Welcome Pacific Students!
Pacific students come from all over the US and even all around the world. It can be kind of a culture shock, and not just the kind involved when moving from one place to another. For young Christians, leaving the familiar environment of a home church and those who regularly hold you accountable can be a tricky experience. How? In many cases, one’s relationship with God is connected to or rooted in one’s environment, without having one’s own personal relationship with God. When one leaves that environment without a solid, personal relationship, faith goes out the window. Surveys from the Barna group tell us that upwards of 75-80% of young adults who enter college with a Christian background will leave college (even Christian colleges) having abandoned their relationship with God. There are many reasons for this that are beyond the scope of this writing. We want to do all we can to prevent that from happening.
Our Vision for Pacific U
One would think that a church in a small-ish town that has a college in it would have a consistent and growing college ministry. Because most of the students who attend Pacific are from out of this area, that just hasn’t been the case. Why? Because they go home. There are times when we’ve had a handfull of students, and times when we have had none. Last year we were still going through a transition period and didn’t have anything to offer college students (read our History page for more on that). All of that has changed. We now have a fresh vision for Pacific.
Because students come here from all over, it is our desire to be a place where Christians can come, grow in their knowledge of Him, be challenged to embrace their walk with Jesus as their own, and be sent home as missionaries to wherever they end up, be it home or otherwise. In effect, we want to be a missionary training facility. But instead of sending people to the far reaches of the world, we want to send them back home to their own “Jerusalm” as it were (see Acts 1:8).
Our interest isn’t restricted to believers. We would love to be used to reach out and see people come to know Jesus for the first time. In fact, we welcome people who aren’t into “church” because we aren’t into “church” either. Ask questions. Challenge presuppositions. Test doubts. God Himself said, “Come, let us reason together.” (Isaiah 1:18) Have you been burned by church? So have we. Do you think Christians are stupid? So do we sometimes. Our challenge, indeed God’s challenge to you, is to at least check things out. We aren’t afraid of the tough questions. All we ask is that you not judge us buy your experiences (or lack thereof) with other churches or Christians.
So does The Exchange have a college ministry or what?
Yes. As soon as you show up! We meet about six blocks from the dorm blocks (here is a map).
Need A Ride?
Beginning in October we will be offering a shuttle service from Pacific. While we may be walking distance from the school, “walking distance” seems to get much shorter in the rain. As of this writing (Oct. 1) we are still working out the details. If you need a ride head over to the Contact page and give us a call or drop us an email and we can work something out until we have a regular time and place established.
By the way. The Latin in the Pacific U seal above means For Christ and His Kingdom. Shall we?