My Christian family and collegiate experiences were very positive ones and they still mark my life. While I understand not everyone has been blessed with the Christian home God provided me, I do believe every Christian’s life experience can and should be enjoyable, liberating, and energizing.

My early calling to Christian higher education was fueled by a desire to share the spiritual and intellectual power of the Christian worldview. I wanted them to experience the Christian liberty I had come to understand.

“Salt and Light” was and is a phrase that could define much of what I tried to do and especially write about. In my estimation, Christian universities do their students a disservice if they do not enable, then encourage them to “get up and out,” compete and serve in the real world, and become marketplace missionaries.

The Apostle Paul’s approach recorded in Acts 17 is my favorite springboard for this kind of discussion. Like ancient Athens, American culture is awash in moral relativism and is sophisticatedly ignorant about religious matters. But there is an upside. While modernity didn’t want to give Christianity a seat at the cultural table postmodernity is more open to doing so.

Now, though, a lot of other “isms” have flooded our increasingly pluralistic environment. We live in a culture that no longer allows a Judeo-Christian consensus to ground its values. Consequently, we no longer can assume people understand and we must learn to defend as well as to share our faith.

Christian people must become “Men and Women of Issachar” who know their times and know what they should do (1 Chronicles 12:32). To do this, they must possess a personal relationship of faith in Jesus Christ, be engaged in a growing relationship with the Lord, and evidence character based upon obedience to God’s Word.

In my earlier years in higher education, business leaders repeatedly told me “College students aren’t ready.” They weren’t referring to professional expertise or an undergraduate degree. They were referring to character. Then and now, employers wanted employees who are punctual, demonstrate integrity, display an exemplary work ethic, and have a teachable spirit. The businessperson can teach employees how to be successful in the business. But most businesses do not have the time, money, inclination, or maybe ability to teach character, certainly not in a down-turned economy. This is where maturing Christians should stand out in the crowd as people of character. They don’t just want the best but want to be the best.

The “flat world” offers more opportunity, even as it creates more competition. We need Christians who are prepared and who are not afraid to take their Christian faith into every corner of world cultures. We need Christians who understand that people are broken. We need Christians who understand that biblical truth offers people a means to reconciliation with God, themselves, and others.

Christians are ambassadors of Christ in all that we do. We’ve been reconciled to God through Christ and he, in turn, gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We have the message, and I believe we should be nurturing maturing believers who understand and embrace this divine commission so they can carry the message as they care for the world.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2010

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