Many times in the Bible, God gave his servants challenging or unusual missions.
He still does.
John Konkel arrived at the University of Minnesota as a home missionary with Chi Alpha. Often, John would walk past fraternity row and “One day I just asked this question in my mind to the Lord, like, ‘Is anybody reaching out to the fraternities?’ and I really felt God whisper to me that he wanted me to do so… and that cleaning toilets was the phrase that God dropped in my heart.”
John’s Reaction?
“Simple obedience I think goes a long way in seeing God’s purposes accomplished, and so, I took him at his word. I got a student to come along with me and in that year we started offering our services to fraternities – specifically in the summer – when not many guys were still there, and they were very welcoming and appreciative of the help and that was the beginning of cultivating relationships with some of the fraternities.”
It’s been 16 years now since the bathroom cleaning days and “I’ve seen more trust with Greek life, with the fraternity presidents, I’ve been able to come every fall, at the beginning of the school year, to be in the fraternity council meetings sharing about chaplaincy. Once I became chaplain of one of the chapters, it really gave me an inroad into offering those services (chaplains) to all the other chapters each and every year.” Pastor John has held many bible studies and counseled with students “and there’s a lot of trust there now.”
Especially in the last three years, John feels “God really gave me a green light to be even more vocal with my faith in sharing the Gospel in the chapters that I’m in and we’ve seen so many more students come to Christ, so many more fraternity members come to Christ because of that.” In the last semester alone, “We’ve seen 38 fraternity brothers come to know who Jesus is.”
With trust established, John talks with students who are coping with a wide range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, and addictions. And for the University of Minnesota, “The pandemic is certainly something that has caused an extra level of stress, an extra level of fear, an extra level of anxiety among our college students. And when you add that to social injustice and the social unrest that has taken place in the Twin Cities the last couple years specifically, I think that’s really been a springboard to a lot of these guys opening up” to share and talk about their problems.
As life has gotten harder, “guys are becoming more vulnerable and more transparent,” which deepens relationships with John and his team, who are in a position to share encouraging biblical wisdom.
What’s in John’s heart as he works long odd hours and maintains numerous relationships with students?
“My parents were divorced when I was 12. My dad was an alcoholic…and I lacked that father figure growing up – and I tell this to the fraternity brothers and I tell this to a lot of guys that are in our ministry as well, I want to be there for them in ways that maybe my dad wasn’t able to be. And I think that drives a lot of what I do – is to be sort of a father figure and just to display God’s Father heart for these young men.” John prays those he ministers to can grow up to become great fathers and husbands – those kind of life changes that often happen not too long after graduating from college.
In our complete interview podcast below, John explains the eternal possibilities in working with fraternities and athletes because those sub-cultures “impact so much of campus life.” He believes these people are “go-getters” who want to be world-changers, leaders in business and politics. “When they get ahold of who Jesus is…it’s just a powerful thing.” And in our podcast, learn how John and fellow campus ministers get their support to continue this critical Kingdom work.
