Why the College Campus? Pt. 3
This article is part three of a five part series. Click here for Part One and Part Two.
IT’S WHERE THE FUTURE LEADERS OF THE CHURCH ARE
The university campus is the most strategic place on earth. College students are the most moldable, trainable, and sendable demographic on the planet. Here are a few reasons why:
First, they are incredibly open to the gospel. People often come to Christ in trouble and transition. Going to college is the first major transition in someone’s life. Students are also increasingly troubled and depressed. We have discovered that almost every student on our campus is open to spiritual conversations if approached in a relational and intentional way. God is already working in so many students’ lives. On many college campuses where evangelism is practiced and student leaders are trained how to share the gospel, students are coming to Christ! Not by some large evangelistic crusade, but by college students sharing the gospel with their friends.
For far too long the church leaned solely on “biological growth” in order to reach the world. As we’ve already seen, more and more children from Christian homes are walking away from the church. Evangelism is the key to growing the Kingdom and there is no better place to do evangelism than the college campus.
Second, they have the time and desire to be mentored and trained as leaders. There is a hunger in this generation to be mentored, and they have more time for that now than they ever will in their life. What they lack in experience and funding, they make up for in reachability and availability. They have not developed decades of worldview and bad habits that oftentimes adults in the church have. They are laying their foundation of faith. Anybody who has built a house can tell you that it is easier to lay a foundation before the house has been built than to have to redo a foundation with a house already built on it. College students are laying the foundation of their adult lives and are looking for people to help them pour it. By pouring into their lives the disciplines of the Christian life, what healthy relationships look like, and churchmanship, we get to be a part of helping the church grow in breadth and depth.
Third, college ministries can become a “leadership pipeline” for future church planting and missions; students have their entire lives ahead of them.
In an interview with Exponential on essentials for movement in a city, Tim Keller said, “You have to have a leadership pipeline developing, and that usually happens through campus work. You have to have a really dynamic college ministry. You have to have a campus leadership pipeline. Otherwise the church planting doesn’t continue.”
God is calling many students in our ministry to dream big dreams for advancing the kingdom, including becoming long-term international missionaries, planting new churches and starting new college ministries. This generation is looking for a cause worth living and dying for, and we have the greatest cause on earth.
Not only does the future of the church rest on the college campus, but so does the US and the world.
Reflective Questions:
-In what ways is your ministry engaging lost students on your campus?
-Do you see your ministry as a leadership factory or just a place for Christians to come while in college?
-Do you have a leadership pathway in place to help develop leaders?
This article is part three of a five part series. Click here for Part One and Part Two.