Top 15 Quotes from Campus Christians Around the World

“What are the challenges of being a Christian student here?”

“What are the opportunities?”

“What’s your advice for a first-year Christian student?”

“How can churches support students better?”

These are questions I asked Christian students, campus ministers, pastors, and university chaplains during my mission to backpack 360° around the world, documenting how Christians keep their faith at university. As I traveled, I noticed a pattern develop: while people answered the first two questions differently, answers to the last two questions sounded remarkably similar across cultures. This means that while students face diverse challenges around the world, a few universal solutions can make all the difference in helping youth overcome those challenges.

These solutions boil down to discipling youth to build three foundations I’ve described in previous posts: spiritual foundations (a close personal walk with God), intellectual foundations (apologetics knowledge and critical thinking skills), and interpersonal foundations (a Christian support network including family, friends, church, and older mentors). But it’s one thing for me to talk about these foundations. It’s another thing to hear about them in the words of campus Christians worldwide.

On that note, here are some key quotes from Christians I met on my travels, highlighting top themes which believers around the globe would like other students—and the churches that support them—to know:

Spiritual foundations quotes:

• Advice for students from a student in Dubai:
  

  Wherever you go, it’s important to have a proper basis. Without a proper base, you can’t build a building. You might look fancy on the outside, have a Bible app on your phone, and have flashy lights and a band at church . . . but the big question is how you’re applying [biblical] spirituality to the rest of your life. Are you actually keeping up your spiritual walk, taking time to be with God, and thanking God throughout university? Do you get the opportunity to help and pray with others who are struggling? How are you showing what love is?

• Advice for churches from a Bible school student in Greece:
  

  [W]e need to teach students to spend time with God personally, and pray often. . . . Remember, Ephesians 6 says that we aren’t struggling against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers. Students need to spend time with God, praying, worshiping, and being filled with His Spirit.

• Advice for students from a campus minister in Belgium:
  

  The basis of discernment is to ask, ‘Is this in agreement with what God’s Word says?’. . . So, the emphasis is on knowing the Word of God—but not just knowing it like the Pharisees did. They knew the Word but didn’t know God. We need to know Him personally. . . . It’s only to the extent that we really know God that we’ll be able to communicate our relationships with Him to others.

• Advice for churches from a student in France:
  

  [Churches can support students] by having a solid foundation on the Bible. Churches should really teach students what the gospel is. If students are not really sure what they believe in, any time a question comes up, they’ll be less able to defend themselves.

Intellectual foundations quotes:

• Observation from a young adults’ pastor in Dubai:
  

  Not only are more and more young people questioning their faith, but we are also not equipping them enough to stand firm when their faith is questioned. For example, many youth groups might tell students, ‘Don’t ask how God created in six days, because that’s not important.’1 But the first question they get from a nonbeliever at campus is, ‘Really? You believe God created the world in six days?’ They don’t have a logical answer because they didn’t get one in youth.

• Observation from a university chaplain in Canada:
  

  A very painful thing for me to watch is when people that I’ve walked alongside as a youth pastor and tried my best to prepare for life at university lose their faith. I find most often that it’s because they were sheltered from very real ideas that others buy into as truth, like evolution. . . . When students get to university, they meet this theory held as valid for so many, and they feel like they’ve been betrayed by their faith community. They reject their faith because it has no traction in the world that they’re in now.2

• Advice for churches from a student in Greece:
  

  Churches should set a level higher for young people. . . . They should also talk about what others believe, so that we can be aware about the ideas we’ll encounter in university. For example, I remember one time a Christian biology professor from America came to my youth group and talked about scientific problems with Darwinism. Presentations like that remind us that people can be smart and follow Christ; and [these presentations] help us speak to non-Christians using their own language and philosophy.5

• Advice for students from a student in Holland:
  

  You really have to think critically and stay grounded in your beliefs, and if you hear anything that goes against your beliefs, try to process it and figure it out for yourself. . . . Before I started [my classes], I was really scared that university would change my faith. I actually considered doing a different degree just because of that. But there just came a point where I thought, ‘If God is real, and He is who the Bible says He is, it makes absolutely no difference what classes I’m going to take or what I’m going to learn. If God is real, nothing about Him is going to change.’ I’m not scared to find out new information, because even if I might be shaken, that’s not going to change who He is.

Interpersonal foundations quotes:

• Advice for students from a student in France:
  

  Have Christian friends around you. Don’t do [university] alone. Even if in the school you’re alone, have a balance. Make sure that you have enough influence from the church as well as from the school. You need to be fed by people who can influence you, encourage you, edify you, and validate you, agreeing with you that [the unbiblical teaching] you’re having to study is wrong.

• Observations from a student in Thailand:
  

  Spiritual mentors at church help the young people through all their questions and do personal Bible studies with them. I think that is the most efficient way for youth to keep their faith and grow in Christ. I’ve seen so many people drift away because no one took care of them; no one spent time with them; no one was praying with them.

• Reflections from a graduate in Japan:
  

  There were a lot of times I just wanted to quit being a Christian—to fall into the shape of the world and say, ‘He’s not my God.’ How many times I thought that would be easier! But while I didn’t have many peers at my church, the elders there were really supportive. They had been Christians since WWII, and they knew how hard it was to follow Christ. But they also told me how blessed they were and what God did for them. They loved to tell the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel,4 standing for God among the Baal worshipers. Without that story and without those elders, I might have lost faith during my younger years.

• Advice for students from a student in New Zealand:
  

  Attach yourself to a church immediately so that you can be strong in your faith and remain strong, because it’s so easy to go along with the temptations that campus offers—especially when you live in [residence].

• Advice for students from a retired Christian professor in Australia:
  

  Students must not give up on attending church and serving in that church. Not attending church is the biggest mistake students make.

• Advice for students from a student in Greece:
  

  [Find] really good Christian friends that can stand for them even at the most difficult times when they’re in doubt. And [find] a mentor in church who is older: someone more mature; someone who can give advice; someone who students can speak openly to without having taboos or feeling really bad about discussing or confessing sins. Students need to talk about the things that matter to them, without keeping those questions inside and overanalyzing them alone.

• Observation from a campus minister in Holland:
  

  Whether they’re a homemaker or a CEO, everyone has a perspective that students don’t have. And that’s the main thing students crave. The best thing that can happen to a Christian student . . . is being mentored by someone who is proof that God is faithful.

These and other campus Christians had much more to say,5 but the above quotations offer just a sample of the key themes that resurfaced across countries. The message rang clear: to thrive as Christians in secular classrooms and cultures, students need solid spiritual, intellectual, and interpersonal foundations. These results suggest that by focusing on foundational solutions, the global church can equip a strong generation of young people to live out a thriving biblical worldview wherever God calls them. And that’s truly exciting.

For more practical encouragement and foundation-building tips for Christian students, stay tuned for the student survival book Prepare to Thrive planned for release in Fall 2021.