Georgetown College graduates were asked in a recent survey to list the influences that were most significant in their spiritual lives during their four years as undergraduates. Of the 206 students who completed the survey, 174 said that friends and other students were the most meaningful. The second most important influences were faculty, staff and coaches. Third was their home churches.

What this tells us is the relationships students develop at college, and those they had at their churches growing up help shape their spiritual lives most significantly. These three factors were more influential than mission trips, chapel services and religion classes experienced while at college.

Sometimes churches think when students leave home and head off to college, the relationship it has had with students ceases to remain an influence. The home church needs to realize the important role it and its members have played in the lives of students during those very formative years.

Even while at college, students acknowledge the influence of church on their lives. When students go to college, they take with them all the experiences and relationships they have had growing up. Every Sunday school teacher, children’s minister, youth minister, missions teacher and church staff member leaves an imprint. The college years build on all that has gone before. The home church should never forget the partnership it has with higher education in the formation of the spiritual lives of young people.

The college years provide students with opportunities to express their faith through service, missions, worship and study. Students travel around the world on mission trips and study-abroad programs. Students participate in community ministry and business internships. They learn in the classroom and in the dorm room.

While the academic focus may be on a major discipline, students also learn about life choices, responsibilities and how their faith intersects with the world around them.

Internships permit college students to be challenged with how they live out their faith while serving in the business world. They are able to test the waters of a prospective vocation while serving Christ during a spring break or summer missions experience. It is the home churches that have brought them to this place in their lives, and opportunities at college allow them to further their understanding of the faith learned while growing up in the church.

In a very real sense, college students help their home churches live out the Great Commission as the church sends college students out all over the world equipped to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. We in Christian higher education are thankful for our partnership with local bodies of believers as together we equip students to go out into this world as Christian young men and women.

William Crouch is president of Georgetown College