Our Vision: College Mobilization and INSIGHT
Our vision is to open people’s eyes to what God is doing in the World and help them find their strategic part in reaching the Nations with the Gospel. We believe that College Students are the most strategic group of people to mobilize to missions.
Four reasons College Students are the most strategic audience:
College Students are Seeking Answers
College is a time where you seek answers to all of life’s important questions. Most Christian students are specifically wrestling with the question of what to do with their life in light of their faith. Our desire is to build a foundation focused on missions and God’s Glory. We know that if we can instill a desire to see God glorified in students’ lives, then this will guide them as they make these important decisions.
Everyone has a strategic part to play in reaching the nations with the gospel, not only those who decide to serve overseas. No matter what Major students choose, with an understanding of God’s desire to be glorified in all the earth, they will make the most of the talents that God has given them. Lawyers and Doctors will strategically invest in missionaries serving amongst the unreached. Computer engineers will design computer programs to help with bible translation. Entrepreneurs will take their talents into the third-world and teach families how to create a viable business. CEO’s will train missionaries on how to partner with international leaders. There is not limit to the impact college students can have on the world if they understand that they have a strategic part to play.
College Students are Visionaries
Students are visionaries, dreamers, they think big and believe that they can change the world, and by the power of God they can! They are also a little fickle, and if these dreams are not encouraged or guided they will die out. By giving students a foundation of God’s purpose in the world, they will begin to dream of His desires being fulfilled, and these are dreams that make a difference.
We also see power in mentoring college students. Having someone walk beside them, believe in them, and giving them guidance will help them reach their goals. Many students will catch the vision for missions, but few will actually take a strategic role. Students get distracted easily with the next new thing. Mentoring and getting them in contact with other mission minded students is away to keep them on track and fuel their vision.
College Students are Living in a Global Society
Universities pride themselves on cultural diversity, brining in students and professors from all over the world. Most College students are living in a true global society, interacting daily with people outside their own culture. They understand the importance of valuing someone else’s culture and traditions. This atmosphere with out biblical guidance can very easily create universalists, but with the right understanding these global students have a knowledge of the world that is priceless to the mission enterprise.
And of top of that, there are students from unreached people groups and closed countries studying on American Campuses. If we can mobilize Christian students to reach out to internationals on their campus, teach them to follow Christ and pass on their vision to see their people and all nations glorifying God, they would be sending missionaries into some of the darkest parts of the world, where they themselves may never be allowed to go. Praise God this is a need and an opportunity to make a major impact on the world!
College Students are Transients
The point of focusing on college mobilization is to get people strategically involved with what God is doing in the world as early as possible. Everyone needs this vital information, but most of us have already made patterns in our lives that make it hard to change our lifestyles. College Students are just forming those patterns. By sharing with them God’s ultimate desire to see people from every nation come to know Him and how they can have a strategic part in making that happen, the patterns they form will lead them to a life strategically involved in God’s global purposes.
Students are on their way to somewhere else. They are uncommitted and not tied down to a family, bills, career, etc. They have entire summers off, this is the perfect time for them to go overseas and gain exposure to the world of missions. Not all of them will go to the field full-time, but the experience will give them power. They will set patterns now in finances, ethics, relationships, that will stay with them for a lifetime. We want students to make these decisions based on their strategic involvement in God’s global purposes. So wherever they go after college they are focused on seeing God’s glory in all the earth. The greatest part of working with college students is that Universities are a revolving door, you get to send Global Christians out into the world every year, and then they are replaced by a whole new group ready to learn.
So how does INSIGHT fit in to this vision?
“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” Proverbs 19:2
INSIGHT is a one-year college program developed to give students an understanding of God’s Glory and His purposes throughout history. Throughout the unfolding of the curriculum, topics in anthropology, comparative religions, philosophy, theology, the Bible, politics, and developments in church, mission, and world history are purposefully interwoven to give students a broad, integrated understanding of the interrelatedness of subjects. After taking INSIGHT, students have a mental filing system for how their future college classes fit together, and how it is all part of the larger story of God and man.
The heartbeat of INSIGHT is unmistakably mission. The themes of the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course run throughout the curriculum and are revisited and reinforced at multiple levels. Students are exposed to the Biblical basis for mission, mission history, principles of anthropology and cross-cultural communication, and current issues in mission strategy. Students leave INSIGHT with the Bible and mission academic background of a missionary candidate, an intellectual foundation for their faith, and with a year of college credit. This program is an amazing tool for mobilizing college students to missions. With this foundation these students will know the importance and urgency of reaching the nations with the Gospel and how they have a strategic part to play.
Our time with the U.S Center for World Mission in Pasadena will be spent investing in the INSIGHT program and more importantly the students. We are excited to get to know this small group of students and see how God is going to work in their lives. With the strategic nature of this course in mind, we are also working to expand this program to other locations across the country and around the world. Students need this information and INSIGHT is a great tool that any church or NGO could use to impact college students in their area. We are excited to learn and grow in this program and see how God is going to use it to mobilize an entire generation to see his glory throughout the earth!
To put it all together…
We are looking for the most strategic ways to fulfill the vision God has given us. We have found the audience, some great tools, now for the location.
We do not believe in coincidence, but it the great work of our Lord. Before moving to California we had been living in the Raleigh Durham area of North Carolina. There could not be a more strategic place to do college ministry. Within a 30-mile radius of the Southeast office of the USCWM there are 11 colleges/universities totaling at over 75,000 undergraduate students! These schools have vibrant campus ministries and there are several large churches focusing on college students. By partnering with these ministries and churches we can equip college students to get strategically involved in reaching the nations with the Gospel.
INSIGHT will be one of many tools that we will bring back to the Raleigh Durham area. Our hope is to run INSIGHT at a local church as well as spend as much time as possible on campuses networking with college pastors, and hanging out with students. There are so many dreams and ideas running in our heads, we cannot wait to see what God is going to do on these campuses for His Glory.
Four reasons College Students are the most strategic audience:
College Students are Seeking Answers
College is a time where you seek answers to all of life’s important questions. Most Christian students are specifically wrestling with the question of what to do with their life in light of their faith. Our desire is to build a foundation focused on missions and God’s Glory. We know that if we can instill a desire to see God glorified in students’ lives, then this will guide them as they make these important decisions.
Everyone has a strategic part to play in reaching the nations with the gospel, not only those who decide to serve overseas. No matter what Major students choose, with an understanding of God’s desire to be glorified in all the earth, they will make the most of the talents that God has given them. Lawyers and Doctors will strategically invest in missionaries serving amongst the unreached. Computer engineers will design computer programs to help with bible translation. Entrepreneurs will take their talents into the third-world and teach families how to create a viable business. CEO’s will train missionaries on how to partner with international leaders. There is not limit to the impact college students can have on the world if they understand that they have a strategic part to play.
College Students are Visionaries
Students are visionaries, dreamers, they think big and believe that they can change the world, and by the power of God they can! They are also a little fickle, and if these dreams are not encouraged or guided they will die out. By giving students a foundation of God’s purpose in the world, they will begin to dream of His desires being fulfilled, and these are dreams that make a difference.
We also see power in mentoring college students. Having someone walk beside them, believe in them, and giving them guidance will help them reach their goals. Many students will catch the vision for missions, but few will actually take a strategic role. Students get distracted easily with the next new thing. Mentoring and getting them in contact with other mission minded students is away to keep them on track and fuel their vision.
College Students are Living in a Global Society
Universities pride themselves on cultural diversity, brining in students and professors from all over the world. Most College students are living in a true global society, interacting daily with people outside their own culture. They understand the importance of valuing someone else’s culture and traditions. This atmosphere with out biblical guidance can very easily create universalists, but with the right understanding these global students have a knowledge of the world that is priceless to the mission enterprise.
And of top of that, there are students from unreached people groups and closed countries studying on American Campuses. If we can mobilize Christian students to reach out to internationals on their campus, teach them to follow Christ and pass on their vision to see their people and all nations glorifying God, they would be sending missionaries into some of the darkest parts of the world, where they themselves may never be allowed to go. Praise God this is a need and an opportunity to make a major impact on the world!
College Students are Transients
The point of focusing on college mobilization is to get people strategically involved with what God is doing in the world as early as possible. Everyone needs this vital information, but most of us have already made patterns in our lives that make it hard to change our lifestyles. College Students are just forming those patterns. By sharing with them God’s ultimate desire to see people from every nation come to know Him and how they can have a strategic part in making that happen, the patterns they form will lead them to a life strategically involved in God’s global purposes.
Students are on their way to somewhere else. They are uncommitted and not tied down to a family, bills, career, etc. They have entire summers off, this is the perfect time for them to go overseas and gain exposure to the world of missions. Not all of them will go to the field full-time, but the experience will give them power. They will set patterns now in finances, ethics, relationships, that will stay with them for a lifetime. We want students to make these decisions based on their strategic involvement in God’s global purposes. So wherever they go after college they are focused on seeing God’s glory in all the earth. The greatest part of working with college students is that Universities are a revolving door, you get to send Global Christians out into the world every year, and then they are replaced by a whole new group ready to learn.
So how does INSIGHT fit in to this vision?
“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” Proverbs 19:2
INSIGHT is a one-year college program developed to give students an understanding of God’s Glory and His purposes throughout history. Throughout the unfolding of the curriculum, topics in anthropology, comparative religions, philosophy, theology, the Bible, politics, and developments in church, mission, and world history are purposefully interwoven to give students a broad, integrated understanding of the interrelatedness of subjects. After taking INSIGHT, students have a mental filing system for how their future college classes fit together, and how it is all part of the larger story of God and man.
The heartbeat of INSIGHT is unmistakably mission. The themes of the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course run throughout the curriculum and are revisited and reinforced at multiple levels. Students are exposed to the Biblical basis for mission, mission history, principles of anthropology and cross-cultural communication, and current issues in mission strategy. Students leave INSIGHT with the Bible and mission academic background of a missionary candidate, an intellectual foundation for their faith, and with a year of college credit. This program is an amazing tool for mobilizing college students to missions. With this foundation these students will know the importance and urgency of reaching the nations with the Gospel and how they have a strategic part to play.
Our time with the U.S Center for World Mission in Pasadena will be spent investing in the INSIGHT program and more importantly the students. We are excited to get to know this small group of students and see how God is going to work in their lives. With the strategic nature of this course in mind, we are also working to expand this program to other locations across the country and around the world. Students need this information and INSIGHT is a great tool that any church or NGO could use to impact college students in their area. We are excited to learn and grow in this program and see how God is going to use it to mobilize an entire generation to see his glory throughout the earth!
To put it all together…
We are looking for the most strategic ways to fulfill the vision God has given us. We have found the audience, some great tools, now for the location.
We do not believe in coincidence, but it the great work of our Lord. Before moving to California we had been living in the Raleigh Durham area of North Carolina. There could not be a more strategic place to do college ministry. Within a 30-mile radius of the Southeast office of the USCWM there are 11 colleges/universities totaling at over 75,000 undergraduate students! These schools have vibrant campus ministries and there are several large churches focusing on college students. By partnering with these ministries and churches we can equip college students to get strategically involved in reaching the nations with the Gospel.
INSIGHT will be one of many tools that we will bring back to the Raleigh Durham area. Our hope is to run INSIGHT at a local church as well as spend as much time as possible on campuses networking with college pastors, and hanging out with students. There are so many dreams and ideas running in our heads, we cannot wait to see what God is going to do on these campuses for His Glory.
Labels: Missions
posted by Adam & Melissa Hoffman at 1:24 PM
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