Can You Relate?

After much reflection over the past few months and an attempt to determine where we go from here, I have concluded the following:

• I don’t want to live a life full of regrets.
• I don’t want to live a life that causes me to weep in front of my family in 30 years and apologize to them for not being there.
• I don’t want to live a life where I am controlled by critics and naysayers.
• I don’t want to live a life where I fear what man may think more than what God may think.
• I don’t want to live a life that is not marked by generosity.
• I don’t want to live a life in which my wife considers the church to be my mistress.
• I don’t want to live a life that causes my daughters to hate God and the church.
• I don’t want to live a life that allows those closest to me to disrespect me because I am not real.
• I don’t want to live a life in which I have no fun because I am all work and no play.
• I don’t want to live a life in which I look back and HATE the man I have become.
• I don’t want to live a life in which church becomes normal and routine and the person of Jesus becomes boring and dull.

[From Perry Nible]

Study Shows Students Want Spiritual Fulfillment

Though many students drop out of church during the college years, a new study suggests their longing for meaning and purpose only intensifies.

Church attendance among participants in the UCLA study dropped from nearly 44 percent to about 25 percent between the students freshman and junior years. During that period, emotional distress deepened. The number of students who said, "My life is filled with stress and anxiety," shot up from 26 percent during the first year of college to more than 41 percent as a senior. The percentage that felt "overwhelmed" increased from 31.8 percent to 46.3 percent, while depression jumped from about 9 percent to more than 12 percent.

This was accompanied by an apparent rising interest in moral and spiritual matters. While 41.2 percent of first-year students in 2004 reported they considered developing a meaningful philosophy of life "very important" or "essential," in 2007 more than 55 percent agreed.

Additionally, the perceived importance of "integrating spirituality into my life" increased from 41.8 percent in 2004 to more than 50 percent in 2007, and the desire for "attaining inner harmony" climbed from 48.7 to 62.6.

"What I see in local Chi Alpha groups nationwide confirms the findings of the study," says Dennis Gaylor, Assemblies of God national director for Chi Alpha Campus Ministries. "Students are hungry for dynamic worship, authentic relationships and vibrant spirituality. They want to make a difference in the world. Their life stage is ground zero for finding meaning and purpose and making decisions that will last a lifetime."

[For more information about Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, see http://www.chialpha.com/. Christina Quick, Today's Pentecostal Evangel .]