The soft-power benefits of educating the world’s leaders

High School Senior and College Freshman;What They Need to Know To Attend College 

Excerpted from a two-part article in the Arkansas Baptist News  by Adam Venters, June 22 and 24, 2021

Exciting senior trips, inspiring graduation speeches, nostalgic summer vacations, bittersweet goodbyes in high school and so much more. Transitioning to college has all the feelings. In a few short weeks, recent high school graduates will transition to college as freshmen. As the anticipation mounts, how can a believer in Christ make this transition into college well? How can a student transition from high school to college and make informed decisions from the Bible? 

The book of Proverbs is helpful in any stage of life but is particularly helpful for the heart and mind of a young adult. There are so many truth nuggets that can be found in this book of wisdom.   

• There is more to our life than it being OUR life. 
• Righteousness is the best security; be satisfied by God. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear.
• Doing good will always last. Make time for what lasts. 
• Be teachable. The best opinions are marinated in wisdom.  
• Do not let looks steal your heart. Let a person’s speech guide your perception of them.  
• Speak affirmations of truth to others. Do not let your speech be filled full of jokes and sarcasm. 
• Having a critical mind is a great thing. Having a critical soul can be detrimental. 
• Be discerning with what you say and how you say it. College is a great time to gain knowledge.
• Enjoy your study. Learn a lot about others. 
• Have life altering encounters with God.  
• Wealth can be seen in many different ways. Learn how to build the kind of wealth that would honor God. Choose to invest in God and build a life on Jesus.  
• Plan your calendar with the disciplines of God going first and fill in the rest of the ‘To-Do’s’ around Godly commitments. 
• Do not let hatred stay long enough that your life is dictated by it. 
• Be wise with social media.  
• Let God guide you to your major.
• Insecurity can lead to an inimical life. Be secure in Christ. 
• Be as diligent as you can in all the ways that you should be. Cultivate your growth in God and plant deeply where he shows you. Beware of shorts-cut or instant gratification.  
• Think of sharing Christ as planting a seed with what you say. You will not have fruit overnight, but fruit comes when we plant seeds.  

Walt Henrichsen, author of the classic Disciples Are Made Not Born, made this shocking statement: “If you are at college for any other reason than to be on mission for Jesus Christ, you are there for selfish, sinful reasons.” 

That is a bold statement. Did Walt, a former pastor and Navigator go too far in his challenge to students, or has he found an open nerve that desperately needed to be uncovered and dealt with?  

Adam believes, “God’s definition for college is a four-year (or more) window in a person’s life when God has maximum opportunity to build a foundation into a life lived for him.  

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.