Boyz II Men

Boyz II Men

Written by Caleb Anthony

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." 2 Timothy 2:1-2, ESV

These are among the last words written by the apostle Paul as he pens Timothy, his son in the faith, as a final encouragement. It is striking that Paul is spurring Timothy on to continue carefully sharing and explaining the same message that landed him in that Roman prison cell from which he writes, and ultimately leads to his death. However, I praise God for the unrelenting faithfulness of Paul, Timothy, and the ensuing great cloud of witnesses that made known the glorious, finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And the fact that the branches of this precious family tree had outstretched to include many on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill in 2014.

This was my sophomore year in college and the year I made acquaintance with a guy named Grant. We met playing basketball against each other on campus and slowly developed a friendship that spanned outside of the gym. Grant was on staff with a college ministry called Campus Outreach (CO); however, his conviction to “entrust to faithful men” the gospel message was not simply a work goal - it had become who he was. Grant would go on to invite me to attend church with him and eventually to read the Bible with him during the week. And praise God, that through the informal times of sharing meals, playing and watching sports, along with the formal times of worshiping at church and reading the Bible, the Lord began to convict my heart. He began to open my eyes to the fact that both Grant and I were claiming to be Christians but my life looked drastically different from his. The final nail in the coffin was when I saw that not only did our lives not match, but that Grant’s life more closely resembled that of what we read in Scripture. Our friendship progressed and the Lord continued winning me to Himself. My heart began to desire to share what the Lord had done in me and wanted so badly to see Him do it in my friends’ lives too. However, I didn’t know how to go about initiating spiritual conversations with them. Around this time, Grant transitioned off staff with CO and wasn’t as accessible to learn from on a daily basis. But in God’s faithfulness, He provided me another life-long friendship in Tyler around the exact same time.

Tyler would go on to formally disciple me for the following two years during which God completely overhauled my very approach to life. He equipped me with some tools that enabled me to pursue my housemates and friends with the gospel in a loving manner. As I continued to see God work in and through me, my own wishes began to be to find faithful men that I could entrust the life-changing good news of Christ to. This was one of the determining factors for me deciding to join Campus Outreach staff upon graduating. My heart’s desire is to see the growth of a movement of young men pursuing other men with the gospel on the college campus, all to the glory of God. This very passion to see young boys become young men by the power of the gospel is what has encouraged me to remain in college ministry thus far.

Being able to be a part of the body of Christ at Waypoint has strengthened my eagerness for the gospel to infiltrate the entire lives of others because of the emphasis the church puts on discipleship. My prayer for our Waypoint family, as well as my own life, is that for many decades to come, it will be true that we entrusted the gospel to faithful men, women, boys, and girls and raised them to the maturity to be able to do the same. Because as my life is a testament to, believing that God’s word is true and lovingly pursuing someone with the gospel can lead to not only joy, purpose and life-long change; but can genuinely alter the reality of one’s eternity.