Thursday, September 21, 2006

It is time for us to step up to the plate.

The future leaders of the world come to American universities to study. The U.S. State Dept. estimates that 25% of the world’s future political leaders are studying in the U.S. right now. The cultural trends and movements that start at our colleges flow like waves across the globe. If you want to change the world, start at the university.

Imagine a place filled with idealistic, talented, and available young adults who have the passion and energy to fight for whatever cause strikes their hearts. Imagine these young adults being at their most vulnerable point, when they are making decisions for what they will believe and what they will do for the rest of their lives. And imagine God gathering this group of young people together in one place, for a short time, before sending them back to their nations to lead. That place is the American university campus. And those future leaders are the students there today.

The world recognizes this. Why else would so many companies and people, such as MTV and a Saudi prince, pump millions of dollars into youth and young adults? And their investment is most certainly yielding great results. The world is dedicated to investing millions of dollars and countless hours into our universities and our young adults because they know it’s a strategic investment.

But the question for us, the American Church, is: do we recognize this?

Will we continue to enable anything other than Jesus Christ to influence our campuses, and in effect influence the marketplace, our culture, and our every-day lives? Or we will finally step up to plate and do something?

What if we began heavily investing in students and young adults, in both prayer and finances? What if more churches had core values that included targeting young adults and students? What if we sent more missionaries to our own university campuses? And what if we sent these missionaries with the funds they needed to reach our campuses?

The good news: our God is sovereign and through him we can make an eternal difference! We are in a supernatural fight against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Let’s be vigilant in prayer, generous with our finances and time, and increase our Christian witness on our universities and among our young adults. We simply cannot sit by and allow others to influence the eternal destiny of our future generations.

And with God's help, we most certainly can accomplish this great commission. We serve a great and mighty and powerful God!