I'm in a couple of days of meetings in Minneapolis with the North Central University Board. Dr Gordon Anderson (right) shared some interesting statistics. If I understood correctly, approximately 60,000 students from our Assemblies of God churches graduate from high school each year. Only 3,000 of those students attend one of our A/G schools. Of those who attend secular institutions, upwards of 75% are not practicing their faith upon graduation from college. Those who attend one of our schools are much more likely to be actively involved in a relationship with Christ, and with a local church. I'm committing myself to do my best to encourage students to attend an A/G college or university, and I'm enlisting anyone who will help with that task.
Lives are changed at Assemblies of God schools. Help me spread the word!
2 comments:
I certainly agree that we need to do something to help our young people remain faithful to Christ through their young adult years. One way is by encouraging them to attend AG colleges. This approach will not work with everyone so I would like to make some additional suggestions.
Students could be encouraged to attend local community colleges. This will give them two more years while attending college, to be active in their home churches, and be supported by their families, and their local Christian friends. Two additional years can have a substantial impact on a young persons developement.
For those students who do go away to college, we can encourage them to find a local church. For that matter, we can contact the local church ourselves and give to them the contact information of the young people that will be attending college in their area.
We can also encourage them to take advantage of the opportunities for Christian fellowship on campus. Chi Alpha, where available, or there are other Christian fellowships that can be used when Chi Alpha is not available.
Finally, we need to follow up with how they are doing. We can still have input into their lives through facebook, email etc, Just because they have left our geographical area does not mean that our responsibilities have ended.
Curt,
Great points! If the Network Office can help to network between students and local churches in college communities, we'd love to serve in that capacity.
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