Motivation

In most of my appointments, I spend a considerable amount of time expressing what motivates me to take on the path that God has put on my life. Sometimes I do not get to express fully what I see as a great need on the college campuses today. Most of the churches whom GCM serves are campus churches, including The Rock, so let me share some of the reasons why I see such a need for what I am doing.

Critical Window of Time

During the college years, most people decide (either knowingly or unknowingly) what sort of lifestyle decisions they want to make. Myself included, students embrace the college scene on their own (usually) for the first time. They are bombarded with thousand of messages telling them what is important, who they should be, what they should look like, what they should give their lives to and what they should do with their foundation. We live in a world that has an increasingly negative attitude and skepticism toward Christianity. In a time where students themselves are deciding what to do with faith in an America that is shifting toward a more pluralistic society, it is crucial to introduce students to the love and truth of Christ and to build the moral foundation before they step out into their next phase in life.

Baggage

Bottom line, students tend to have a lot of issues (emotional, spiritual and even physical) that they carry around with them below the surface. It is my strong desire to help drag those out to the surface where they can be dealt with in a loving, God-honoring way. Many students question their identity, who they are, why they are important, what their purpose is, and they need to be asking those questions. We want to help them discover God's abundant grace and acceptance of who they are, and then to help them find out God's purpose for them and become who they are meant to be. Whether they need someone to talk to, a teaching to speak to their hearts, counseling we can direct them to or just someone who believes in them, that is what we are about.

Spiritual Growth

God's love and truth are what I cling to very strongly. Our country, whether we want to face it or not, is losing it's grip on moral foundations and absolute truth. Spirituality may be an interest of people, but the importance of discipline, reverence, commitment and integrity are losing the standing they once had. If God's Word is not taught, then we have failed in what we are trying to do. In their next step, students will face even greater struggles than the ones they find in college. As an Eagle Scout, I have seen the importance of the qualities I mentioned above and, as the leaders of tomorrow, we hope to instill those in students. Now, while moral character is a high emphasis, we also must look to evangelism (sharing faith with others) when talking about spiritual growth. Scripture says that "faith without deeds is dead" but also to "be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have." So learning how to share our faith in an effective way is also paramount.

Love

The Barna Group, conducted a three-year study of nonbelievers' perceptions of Christianity today. The top three answers: judgmental, antihomosexual, hypocritical. We, as a church, need to relearn love. Paul writes, "If I have the gift of prophesy...and faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." With a growingly negative reputation, I find it crucial for us to represent Christ to these students in a way that demonstrates love in all we do.

Leaders of Tomorrow

To a great extent, the students in universities and college today are tomorrow's leaders. We call ourselves Great Commission Ministies because we have a very strong call to make disciples of these students who will, quite literally, be going to all nations pursuing all sorts of careers after graduation. We want to instill the importance, not only of surrenduring our lives, our careers and passions to God and let him lead those, but also the importance of how we live every day. The way we treat people, especially those who we don't have anything to gain from, what happens behind closed doors, the way we respond to the world's massive problems - are all incredibly relevant to our faith. We want to train people to be leaders in their respective fields while representing Christ in a beautiful way. We want them to get plugged into churches wherever they go and to continue to see the urgency of the gospel.

Authentic Faith

Finally, as you can see, we are not interested primarily in getting people to come to our weekly service. Instead, we care more about our purpose statement of "Making fully devoted followers of Christ out of college students." It's essential to who we are. We want students to see what it means to live as a Christian in today's world and to continually strive to be more like Christ each day. We live in a broken world and people need to experience a loving, authentic, driven community. We want to see life change and to glorify God. Christ is the hope of the world and we want to live like we believe that.