By Naomi Kouns
We are in England. Rich green fields, patterned quilt-like by ancient hedgerows, roll to the horizon. A faint mist blurs the distant landscape. Brilliant daffodils cluster along the road. Ewes chew contentedly while their young lambs dash a small way across the field and then turn to bounce back to the security of their mothers” sides.
I stand, looking out the window of a 15th-century farmhouse, at this scene that speaks the 23rd Psalm to me. The Lord is my shepherd, drifts across my mind. I shall not want . . . . He restores my soul!
The quiet of this pastoral setting is in sharp contrast to the frantic activity on the university campus we had left behind. Almost by definition, students have to rush: to classes, to meet friends, to their lodgings, to work, to shop, to eat, to seek. Clustered in groups or walking alone, students move purposefully onto campus from the high street and walk among the ancient buildings with youthful energy that is a bridge to the future.
Yet the words came to me while on the university campus. The Lord is my shepherd. He wants to restore my soul.
Pre-Christian?
We are in England. There is much to celebrate here. A new vitality is emerging in evangelical churches. Fellowship binds the people of God to one another. One can almost see the hand of God in the distant mist, beckoning this nation to return to him.
But the shocking words used by one Brit to describe the current generation in his country are harsh. He says that England is now pre-Christian. The England that gave us missionaries William Carey and Hudson Taylor, hymn writers Issac Watts and Charles Wesley, and philanthropist George Mueller now considers itself pre-Christian?
Look at these facts. In missions, we consider a people-group unreached if approximately 15 percent are unchurched. In the 1990s, only 9.5 percent of Brits were churched (in some form). That decade saw 1 million people leave the church. By 2004, only 7.5 percent said they go to church once a month. Other researchers put active Christians at 3″“5 percent. A survey taken in 2002 revealed that 43 percent of the population did not know what Easter was about.
In the decades following World War II, generations turned away from God. Now the children of the children of that generation””and their preschoolers””do not know Jesus. Brits will tell you that, as a culture, they have no optimism. Mark Greene, in his book, Imagine, quotes Nietzsche saying that as societies move away from God, they don”t get happier, they get unhappier. Greene reflects that Christianity has been rejected in England, and the people of England are depressed and directionless. We heard over and over again that England”s youth have no optimism.
The United Kingdom has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe, with 25 percent of pregnancies aborted. One third of children experience divorce in their families.
Only 1 percent of youth (defined by the United Nations as those aged 15″“24) attend any religious activities at all. The youth of England, the future of this nation which has had so much influence, are clearly pre-Christian.
“The good news of the gospel went from England to the United States, where it found a safe harbor; now the gospel is making its way across the ocean, back to Britain” read my notes from one meeting. This implies a poignant message:
God wants to restore the souls of the British people to him.
We had a warm welcome from wonderful English Christians who share our concern for the youth of their nation. Pastoral staff and church leadership, campus workers, and godly gentry opened their hearts and homes to discuss with us the ways English youth could be influenced for Jesus.
A Global Subculture
We know this about the globalization of youth. They have a sense of identity unique throughout history. They are most receptive to ideas that originate outside the usual traditions of their home culture. This is a generation, spanning the globe without regard for political borders, who watches the same television, listens to the same music, goes to the same movies, and wants to wear the same clothes. They have a subculture, or a counterculture, in common. They are very conscious of the fact that in short decades, leadership will be theirs””in politics, in industry, in academia, in medicine, in agriculture.
They may feel they have more in common with one another than they do with the culture of their homelands. They seek community. They seek acceptance. They also have questions. “What is going on in the world? What is my country”s future? Will I find employment? Will I marry? Why is there no justice?” Those immersed in the youth subculture quickly develop a sense of fatalism. They are seeking someone they cannot name. We know the Name; we know God has hidden eternity in their hearts.
That is why a group of us made the trip to England. The university graduates traveling with me quickly built relationships with the British university students. They hung out together, went to parties together, went for tea together, moaned about the upcoming exams and the stresses of university life, talked about boy/girl issues.
A Cheerleader
So, late in life, I”ve become an advocate and a cheerleader for campus ministry, for the community of collegiate Christians. Globalscope has effective international campus ministries in Mexico City and Puebla, Mexico; in Chile; and in Thailand. We have just begun to reach out to students in Spain and have a team preparing for ministry in Brazil. The model is one of an accepting community of food, fun, and fellowship; of talking about Jesus and expressing faith through service to others; of small group Bible studies and retreats and discipling teams and watching and participating in baptisms.
I am so very impressed with the young men and women who apply to be international campus ministers. They are bright and beautiful and talented and well educated and they are sought by headhunters. God is the heart-hunter, and he moves them to work in ministry.
It takes God”s power to effectively influence the global university age, to answer the questions of their souls.
There was a young man in Mexico City who was reluctantly persuaded to attend the fellowship following the weekly Bible study. He was a bit of a rebel, a bit anti-American, a bit of an agnostic. He slowly got acquainted and caught a glimpse of Christ in the people around him. He attended the weekly Bible study. He heard truth. He began to find ways to serve, and attended individual Bible studies and leadership groups. He made the decision to accept Christ and be immersed. He matured and developed and became a ministry intern and then associate. He brought his mother and sister to church. He is now preparing to do ministry himself. He is an illustration of why we reach out to university youth.
I”m elated with the awareness of God”s hand in Globalscope. I am awed again, after a lifetime of seeing him at work, at his ability to do more than we can ask or think! Last night I got a late call. The kick-off evening for the team in Spain was a solid success. More than 80 Spaniards attended; amid their food, fun, and fellowship, they talked about Jesus.
Yes, with God”s help we take the story of Jesus back to England”s youth. The pastoral fields, the ageless cathedrals, the historic buildings, the charming villages and crowded cities, the absolutely over-the-top currency exchange rate, and the hallowed traditions are all in God”s providential hands. He wants to restore souls.
Naomi Kouns is vision area director for Globalscope, Christian Missionary Fellowship’s international student ministry.
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