College and Church

                In a recent book, The College Scene, a sampling of ten thousand students indicated that 73 percent believed in God or a Supreme Being. Nineteen percent did not believe while 8 percent had doubts. That 73 percent should make one feel rather good about the future of Christianity in this country. However, the statistic itself is frightening.

                 How so? The pollsters were convinced that college
students believe in some supreme Being, or mystical force who Controls or is responsible for life. This vague idea of God is linked to the fact that only 36 percent of the college students attend church. (One student’s comment might even warm the heart of a professor if it were not so wild. He commented: "I worship God by studying.”) The pollsters did not ask: “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world?” Had 73 percent affirmed that, I could be excited.

                The vagueness of the college idea of God points up a number of
possibilities: (l) they are theologically ignorant, (2) they are searching but have not found God, and/or (3) they have outright rejected any consideration of Jesus Christ.

                If they are theologically ignorant, we have failed to make them see that merely concluding that some force called God is intellectually useful, is not the same thing as knowing God who has become personally knowable in Jesus Christ. 'If they are searching, then the church has not even begun to meet the needs of the 7 million college students in this country. If they have outright rejected any consideration of Jesus Christ, the answer probably lies in their sorry examples they have seen
parading _around. If this answer were right it would explain why the number one adjective for describing the church on the lips of some  college students is “hypocritical.”

                Whatever the reason, we have failed in getting the Gospel across specifically. This failure points up ‘the fact that 64 percent of college students do not see the meaning of the fellowship of God’s people for their lives. It mayalso be said God’s people have not seen the meaning of their fellowship for 7 million college students.
                We don't know  apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote Col. 4:17, but its word to Archippus has meaning for the modern church in its neglect of the college student: "And say to Archippus, 'See that you fulfill the ministry which you have received in the Lord.’ ” (RSV)

Baptist Digest,  March 20.1971
Dallas Roark
Professor of Philosophy
KSTC, Emporia, Kansas