Freshmen 15 Table of Contents

If you’ve been reading my blog lately, you know that I am currently working on a book entitled, “Freshman 15.” You can read some rough excerpts from it here.

The reason why I am writing it is that I love college students. They have the passion and excitement as students in the church coupled with the maturity of the adults. If you go too far often in one of the opposing sides, you can either get unbridled enthusiasm with no depth or over-comfortable apathy. College students have the ability to change the world. The college students who follow Christ in college are inspiring to watch.

But there is a problem. Churches drop these individuals like a bad habit once they graduate high school. It’s the most absurd investment in the country! Churches spend money on cribs, VBS material, Sunday School supplies, pizza parties, youth camps, mission trips, baptism Bibles, and then all of a sudden – when the investment is about to pay off in a massive way with a return of unbelievable portion – churches drop them. And college students are isolated in an environment that does not support or encourage authentic Christianity, and they drift away. They drift away not only from the church but from God.

What I’ve realized in my time spent with college students is that 1 out of 15 items is normally what either makes or breaks them in college. If a Christian stops walking for Christ in college, it is often one of these 15 things. That’s what the book is about. It is about the 15 ways to “put weight” on in college. Each chapter is one of the 15 most prominent things. They are:

  1. The One Thing – have to decide what’s the one thing you are going to live for
  2. The Worldview – role of the Bible and developing your worldview
  3. The Entourage – the people closest to you need to be closest to God
  4. The Date – if mission doesn’t define relationship, then the relationship will determine the mission
  5. The Purity – not even a hint of sexual immorality
  6. The Party Scene – love limits freedom
  7. The Church Hop – danger of becoming spiritual couch potatoes
  8. The Outreach – casual Christianity causes casualties
  9. The Influencers – it’s hard to influence a world that is significantly influencing you
  10. The Budget – some financial decisions will cost you more than what you will ever want to afford
  11. The Classroom – glorify God in the classroom
  12. The Time – don’t be lazy and don’t over commit yourselves – make the most of the time
  13. The Family – even when it’s hard to tolerate your family, you are called to honor them
  14. The World – get out of the States before you graduate college
  15. The Will – you find God’s will by doing God’s will

Those are the rough titles and big ideas for each chapter. I am working feverishly to have this book done before another batch of students graduate high school. I want it to go in the hands of our college students here at church as well as high school seniors in order to prepare them. I hope it can equip them to live for Christ in college.

What’s neat is that God is opening up other doors for this message. Amanda and I are about to head to Myrtle Beach for me to lead a breakout session at the Converge conference with the South Carolina BCM. I’m going to basically teach the date chapter from the book. My friend and director of SCBCM, Ken Owens, has been a great support during this process and has prayed for this book and given a lot of helpful feedback.

Converge

If you have a moment, please pray for this weekend that God will use his Word to impact a lot of college students. And also pray that I can carve out time to get this project done. I want to assist college students to ensure they can continue to walk for Christ in college.

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