Why College Ministry Matters

xaglen — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:45:12 -0600

Disproportionate Strategic Impact

A while ago, researchers from Oxford University made a remarkable discovery. More than one-third of Earth's plant and animal species live on a scant 1.4% of the planet's surface. In fact, there are just 25 "hot spots" that each contain a "riot" of life.

If you were an environmental activist, what would you do with that information?

If you were smart, you’d make sure that whatever else you did you protected those hot spots. You could win 99 battles and lose just 1, but if the one you lose is a battle for a hot spot then you’ve really lost.

In a similar way, we as Christians need to understand that the universities and colleges of the world are extremely strategic ministry fields. Doing good there (on a small percentage of the national population) has a remarkable impact on society as a whole.

Remember the 60’s? What happened on the college campuses changed our entire culture.

Repeat after me: schools are the steering wheel of our society—as goes the campus, so goes the culture. Our leaders are shaped in university lecture halls.

History of Student Revivals

Do you realize that every major revival in western history has its roots on the university campus?

At the beginning of the 18th century Nicolas von Zinzendorf was a student at the University of Halle and began doing ministry with his peers. He went on to pastor a university church and founded the Moravians, who sent out more missionaries in twenty years than all of Europe combined had sent in the last 100.

Around the same time John Wesley was a student at Oxford University. He, his brother, and some friends founded “the Holy Club.” They were mocked by the other students for their disciplined, methodical lifestyles and were soon dubbed “the Methodists.” From this small cohort came revival both in England and in America (perhaps you’ve heard of the Great Awakening…).

In 1886 Dwight Moody was speaking at a college retreat when students began to feel called to serve in global missions. A movement began and spread from campus to campus, and as a result, over 12,000 student volunteers went into foreign missions before World War I broke out.

Just after 1900 a young college student named Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues and began the worldwide Pentecostal revival that is still sweeping the world.

Learn more about the history of college revivals (external PDF link).

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Potential World Impact

Colleges are magnets for International Students. Students from around the world--the best and the brightest--come to America to learn and then return home to lead.

I hope you’re beginning to catch the vision. University students have been uniquely used by God throughout history and He is still eager to use them today!