Upholding the Next Generation - Church Prayer Leaders Network

How to Pray for God’s Movement on Campus

By Jeremy Story

The recent movie God’s Not Dead depicts the struggle between a Christian student and an atheist professor. Producer Mike Scott told me that during test screenings his team discovered viewers had a hard time believing any college classroom could be that hostile toward Christians. As a result, the producers added to the film credits a long list of recent court cases regarding the violation of students’ basic religious liberties.

As you pray for colleges and universities, it is important to understand the amount of depravity there. It’s helpful to realize how spiritually dark campuses can be. Yet we also need hope—the knowledge of ways God has used students in dark times to bring light and to spark national spiritual awakening again and again.

For every hostile academic environment, there is often a courageous faith-filled student, administrator, or professor willing to represent God’s Kingdom. I am reminded of Lauren, a student at the University of Texas, whose religious studies professor was going to have a shaman do a healing demonstration in front of her class. Lauren asked her professor if she could demonstrate how Jesus can heal. She then prayed for students willing to put God to the test in front of the class. Not only was a student healed, but that student became a follower of Christ! Lauren’s professor also gave her 15 minutes to share her own experiences with Jesus and His healing power.

Hope for Transformation

The reality is that almost every major spiritual awakening in America began among college students. Opposite forces fight side by side. Christian students are the pivot point for great transformation or great evil in our nation. This means we must know how to pray for them in practical ways.

I have worked with a wide spectrum of students and college ministries nationally and globally. Out of that experience I offer five key points you can focus on as you pray for colleges, universities, and their students. This is not a complete list, but it highlights some of the most practical and tangible aspects you can pray about.

1. Pray for a revelation of Jesus and righteousness among college administrators, faculty, and staff. A former board member of Campus Renewal Ministries was an art professor in the University of Wisconsin system. During the Jesus Movement in the 1970s Gary Bergel turned from doing drugs with his students to proclaiming Christ in the classroom. Later in his life God used him to lead a major nationwide prayer movement called Intercessors for America.

Professors and administrators often feel isolated. Their specialization can put their closest counterparts hundreds of miles away on other campuses. Pray for godly people to connect with these leaders on our nation’s campuses. Pray that all their vast knowledge will lead them to God rather than to prideful arrogance.

2. Pray for religious freedom to flourish. In September 2014, the California State University (CSU) system “derecognized” InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as a student club because InterVarsity said practicing homosexuals couldn’t be leaders in their clubs. The great news is that CSU-system students have stood their ground and have refused to sign the nondiscrimination agreement, even though doing so would allow them to be officially recognized by the university system.

Variations of this scenario have happened on many campuses across the nation. Pray for students to courageously stand up for their faith rather than caving to university pressures. Pray for administrators to value religious freedom as much as they value academic freedom. Pray for favor and unity among the coalition of lawyers from different ministries that are fighting to stop this alarming trend across America. Ask God to turn this persecution into good for believers on campus.

3. Pray for a harvest of Kingdom ministers in every vocation and field of study. A few years ago I trained a group of students at City College in New York City, showing them how to pick a community for themselves within a campus full of nonbelievers, how to be relevant and valuable assets to that community, and how to help everyone in that community grow closer to Christ. Andy Mineo, a student in that training group, graduated from college shortly thereafter and recently released a hip hop album that topped MTV charts and filled stadiums with fans.

In an interview Andy did with MTV, he clearly explained the good news about Jesus in a language and manner that gained the ears and respect of the hip hop community. He has open doors in the hip hop world with rap artists and others. Few people have the credibility to speak to them.Pray for more students like Andy in every field. Ask God to help college ministries train students to serve Christ in a way that doesn’t separate the secular and religious worlds. The future leadership of our culture, business climate, and economy depends on it.

4. Pray for sexual purity among students and for great future marriages. Yale University is now famous for its Sex Week celebrations. Yale allows this week for students to explore and discuss all sexual options. During the annual event there have been workshops regarding “fantasies with family members” and “masochistic sexual practices,” to name a few.

Here is the good news. Several students have courageously stood against this event. As a result, Yale removed its name from the event and prohibited any corporate sponsorship. On many Ivy League campuses Christian students have organized alternative events. Students at Harvard founded a club dedicated to starting a chastity movement.

For the first time in their lives college students find themselves completely on their own with lots of freedom. They are surrounded by a very sexually explicit campus culture. Pray for students’ foresight to see compromising situations and avoid them entirely. Pray that the Holy Spirit will convict students to flee from sexual sin. During this phase of life, students make decisions that affect them for the rest of their lives. Ask God to divinely connect male and female students in marriages that edify both spouses, glorify Christ, and last a lifetime.

5. Pray for truth to rise to the top. Pluralism is the norm on college campuses. Everyone is seeking truth and many people are making truth claims. While Kelly Monroe was a chaplain at Harvard, she organized an event featuring Christian speakers who are top academics in various fields. The goal was to have a week-long discussion in pursuit of real truth. Hundreds attended.

The event, now known as the Veritas Forum, has spread to campuses across the United States. It has raised the banner that absolute truth can be found in the midst of various claims to truth.

Pray for God to help students discern good from evil. Pray for light to expose darkness for what it really is. Pray for the claims of Jesus to be seen as truth—unique and utterly different from the myriad of other religious options on campus. Pray for great speakers—those who can clearly articulate and prove the authenticity of biblical teachings—to proliferate across campuses.

Good Reason to Pray!

Ultimately my desire is to see another great awakening to Jesus the Christ in our culture and a revival to Him in the Church. We desperately need Him. We need to show the world that God’s not dead. And we have good reason to pray with faith that He will use college and university campuses to instigate that revival and spiritual awakening.

JEREMY STORY is president of Campus Renewal Ministries. He also serves on the executive committee of America’s National Prayer Committee and the executive board of Intercessors for America.