COVID-19 PERSPECTIVE: York Moore
InterVarsity USA
At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, university officials wisely decided to close campuses to slow the spread of the disease. In the wake of those decisions, however, millions of young people became modern-day immigrants. Students packed up a year’s worth of memories in a matter of hours, tearfully said goodbye to their friends and dorm mates, and made their way across the country and the world. Many were stranded, primarily international students who had no place to go and experienced the pandemic in isolation. In addition to this, ministries like InterVarsity USA, Cru, Chi Alpha, Baptist Collegiate Ministries, and the CCO were forced to prematurely end Bible studies, evangelistic events, and discipleship appointments.
The abrupt end to the college year was devastating to organizations, ministers, and students alike. Thankfully, God has been growing a new movement among churches, denominations, and parachurch organizations over the last two years—the EveryCampus Coalition. EveryCampus has been made possible through the willingness of leaders to try something together they could never do by themselves. This initiative was started in an effort to spark revival in America through prayer walks on campuses across the U.S.
The ultimate goal of the coalition is to plant gospel movements and churches on unreached and underserved campuses, which currently account for about 60% of institutions. Reaching college students through advocacy and prayer walking is one of the primary ways ministries are responding to this urgent need. By mobilizing believers to cover every single campus in prayer, the coalition seeks to restore the spiritual community that was so abruptly interrupted during the pandemic.
EveryCampus has exploded now to over 150 organizations, churches, denominations, megachurches and church networks, meaningfully collaborating through a rich technology platform powered by Gloo, a cutting edge research initiative as a part of the State of the Church project at Barna, and dynamic partnerships between leaders seeking God for revival in America.
As the school year has come to a premature end due to COVID-19, the EveryCampus platform has shifted to a “virtual prayer walking” initiative for the remaining 1,000 campuses needing prayer. As many of the campuses have shifted to virtual instruction, EveryCampus has created a guide on how to do virtual prayer walks of every single campus in the country—all 4,200+ of them—so that the everyone in the body of Christ can participate in praying for revival in America. Ministries and churches engaging with college students in these past months have moved to virtual everything—large gatherings, prayer meetings, Bible studies, small groups and discipleship. The response has been incredible with many coming to Christ and joining Christian groups for the first time.
You can visit EveryCampus (EveryCampus.com) to identify the campuses near you, and follow the prompts to participate in a virtual prayer walk.
For pastors, a final word to our churches regarding college students: As in many sectors of our society, the impact of our health crisis will leave scars, many of which will not be immediately visible. Before COVID-19, many students on our college campuses were struggling with isolation, fear, loneliness and depression. The displacement and disruption of our health crisis will almost certainly accelerate this for our young people. Please consider your church’s response this summer in caring for the emotional health of college students as they await return to college, hopefully, this fall.
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