Know the history, experience the present, and catch a vision

International students here in America and in countries around the world are the key to global mission. Here’s why:

• Global Growth

The growth in the number of international students is explosive. There are five million international students in the world.

• Global Reach
• Change the university, change the world.
• Global Unreached

Two thirds of international students in the US come from the 10/40 window. 

• Global Culture

The global campus is not an American melting pot, nor a Canadian mosaic; instead, it is a global kaleidoscope, in dizzying technicolor. . . . On the global campus, International students—like their domestic peers—are marinated in a global youth culture: selfie-liked identity, app-abbreviated relationships, 15–minute YouTube heroes, tweet size thoughts. On the global campus, trends are transferred and new ones are started. The 

future is being shaped here and disseminated around the world by pixel, and by hand. . . . The worldview that permeates the global campus is a kumbaya of undocumented human goodness and a trust in human ingenuity, with little memory of our histories. On the global campus, young hearts and minds are being shaped, and not in the image of God.

• Global Ministry

China has one and a half million students overseas; but it has half a million foreigners studying in China (as many as in Canada). The top two nationalities of foreign students in China are South Korean and American.

• Global Impact

Most international students who come to faith on our global campuses will return home. Their journey mirrors the shift in the distribution of the church—West to East, North to South. International students transcend both worlds . . .

• Global Missionaries

Churches in the sending countries must send some of their young Christians here as imbedded student missionaries. 

• Global Campuses

Oxford University reports that, “student mobility is shifting from a largely unidirectional east–west flow to a multidirectional movement and encompassing non-traditional sending and host countries.” International education is becoming polycentric. Global campuses are becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

• Global Workplace

On the global campus, the primary focus is work. Students are to succeed when they graduate, so they often left home and crossed the world. . . .We need to teach global students about the power and virtue of the gospel to shape all aspects of their work and the societies their work will build.

• Global Future

The church has not been immune to building its own towers. The city of man is built from the ground up. But the city of God comes down from Him. God is re-gathering the nations, drawing their brightest hopes for the future, to a global campus near you. He wants to reveal Himself to the next generation of every nation.

An article condensed from “Ten Reasons Why the Global Campus is the Future of Mission,” by Alexander Best. Posted July 27, 2019, The Exchange.

Condensed from a news article entitled, “University grants Christian group official status amid lawsuit alleging discrimination,” The Christian Post, November 1, 2021, by Michael Grybosi https://www.christianpost.com/news/university-grants-christian-group-official-status-amid-lawsuit.html

The University of Houston-Clear Lake has granted a Christian student organization full recognition as a campus student group after a legal challenge was filed claiming that the school discriminated by excluding the group as a registered student organization (RSO).

The conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom has claimed victory after the Christian student group Ratio Christi sued the university over claims that its official status as a student group was denied for unlawful reasons. 

ADF reported that the university quickly gave Ratio Christi the recognized status after the legal complaint was filed against school officials last Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

“Ratio Christi received the good news they deserve—as a result of our lawsuit, the University of Houston-Clear Lake has now fully recognized the Christian student organization as a registered club on campus, granting them equal treatment among their peer groups,” said ADF Legal Counsel Caleb Dalton.

“We commend the university and its general counsel for taking quick action to correct this injustice. Now, the university must do the next right thing and rescind the unconstitutional policies that are still in place that were used to exclude Ratio Christi because it requires its leaders to agree with its values and mission.”

When a student group lacks registered student organization status, it cannot reserve on-campus spaces, invite speakers for events or use funds reserved by the university for student groups.

“UHCL’s refusal to grant Ratio Christi RSO status violates Plaintiffs’ free exercise, expressive association, free speech, and equal protection rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution,” the complaint states.

“The First Amendment protects the right of all student organizations to associate around shared beliefs. The fact that UHCL disregards that right when it comes to Ratio Christi is particularly egregious because UHCL has treated Ratio Christi differently because of its religious beliefs.”

The complaint further claimed that the university was using its anti-discrimination policy to bar Ratio Christi from receiving RSO status, namely Ratio Christi’s rules that restrict its leadership to Christians.

The legal filing alleged that the university’s anti-discrimination policies allowed non-religious student organizations to limit their leadership positions and membership to students who agree with their mission but would not let religious student groups do the same.  “Under the RSO Policies, RSOs cannot discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, veteran status, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity and gender expression — that is, unless the organization is the Vietnamese Student Association, International Student Advisory Board, Student Veterans Association, a sorority, or sport club team,” the complaint reads.