Skip to main content

Do we need churches in our college and universities? Luke speak on this

Luke Lezon (@lukelezon) is a pastor, speaker, writer and member of the leadership team at The Alternative (thealternative.org), a gathering that unites local churches and communities for a night of worship in the Atlanta area.



I remember walking into Reed Arena on the campus of Texas A&M in College Station. Thousands of students filed in, many raced to seats closest to the bottom, I pulled my hat down, and walked towards the nosebleeds. Tuesday nights meant Breakaway, a Bible Study that often times filled the basketball arena more than actual basketball games did. This week in particular had been difficult for me, I had a lot on my mind. I just wanted to worship alone. When I got to the top I saw a young man, tears streaming down his face. I asked him what was wrong, and he said, “I didn’t want to believe what all of these people believe, but how can they all worship something so passionately that they cannot feel? That doesn’t love them back the way they love? I walked in here to make fun of it all, but I feel like God has extended to His love to me tonight, and He has invited me into His story.”

In the upcoming film, GOD’S NOT DEAD: A LIGHT IN DARKNESS, the local church is attacked and nearly burned to the ground. But no sooner than the fire is out the university, on which the church grounds sit, uses the controversy to try and force the church off-campus. As you can imagine, this sparks a conflict unlike any the university has never seen before. It also opens the door to some interesting questions, like, “Why should churches be a part of college and university campuses?” My answer is simple. Because in a culture that loves the idea of self-discovery, what better time to help students discover who they are than when they are trying to discover their purpose in life? What better place to help individuals discover what they were made to be and do than the church? College students are living in their most formative years. It’s a time where they are learning, growing, transitioning from adolescence into adulthood. They are growing up, and it comes with challenges.

I met people at churches through Breakaway that weren’t even professing Christians, but they told me that the sermons were helping them feel more equipped to handle the stress and pressures of college life than anything else. The church doesn’t just have solutions to student’s problems, it has the Answer Who walks with them into their classrooms and challenges. If the church isn’t on college campuses, then the church is missing the opportunity to pass the baton of faith to the next generation. Part of running your race well is handing off the baton. We aren’t running a sprint, it’s a relay, and the message we pass on brings hope to the world. Let’s not only educate but edify.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DONE DEAL!!! Neymar complete heartfelt transfer to PSG

Neymar has become the most expensive player in soccer history after completing his blockbuster transfer to Paris Saint-Germain from Barcelona on Thursday for $262 million. PSG triggered the release clause in the forward’s Barcelona contract, which was more than double the previous transfer record set a year ago when Manchester United paid $116 million for Paul Pogba. PSG said in a statement that the 25-year-old Neymar had signed a five-year contract, until June 2022. PSG said “his arrival into the Paris Saint-Germain family emphasizes more than ever the club’s aims to rise to the top of world football.” Barcelona did all it could to stop Neymar from leaving and had vowed to complain to the UEFA, European soccer’s ruling body, if his seemingly untouchable release clause was triggered. The payment of the clause directly to the club was the second attempt Neymar’s representatives had made on Thursday to break his bond with Barcelona. Earlier in the day, his lawyer, Juan...
Post a Comment
read more»»

AGRICULTURE......Agriculture the prominent mechanism for Africa Development.

 Approximately two-thirds of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is dependent on agriculture and the sector is responsible for generating one-third of the continent’s GDP. With its vast arable land, Africa has the potential to not only feed its citizens but to export food to other regions of the world. It is therefore astonishing that Africa must import food and rely on food aid to feed its people. The majority of poor subsistence farmers lack the income to buy seeds, fertilizers and tools and the resources to set up even the simplest irrigation system.  Development assistance for agriculture could help provide the resources and the technical expertise to move smallholder farmers out of poverty, but development assistance for agriculture has declined dramatically in the last two-decades. Land-use policies and climate change have exacerbated the dire situation, as have the recent global food and financial crises. ONE urges development partners to implement the fol...
Post a Comment
read more»»

New study: Depression in men can lead to reduced rate of pregnancy in women.

A recent study, published on Thursday in “Fertility and Sterility”, suggests that there is a connection between the fertility level and mental health of men and women both. The research has the data from 1.608 men and 1,650 women, who were selected from six sites in the US, via the NIH’s (National Institutes of Health) Reproductive Medicine Network. A lot of participants are the couples in real life, and were undergoing the fertility treatment, like artificial insemination or medication of ovarian stimulation, but not IVF. Depending on the data, around 2% of men and 6% of women from total participants were reported with major depression events. However, the cases of major depression are small in number, just 34 men; an analysis is done to found the difference in 34 men and the other male participants of the study. The men with major depression have 60% fewer chances to have a live birth compared to the other men (participants) of the study. To put it specifically, among the 3...
Post a Comment
read more»»