This is Part Two of a two-post series on reaching international students.
In Part One, I addressed the WHY, with 9 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD BE REACHING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS…YESTERDAY.
Now in Part Two, I’ll present a list of ideas on HOW.
Call me crazy, but with the launch of Shaping Their Future just a few days away now, I figured it might be time to get started on my next book.
CAMPUS gODS: Exposing the Idols That Can Derail Your Present and Destroy Your Future
How’s that sound for a working title?
Approximately 20 million college students attend universities in the US and approximately one million of them are international students.
Do the math. That means roughly one out of every 20 college students in the US is from another country!
It’s time for us to be more intentional about reaching international students. That’s why I’ve written this Two Part series. So before I share some ideas for HOW to minister to international students, let’s first consider nine reasons WHY:
Sex, love, books and football — they all made the list of this month’s Top Posts(*).
Special thanks to those who contributed guest posts for the 2013 Sex & the Soul Blogathon!
Now on to the countdown…
A BIG THANKS to all who turned out for the 3rd Annual Sex & the Soul Blogathon!! So many great posts — and conversations begun.
And a special THANKS! to Abbie Smith for offering 5 copies of her forthcoming book Celibate Sex: Musings on Being Loved, Single, Twisted, and Holy.
Everyone who Tweeted, Shared, posted, or commented over the three-day event were eligible to win — and randomly assigned a number. Five numbers were then selected — at random — from Random.org.
The WINNERS of a copy of Abbie Smith’s Celibate Sex are:
I feel the costs of the corporate LGBT and Church disconnect have been well documented for what this culture war has left in its wake.
The broader LGBT community’s retelling of this story, in most cases, has the Bride acting more like Bridezilla than the Bride who, when the doors swing open for the first time, is standing in her gown, looking as beautiful as she has ever looked, ready to walk down the aisle and be sacramentally joined with God to the person she loves more than any other on the face of the earth.
And the Church’s retelling of this disconnect, at its core, is in most cases one of denominational and congregations division—separating what many thought was once one of the three unbreakable cords tied to the Lord for good works.
In my 10 years of sharing with singles (primarily college students) I’ve zeroed in on four lies I think we need to overcome in order to lead our students into sexual freedom and, more importantly, their true identity in Christ.
“It seems that more than ever the compulsion today is to identify, to reduce someone to what is on the label. To identify is to control, to limit. To love is to call by name and so open the wide gates of creativity. But we forget names and turn to labels.” –Madeline L’Engle
LGBTQ is the latest in a long list of labels used to identify people with sexual orientations that differ from the heterosexual norm.
As a pastor of students, and father of five small children, I am deeply troubled by the statistics describing the sexual practices of today’s young people.
Sometimes I wish I had the ability to sit down with students and allow them to look 5 years, 10 years, or maybe even 15 years into the future — so they could see how their present actions will have a direct impact on their future.
I honestly believe that if more students knew how their choices today would impact their lives in the years to come, they’d make changes in their lives.
At least I hope they would.
Jesus told the Samaritan Woman that ‘whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.’ (John 4:13 emphasis mine)
Never before has this Scripture come screaming at me as it does when I watch some of the interactions of students on the college campus. The phenomenon of dating is evolving, and the church isn’t keeping up. The idea of a more traditional mindset of dating where the guy talks with the family…especially the father…about courting his daughter is nothing more than a manuscript of a 1950’s sitcom that airs reruns on TVLand.
Gone are the ideals of respect, trust, love and commitment.