College Campus Lights
College Campus Lights
[Originally published August 28, 2026]
Every fall seems bittersweet to parents of young adult children. As they graduate from high school and leave the home nest, the smaller circles of parental and school and church influences begin to widen. Like fledgling eagles, the young adults move out, learn to fly solo, and find their own ways and beliefs. These are critical moments in life, perhaps like none other. There is great hope today for young adults and their parents, however. God is still at work on university campuses.
Most collegiate campus ministries today trace their roots back to Dwight L. Moody's revivals in the Third Great Awakening. This period witnessed successive waves of revivals from the 1850s to the 1920s, and many of these took place on college campuses. Born in Massachusetts in 1837, Moody received a fifth-grade education, and then went to work to help support his family, selling shoes on the streets. When Moody was eighteen in 1855, his Sunday School teacher, Edward Kimball, visited him at the shoe store and led him to faith in Jesus Christ.
Moody began working at the Chicago YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association, founded in London in 1844 and in Boston in 1851). Almost overnight he became a dynamic preacher, traveling across the United States and Great Britain with his musician friend, Ira Sankey, and filling massive halls, theaters, and stadiums with eager listeners. He connected to all levels of society - underprivileged young men, street children, Civil War soldiers, women, upper class seekers, and college students on campuses. His sermons were direct, simple, practical, and focused heavily upon personal salvation. Thousands of people came to Christ in a short number of years, and these new believers needed discipleship training.
Moody founded lasting organizations that trained laypeople in deeper Bible study and matters of faith, including Moody Bible Institute, the Moody Church, and schools that later became Northfield Mount Hermon in Massachusetts.
About the same time, in 1877, a group of evangelical Christian students at the University of Cambridge in the UK founded Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (CICCU), the first of its kind. They met to pray, study the Bible, and share their faith despite initial disapproval from university officials. This single student group laid the structural and spiritual foundation for many other student ministries.
Five years later an evangelistic preaching event at Cambridge led by Moody and Sankey sparked a massive spiritual revival within CICCU. Out of this revival, seven prominent, wealthy, and highly athletic Cambridge students—including world-famous cricket player C.T. Studd—decided to follow Christ and take the gospel to China. They abandoned their privileged status and, before setting sail, the Cambridge Seven toured universities across Great Britain and later influenced schools in the United States. Their radical sacrifice captivated the public imagination! This widespread enthusiasm for foreign missions heavily shaped the culture of British and American student ministry. The Cambridge Seven left in 1885 for China as missionaries under Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission, and the next year the Student Volunteer Mission group was formed.
Encouraged by The Seven and CICCU's active campus witness and missionary zeal, Christian student groups began springing up at other British and American universities, or "varsities." Denomination-based collegiate ministries opened, like the Catholic Newman Centers (1883), the Methodist Wesley Foundations (1913), the Baptist Student Unions (1919, BSM, BCM), and Presbyterian, Churches of Christ, and other denominational groups. By 1927, the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (IVF) of Great Britain was formed, and the next year, IVF came to Canada, and then to the US in 1941.
In 1951, an Oklahoman named Bill Bright, now living in Los Angeles, California, and a recent student at Fuller Theological Seminary, made a monumental decision. He sold his family's candy-making business, sensing a strong call to embrace the biblical command to “go and make disciples of all nations.” That year, Bright began a new student ministry at the University of Los Angeles, called Campus Crusade for Christ (now CRU), which exploded in growth.
He wrote and distributed the "Four Spiritual Laws" booklet in 1952, now translated into more than 200 languages and distributed to more than 2.5 billion copies, making it one of the most widely disseminated religious booklets in history. He and CRU also introduced the "JESUS" film in 1979, the most widely viewed and translated film in history. His legacy also includes organizing massive evangelism events — such as EXPLO 72 in Dallas, Texas, and EXPLO 74 in Korea — and co-founding the Global Pastors Network to equip ministers worldwide. Evangelism was at the heart of CRU.
In the last ten years, both denominational and interdenominational student ministries are enjoying vibrant partnerships, student to student, campus to campus, organization to organization. In 2016, a shared data base was created so that thousands more voices could share what God is doing in campuses across America. Called Every Campus Movement, its goal is to see a gospel sharing witness on every campus in the US. Since then, the mission group VIA and others have been working to create the same kind of information-sharing network across the world. How does this affect our families?
For example, if your son or daughter chooses a small community college in another state, the date base now can help to locate the many ministries and churches that serve the needs of students at that campus. Thousands of students are gathering to worship and coming to Christ on college campuses each year.
God is working with all of these student ministries to make His gospel known. This month, we celebrate and pray for the influencers who light the way of Christ on college campuses all around the globe.
Karen O'Dell Bullock
Most collegiate campus ministries today trace their roots back to Dwight L. Moody's revivals in the Third Great Awakening. This period witnessed successive waves of revivals from the 1850s to the 1920s, and many of these took place on college campuses. Born in Massachusetts in 1837, Moody received a fifth-grade education, and then went to work to help support his family, selling shoes on the streets. When Moody was eighteen in 1855, his Sunday School teacher, Edward Kimball, visited him at the shoe store and led him to faith in Jesus Christ.
Moody began working at the Chicago YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association, founded in London in 1844 and in Boston in 1851). Almost overnight he became a dynamic preacher, traveling across the United States and Great Britain with his musician friend, Ira Sankey, and filling massive halls, theaters, and stadiums with eager listeners. He connected to all levels of society - underprivileged young men, street children, Civil War soldiers, women, upper class seekers, and college students on campuses. His sermons were direct, simple, practical, and focused heavily upon personal salvation. Thousands of people came to Christ in a short number of years, and these new believers needed discipleship training.
Moody founded lasting organizations that trained laypeople in deeper Bible study and matters of faith, including Moody Bible Institute, the Moody Church, and schools that later became Northfield Mount Hermon in Massachusetts.
About the same time, in 1877, a group of evangelical Christian students at the University of Cambridge in the UK founded Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (CICCU), the first of its kind. They met to pray, study the Bible, and share their faith despite initial disapproval from university officials. This single student group laid the structural and spiritual foundation for many other student ministries.
Five years later an evangelistic preaching event at Cambridge led by Moody and Sankey sparked a massive spiritual revival within CICCU. Out of this revival, seven prominent, wealthy, and highly athletic Cambridge students—including world-famous cricket player C.T. Studd—decided to follow Christ and take the gospel to China. They abandoned their privileged status and, before setting sail, the Cambridge Seven toured universities across Great Britain and later influenced schools in the United States. Their radical sacrifice captivated the public imagination! This widespread enthusiasm for foreign missions heavily shaped the culture of British and American student ministry. The Cambridge Seven left in 1885 for China as missionaries under Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission, and the next year the Student Volunteer Mission group was formed.
Encouraged by The Seven and CICCU's active campus witness and missionary zeal, Christian student groups began springing up at other British and American universities, or "varsities." Denomination-based collegiate ministries opened, like the Catholic Newman Centers (1883), the Methodist Wesley Foundations (1913), the Baptist Student Unions (1919, BSM, BCM), and Presbyterian, Churches of Christ, and other denominational groups. By 1927, the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (IVF) of Great Britain was formed, and the next year, IVF came to Canada, and then to the US in 1941.
In 1951, an Oklahoman named Bill Bright, now living in Los Angeles, California, and a recent student at Fuller Theological Seminary, made a monumental decision. He sold his family's candy-making business, sensing a strong call to embrace the biblical command to “go and make disciples of all nations.” That year, Bright began a new student ministry at the University of Los Angeles, called Campus Crusade for Christ (now CRU), which exploded in growth.
He wrote and distributed the "Four Spiritual Laws" booklet in 1952, now translated into more than 200 languages and distributed to more than 2.5 billion copies, making it one of the most widely disseminated religious booklets in history. He and CRU also introduced the "JESUS" film in 1979, the most widely viewed and translated film in history. His legacy also includes organizing massive evangelism events — such as EXPLO 72 in Dallas, Texas, and EXPLO 74 in Korea — and co-founding the Global Pastors Network to equip ministers worldwide. Evangelism was at the heart of CRU.
In the last ten years, both denominational and interdenominational student ministries are enjoying vibrant partnerships, student to student, campus to campus, organization to organization. In 2016, a shared data base was created so that thousands more voices could share what God is doing in campuses across America. Called Every Campus Movement, its goal is to see a gospel sharing witness on every campus in the US. Since then, the mission group VIA and others have been working to create the same kind of information-sharing network across the world. How does this affect our families?
For example, if your son or daughter chooses a small community college in another state, the date base now can help to locate the many ministries and churches that serve the needs of students at that campus. Thousands of students are gathering to worship and coming to Christ on college campuses each year.
God is working with all of these student ministries to make His gospel known. This month, we celebrate and pray for the influencers who light the way of Christ on college campuses all around the globe.
Karen O'Dell Bullock
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