Newsflash

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas! And now for a completely different approach to a year-end letter.  Close your eyes and picture this: You turn on the T.V. to NBC to hear Brian Williams chatting matter-of-factly.  A marquee scrolls in red at the bottom of the screen with the following news update:

“GOD INCARNATES AS NEWBORN. RESCUES THE WORLD.  PUTS EVERYTHING RIGHT FOREVER!”

Now picture me at campus the following day. What would I hear in response from the college demographic?

“Ridiculous!  God is a crutch week people use to make themselves feel better.  If God cares about the world, where is he?”

Or maybe,

“So a newborn baby is supposed to make my Dad stop doing drugs and care about me again?” or “Whatever people want to believe is great for them, the news shouldn’t talk about religion.”

The message of Jesus coming to our rescue is shocking, and frankly, a little confusing.  I understand why students would respond and do respond this way to such a startling story.  Most of us have marveled at the mystery of life, of meaning, of suffering, and of God’s intervention in our failure.  And how exactly does this baby rescue the world? These questions are exactly why the following statistics hold true:

-70% of students who grew up in Church will have left the Church during college.  (USA Today)

-College professors are 5 times more likely to identify as atheist than the general public.  (Crossexamined.org)

-Less than 1% of the ‘Mosaic Generation” (18-23 yrs/old) has a biblical worldview (Christianpost.com/Barna Group)

 

Eighteen million students will finish their semesters and go home for Christmas break at the end of this month.  When they come back, InterVarsity will be there to offer a loving, welcoming community and an invitation to follow Jesus in an environment where a Savior is a fairy tale and healthy communities are few and far between.

Over 1,500 IV staff around the country are on campuses to help students find answers to their questions, to pursue them with the truth in love, and to help them understand what Christmas means for their broken families, their atheist professors, their boyfriends and girlfriends, their difficult classes, and the rest of their lives.  Please know that your giving is the reason I am able to meet with Brandon, a seeker, and study the scripture together (pictured).  It is the reason I am able to talk and pray week after week with grad students Max and Isaiah, or teach students at our large group spiritual disciplines like lectio divina.

That’s why this year-end letter is coming to your home: to let you know I believe in the Gospel meeting the needs of this generation, and I need your continued partnership towards this vision.  Would you consider increasing your monthly donation or giving a year-end, one-time gift?

Secure, online, tax-deductible donations can be made here: https://donate.intervarsity.org/support/jordan_kologe

I truly wish you the merriest of Christmases as you celebrate the strangest, most miraculous news ever reported, the birth and life of Jesus our Lord!

Jordan