Speaker Calls for More Salt and Light On Secular Campuses
by Jim Brown
January 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - A popular Christian minister says students at Christian colleges might want to consider transferring to secular schools that need more Christian influence.
Pastor Louie Giglio of the Atlanta-based Choice Ministries, Inc., led this week's Nashville, Tennessee, "Passion '05 Conference," which wrapped up Wednesday. The dynamic speaker and Passion Network founder expects that many students who belong to a tiny Christian minority on their own campuses felt blessed to be surrounded by 12,000 fellow believers this week. However, Giglio is hoping more students at predominantly Christian schools will prayerfully consider whether they should serve God by pursuing their degree plans on a secular campus instead.
"The heart of Passion," Giglio says, "is just to get students to shift their focus from living lives that are all about 'me' to lives that are all about 'Him.' If there is an action point, it would be to go to some of the places in America where the campuses really have a great need of the message of Christ -- namely Boston and New York."
According to the conference's director, some colleges across the United States are in particular need of a greater Christian presence and influence. For instance, he notes that the New York City campus of New York University has only about 200 practicing Christians in a student body of some 40,000. Giglio urged Christian college students attending the conference to search their hearts and prayerfully consider whether God might be calling them to stand up and stand out for Christ in a more secular setting.
"We've suggested that students maybe consider transferring," the minister says, "especially if they're at Bible Belt schools that are overrun with Christian ministries and there's a church on every corner and tons of opportunity."
Giglio is asking Christians who are current or potential college students to explore whether there may be a school that fits their study plan, possibly in a part of the country where Christians are fewer in number, but where the need for Christian witness is greater.
Students at Passion '05 heard not only from Pastor Giglio this week, but also from Reformed theologian John Piper, and were led in worship by Shane and Shane, Chris Tomlin, Big Daddy Weave, and the David Crowder Band.
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