Jesus gets a 7.5 (read more to find out what that means)

What a week it has been!!! We've had an initial conversation about Jesus with somewhere between 400 and 500 freshmen! It has been exhausting but exhilarating as well. The preliminary stats are in. After reviewing about 25% of the surveys, this years freshmen give Jesus a 7.6 out of 10. Not bad, considering very few of them would consider themselves Christians. That being said, people are interested in Jesus and this generation is no exception. Now it's up to us to share with them!

Why are 18 Million College Students in the Desert?

18,000,000 college students are lost in a desert of loneliness, depression and sin! They are searching for a way out. Unfortunately, they are being lied to - but you have the answers! As this new semester begins and the next generation of leaders are stepping on to campus today, remember they are desperately thirsty for the spiritual water flowing out of you (Jn.7:37-39). In fact, 7 million of them are waiting for you to say something! I believe this will be the greatest semester ever as we take the initiative to share with these students. If you want to be a part of the miracle God will do on college campuses across this nation this semester, follow these 6 steps to successfully reaching your campus for Jesus: 

1. Don't believe these 10 bad lies.
2. Pray.
3. Take the initiative in the power of the Holy Spirit.
4. Evaluate if their spiritually thirsty (click here to see).
5. Get prepared and all trained up!!!
6. Go for it! Check out more tools and ideas here.

Well, it will be a great semester! I can't wait to see all God will do!

The Top 12 Lies You'll Hear in College!

Classes are about to begin and the onslaught on your faith is being strategized by professors right now! Don't go into this blind. Here are 12 of the biggest lies you're about to hear in college, followed by the answers! Share this with your friends or anyone you know that's headed to college!

Lie #1 - Your professor knows everything.

Lie #2 - There is no absolute Truth.

Lie #3 - All religions are the same.

Lie #4 - Christianity is intolerant.

Lie #5 - The party scene is fulfilling.

Lie #6 - Porn, hooking up and sex outside of marriage are satisfying (get some specific answers to that lie here).

Lie #7 - I can get my life right with God later.

Lie #8 - I donʼt need fellowship.

Lie #9 - Science and Christianity donʼt mix.

Lie #10 - You canʼt trust the Bible.

Lie #11 - College students arenʼt interested in Jesus.

Lie #12 - Jesus was just a good teacher or a nice guy.

So, enough of the lies. Get the truth and answers to these lies by listening to the MP3 below (you can get the notes here).

Also, check out this revealing video about truth on campus!

5 Keys for Reaching Young People for Christ!

Remember when you used to be cool, or at least know what cool was? Skinny Jeans weren't cool when I was in school so at 32 I am beginning to feel like I don't know what the next generation thinks is cool anymore. Being in College ministry, it is often easy to feel a bit clueless about the next generation but these 5 keys will give you rails to run on when trying to reach them for Christ. 

So why reach this generation in the 1st place?
 First, God told you to, remember Mt.28:18-20.
 Second, no generation in history has had the potential this one does. 
Transportation, globalization, communication, technology, the internet and social networks have all created our first real opportunity in history to actually fulfill the Great Commission. 
Third, This is why you are here.
 Acts 17:26-27 says, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
 The harvest is so ripe guys! 
Remember Mt.9:36-38, the problem isn't with the harvest but rather with the lack of harvesters. It is time we begin working to reach the next generation for Jesus. 

As you begin strategizing how to reach young people for Christ, get to know know who you're trying to reach! We've consolidated a lot of Barna's research about the 7 emerging trends in this coming generation into the following paraphrased statement: They embrace change and shun tradition.
 They emphasize feelings over information and logic.
 They pursue relevance not excellence. 
They are more technological and less hard working.
 They prioritize relationships over performance. 
They are searching for reality and rejecting facades.
 And, they yearn for meaning more than the American dream (The 6Cs described by some old Campus Crusade staff - cash, cars, careers, condos, cuties and computers).
 

Finally, to reach them follow these 5 keys, the 5 Rs: be 1) Real, 2) Relevant, 3) Relational, 4) Revolutionary and 5) give them a Role in the process. This generation is searching for leaders that will be real, authentic and vulnerable. This generation expects our presentation to be relevant (but don't compromise the truth). This generation desires ministry context to be relational. This generation wants actions and application to be revolutionary. And, this generation yearns to have a role in it all.

For the specifics on reaching this next generation for Christ, check out these notes and listen to the MP3 below (shared originally at Celebration Church on Nov. 21st, 2010)!

Sharing the Good News Couldn't Possibly Get Easier Than This!

Here's the simplest idea for sharing your faith you will probably ever hear. Share an evangelistic website with a friend and post it to your social networks. Several ministries focus completely on reaching people through the web. These typically reach thousands daily with the gospel (more on that below). Check out Godrev.com's vision here. So here is the idea: think through any friends you have that don't yet know Jesus and send them a message encouraging them to check out one of the following sites. If the person is a college student send them to http://www.everystudent.com/ and send anyone else to http://www.lookingforgod.com/. You should also post these links to your facebook, twitter or other social media with a short message like, "want to know more about Jeus, click here." If you think these sites are irrelevant, think again; yesterday 1,978 put their trust in Christ on the lookingforgod.com site and as I write, early this morning, over 11,000 people have already put their trust in Christ on everystudent.com and other Global Media Outreach sites. You can see some of those live decisions on the interactive map below or by clicking here (this site will blow your mind). You never know, one of those live decisions for Christ might end up being one of your friends! And, in case you were wondering, these decisions aren't just random numbers out in internet land - they are real people and real believers really follow up with them. You could even help with that by clicking here. Finally, don't forget to pray for these people as you watch these live decisions for Christ and don't forget to share these sites with friends and on your networksCould evangelism get any simpler? Have a great day sharing your faith!

"The Top 12 Lies You'll Hear in College"

This is a message from our Connect weekly meeting last night titled "The Top 12 Lies You'll Hear in College." It was a great way to start out the semester and a good message for college students, student leaders and parents of students. It has a very clear presentation of the gospel. Check it out and share it with any college students, student leaders or parents of students that you know!

Get the notes here!

7,000,000 college students want you to tell them about Jesus!

This is a picture of Erin and I with our team of students committed to reaching FLC! In the past 4 days we've met over 200 students and had some level of spiritual conversation with all of them. 96.7% of those students have at least some interest in spiritual issues and the average spiritual interest level is 6.3 out of 10. Roughly 1/3 of these 200 students want to get together to talk more about Jesus Christ. There are over 18 million college student here in the US. If you extrapolated our stats you'd come up with the following numbers: 17,406,000 would have some level of spiritual interest and on average that spiritual interest would be quite high (6.3 out of 10). Of those students, nearly 7 million would be interested in talking one-on-one about Jesus!!! Talk about the harvest being ripe!!! Unfortunately, over years of college ministry, we have found that although almost all of them are interested in talking about Jesus, over 90% of college students are clueless about how to have a relationship with Christ and very few people are sharing the Gospel with them because they believe the lie that students aren't interested! It is time we start sharing the Good News with them! On that note, check out this post for the gospel straight from Jesus' mouth.

For all of you college students, check out this MP3 on taking a stand in college!

Everything is rolling here. Our 1st big event - the kick-off BBQ went GREAT!!! There were around 100 college students. Many of these were new students. We asked you to pray it wouldn't rain. When we e-mailed everyone it was dark and cloudy. About an hour before the BBQ the skies turned blue and they stayed that way until an hour after at which point it began pouring. Thank you for praying!!! Pray for good weather for our outdoor meeting on campus tomorrow (we'll be sharing the Good News over a sound system in the middle of the campus - pray it won't rain and pray tons of students will hear us). This will be a HUGE week. We'll be on campus every day this week. Please keep praying for us. Pray we'll share the Good News boldly and fearlessly as we should. Finally, please tell us what God has been doing in your life and please check out the short video below for an idea on some of what we do to connect with students!