my way into this campus? Am I gonna be seen as some sort of religious zealot or activist by my fellow faculty? You are concerned about your reputation as a faculty member, but I think just be willing to trust God, surrender your life fully to him. I've noticed walking with God, for all these decades, there's still days I wake up and I'm like, there's something to surrender, right? Trusting him to take care of me and provide for our family, trusting that I'll pass my tenure review, trusting that whatever issues we have, health issues, know, God just invites us to walk with him, to trust him for everything. It's easier said than done, right? So if you are a believer, God has you on your campus for a purpose. And you may not be the leader, but you can help by putting the word out there, maybe doing something with one other student, one other faculty member, set up a table, find your local Christian club and say, hey, what can we do? Well, there's nothing at your campus. Well, can you come and help me for a couple of days of tabling? And God has plans because he loves the lost. Jesus' words that he came, the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. He's far more concerned about reaching those that are spiritually bewildered, confused and lost than we are. And so when we just make ourselves available, he will do something. It might take a little longer than you think. It might be harder. Do I like having to go to this locked office and grab our supplies every week in a dolly and go out there in the heat? No, it's not particularly fun. But when I get up there and we set up our little tables and we put out some mats on the grass and we bring out a few refreshments, students come every week. They thank us. They say, we are so glad we have this study. It's meant a lot to me this year. it's worth it. Sorry. Yeah, it's worth it to ... Just a German friend of mine, he came from Germany to join our cross-cultural training team here a long time ago to train missionaries. He's no longer with us, but he used to pray in this thick German accent, which I loved. Lord, thank you that I get to have a small part in something so big as the Great Commission. And I find myself repeating my friend's prayer. Just a small part, just the fish and the loaves. You bring what you have and God will multiply it. Sorry, Shane, I was a little bit more emotional than I thought I would be. Well, I so appreciate it. I appreciate your transparency and it's truly inspiring to me, Denis, and thinking full full circle here to the young guy, 17 or 18 in college, who's praying to go share his faith and his friend approaches and he's afraid to say anything to him for the first two times to now you taking steps of faith continually on your own campus to reach out to these students and. It's very inspiring to me. I know this will be encouraging to other faculty, even students and parents who would listen. And I just want to end too, Shane, by saying I give all credit to the Lord Jesus, to the Spirit's work in us. My friend Paul with InterVarsity, Matt, John, Dustin, Joel, these professors, Alisa, Lindsay, we did it as a team. And I just, like I said, just played a very small part. So I do want to say that because it's really not up to us. to be the mover and shaker that makes it happen. We might just have a small role, but together God will use us. So thank you for giving me the opportunity just to share what the Lord's been doing. We'd encourage you, if you're a professor listening to this and you have seen Christ work in your life, saving you and continuing to save you, would you share your testimony on meettheprof.com? It's a great way for students to find you. It can encourage parents and even it'll encourage other faculty you sharing some of God's work in your life that way. Please remember to click on subscribe or follow if you're watching this on YouTube, listening to Spotify, Apple podcasts, that helps us get the word out more and it doesn't cost anything. And lastly, if you would like to give financially to our ministry with Faculty Commons, thank you very much. You can give online at give.cru.org / 0 42 43 44. And so stay tuned for next week, until then, I hope this encourages you to have a Christ-centered conversation on your college campus.