In the Fargo / Moorhead area, there are nearly 25,000 young people living in dorms at one of the three local colleges. Adventist Campus Ministries in Fargo, North Dakota, does not know the number of Adventist youth on these campuses… and that is a problem.
Once a month the local Adventist church campus ministry team sets up booths at two of the campuses, NDSU and MSUM. These booths provide books and resources that help students deal with the many secular challenges in and outside their classrooms. Most of the students ministered to are not Adventists. Many of the students dialogued with are either not Christian, of another religion, or no religion (an ever-increasing number).
Why are Christians ages 18 to 29 leaving the church and rethinking their commitment to faith? Based on new research conducted by the Barna Group and reported in the book You Lost Me, one thing is responsible for this ever-growing statistic: the Christian community has failed to “equip young adults.”
To equip students, the Fargo-based ministry offers free books at their booths on the scientific evidence for why Christianity and belief in God are logical even though science is misused to say God is a myth. Why is Jesus Christ not just a great guy? Why is evolution not the truth about how all life got here? How do you know God really spoke in the Bible? Who is to say I shouldn’t have sex before marriage, or why is getting married important at all? These are the challenges that most of our youth face culturally and even academically.
Through this ministry, the church has experienced growth in youth attending church and has conducted baptisms. If you are reading this, and you attend a church near a college, consider doing something like this as a church on the campus.
