What does it take to live as a follower of Christ in college? I’ve been living this reality for almost 3 years now, and at times, it’s a very lonely road. My journey has changed so much from when I first started at my university to now. I can happily say that my relationship with Christ has come out stronger, amidst the challenges college has thrown at me- but it is NOT as simple as that. There have been a crazy amount of highs and lows, and this journey is far from over. Research is showing that an alarming 70% of young adults leave the church as college students (Christianity Today, 2019). Finding this statistic really grabbed my curiosity. Why are so many college students leaving?
Obviously, moving to a new town for college plays a huge roll in church attendance. Speaking from my own experience, it’s pretty intimidating trying to find a new church, especially when you’re by yourself. Finding Christian friends has been difficult in college, and so I ended up going to several church services by myself. However, a growing reason being cited in surveys for leaving the church is political and spiritual concerns (Christianity Today, 2019). I’m sad to say that this was not shocking information to me. All you have to do is jump on social media and look at the tweets from college students. “Spirituality” is a HUGE topic, but not spirituality in any sort of biblical sense.
Have you ever heard the term “manifestation?” I see it everywhere, and it actually makes me sick to my stomach now. Manifestation is the idea that you can speak something into existence. I hope that believers can see right through that idea, but unfortunately, it seems many people who profess to be Christians fall right into the trap. Astrology is another thing that I have witnessed too many people get caught up in. Astrology appears to say that the alignment of the stars, many times on the day you were born, influences your life and who you are. I’m sure you’ve seen a post about Virgos, Cancers, Geminis, etc. I confess that even caught my attention at some level, and I found myself looking for my “sign.” Thankfully, I didn’t dive deeper into that. The deeper down the rabbit hole you look, the eviler it gets.
Those ideas only scratch the surface level of what is pulling on college students. Being surrounded by those and many other unbiblical ideas, it seems very difficult to stand up for what you believe in. But I believe, that is getting to the root of the problem. Why are these things able to pull Christians away from the church and/or away from their values and what they believe? Why is going into your new college town to look for a church “too hard?” Here I ask you to look within. As we all need to do, these students need to examine their hearts. Do they actually believe in Jesus Christ and the resurrection? Do they believe in the gospel that the Bible teaches? I think the answer is no.
I recently had the opportunity to watch a documentary called American Gospel. It is extremely informative and I think everyone should watch it. It discusses how the gospel message has been twisted and turned to meet what we want, as humans, effectively producing something coined the “prosperity” gospel. Unfortunately, I believe that is the gospel many people believe, not to mention adding in all the other “gospels” being preached from college campuses. Of course, they don’t call themselves such, but they claim to be the truth. And that is where the problem begins…
