University of Illinois senior Carly Thomas admits that the word “evangelization” often carries a negative connotation in the minds of college-age Catholics.

However, since joining a Bible study sponsored by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students— or “Focus” — and attending the movement's national conference in Lincoln, Neb. Jan. 11-13, Thomas says she has experienced firsthand a method capable of reversing such perceptions.

Instead of producing Catholic speakers to inspire large crowds, Focus, the 4-year-old college out-reach based in Greeley, Colo., trains recent college graduates to spend their time with student leaders on university campuses.

Rather than preaching, Thomas said Focus missionaries use a mentor relationship called “disciple-ship” to instruct, encourage and challenge students in their faith. Through a combination of this oneon-one leadership program and small-group Bible studies, leaders are trained to do the same with their fellow students.

Focus was originally launched in 1997 at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., with two missionaries and 24 students. In 2002, Focus includes eight full-time campuses (plus four part-time), with 40 missionaries and almost 1,000 students.

Focus sends four recent college graduates — two men and two women— to a college campus to conduct small group Bible study, one-on-one leadership training through personal mentor relationships and large group events called “Prime Times” (a combination of skits, testimonies, teaching and social activities).

“We want to reach the multitudes by investing ourselves in individuals,” says John Zimmer, Focus' director of U.S. campus ministry. Mathematically, he said, the person who spends ordinary time sharing his life and faith with two others and equips those two individuals to, in turn, influence two others each is more effective over time than a “superevangelist” who brings 1 million people to Christ every year.

“The method was designed by Christ himself,” Zimmer says. “He preached to multitudes, but he also spent time with 12 men— and three specifically (Peter, James and John)— who went out and changed the world.”

To follow Christ's example, Focus works in conjunction with Catholic chaplains and Newman centers on university campuses.

“There's no place in our culture that gathers key leaders better than colleges and universities,” says Curtis Martin, Focus president and founder. “Right now the leaders of our culture for the next generation are on college campuses, and they're trying to decide what their fundamental values are.”

Martin says it's imperative that graduates have the vision of Catholic teaching and the power of God's grace in the sacraments as they enter the next years of their lives.

At Focus' annual national conference in Lincoln, more than 400 students, campus ministers, religious and clergy from San Francisco to New York encountered both.

The three-day event, which has doubled in size each year, featured a concert by nationally known Catholic band Crispen and talks on heroic generosity, building virtue and sharing the Gospel through conversation. Its theme was “Dig Deep. Live Deeply.”

Smaller workshops covered topics like apologetics, building community, leading a Bible study and time management, and students received the opportunity for eucharistic adoration and the sacrament of reconciliation.

For Marie Rakel, a sophomore at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., the conference provided much-needed fellowship with other Catholics.

“We tend to get a little isolated at the academy,” she says. “It's great to be out here in Nebraska with hundreds of other students from other states and discover our faith.”

For Gerard Carisio, who also attends the Air Force Academy, discussion with students from “normal” colleges and universities provided the encouragement he needed to commit to sobriety and chastity— two standards vital to Focus leadership.

“Because we live a restricted, regimented life, there's a feeling among some cadets that we're missing out,” says Carisio. “So on the weekends, I'll drive up to Denver and look for a party just to blow off steam.”

Carisio says the chastity and sobriety workshop challenged him to re-evaluate the way he spends his free time.

The gathering gave Michelle Choutka, a senior at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, the confidence to put what she's learned into practice even after graduation.

“It makes it a whole lot easier,” she says, “to go out into the world and enter medical school knowing that I've been equipped [spiritually].”

Kimberly Jansen wrote this for Catholic News Service.