Imagine: Making Disciples of All Nations Begins on The College Campus

We live in a western society where we have the best universities in the world and students from all nations are desperately wanting to study here. There are approximately 2.5 million international students who study in the United states every year. These students have a variety of needs including transportation, furniture, and English conversational partners just to name a few.

80% of those international students will never enter an American home, but are eager to do so. Half of these international students come from countries that prohibit missionaries. There aren’t many days that go by that international students who have never heard the gospel ask me about my faith. These conversations take place in the cafeteria, BCM, Starbucks, and simply walking around campus. These students are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhists, and non-religious. Most are from well established families who have powerful influence in their native country. Yesterday I talked to a student from Saudi Arabia whose dad was in the government and brother was in the army. The top 1% of international populations study in the west. Sun Yat-sen studied in Hawaii, Nelson Mandela and Ghandi studied in England, and Ho chi minh studied in the west as well. Could you imagine the multiplication effect of the gospel if we would be willing reach the future leaders of the world?

4 steps in reaching internationals on campus:

1. Pray, Pray, Pray
2. Start small and focused while being consistent
3. Be a learner before a teacher
4. Every cultural context looks different so be sensitive yet pragmatic

What doesn’t work is a mass marketed campaign of formulaic easy prayerism. Just this week, I talked to an international student who “prayed the magic prayer” in California, but had never heard about baptism, daily prayer, or how to join or why join a church. He still didn’t understand the nature of Jesus. Making students "pray a prayer" is NOT disciple-making.

The test of discipleship is not how many students are being reached, but rather, how many students who are being reached are reaching others. If international students are reaching others, could you imagine the multiplication that would take place throughout the world? This was the genius plan of the early church. What if we took discipleship this serious and took ownership that we are God’s agent in reaching the nations.?

What would happen if the gospel reached the 2.5 million international students who are studying in America this year and they took the gospel back to their native country?

Imagine...