Students Who Changed the World

Not too long ago, I was working on a series of messages related to college-age folks who changed the world. Unfortunately, the series never saw the light of day. I recently bumped into it while cleaning up my files and thought I’d drop a few of the brief biographies online for the encouragement of anyone who might happen to read them.

The background on this is the reality that so many renewal movements in the church have started with college-age people. There is no shortage of references to students’ involvement in God’s great new works: Peter Heyling, Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf, John and Charles Wesley, the historic Haystack Revival of 1806, John R. Mott and the Student Volunteer Movement for World Missions, Youth with a Mission (YWAM), the 24-7 Prayer movement, the new monasticism, and more. To read more about these folks, you can look at the links above or explore the following books:

• Student Power in World Missions by David M. Howards
• From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth A. Tucker

What is true is this: God has often begun new works of the church through young people who are open to being the spark that starts the fire. May the stories over the coming days be an encouragement to all of us that we too can be sparks to start God’s new fires around the world.

O God, let us be a generation that seeks
That seeks Your face, O God of Jacob.