As the Pastor of Harvest Church, late September is one of my favorite times of the year. After a relaxing (but often times slow) summer season, things suddenly pick up again, as we welcome back all of our college students who have been away from us for the last three months. With the return of these students inevitably comes an influx of many new visitors as well, most of whom are college freshman looking for a church home for the next four years. These young folks will come from a variety of different backgrounds. Many will come from different parts of the country…and the world. Others will come from different ethnic backgrounds. Still, others from varying church traditions, or no tradition at all. But, they will come, and they will all be different. And because of their differences, each, in their own way, will bring something unique to our ministry. It is this that we, at Harvest, find most exciting. However, as different as they all will be, there is one thing that all of them will have in common. They will all come with a great amount of youthful energy and idealism, something older folks like myself can only reminisce about. And so, this time of year will certainly bring to our ministry a great deal of vigor and enthusiasm, something that I, as pastor, am most grateful for.
However, as exciting as this particular time of year is for our church, there are a couple of reasons as to why we also approach this time with a certain level of sobriety. First, we are well aware that what these young folks are taught during these particular years of life, whether good or bad, will set the direction for the rest of their lives. These young people are at an age where they are building for themselves a spiritual foundation, and if that foundation is faulty, the rest of their lives will suffer. We, at Harvest, take this very seriously. This is why it is our goal, as a church, to equip our young people to the best of our ability. While other churches may give to their students things like entertainment or self-help messages, we strive to give our students sound, Biblical instruction. We do this by emphasizing things like biblical theology and doctrine, and we do this unashamedly. We believe that it is these things that will make the Christian strong. In addition, we also approach this time of year soberly because we know that our college students will be confronted by a university system that is not overly friendly to the Christian faith. They will be assaulted, seemingly on a daily basis, by things like secularism, humanism, relativism, hedonism, and every other ‘ism’ under the sun. It is no wonder that many young people, who grew up in the church, end up abandoning the faith upon entering the university. Again, we at Harvest, take this very seriously. This is why we, with the help of our Lord, will concentrate our efforts on giving our college students a distinctly Christian world-view. We want them to be able to identify and refute the false teachings that they will inevitably be exposed to on the university campus. Obviously, the ultimate success of these efforts rests solely on God Himself, to whom we look for strength.
And so, as it is late September, I, for one, am looking forward to another year of college ministry. This year will certainly bring with it great challenges. But, with great challenges also come great opportunities. To those who will be visiting our ministry in the days ahead, we welcome you in the name of our Lord. Please know that we are here to serve you. And to the rest of Harvest, please pray for this particular ministry, that the Lord will do ‘exceedingly, abundantly, more than we could ever ask or think’.
Pastor Jeff