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TechnoratiIn the midst of a bustling young crowd of more than 22,000 college students making their way to Bible studies and seminars at Urbana 2006, InterVarsity President Alec Hill spoke enthusiastically of the Millennials – the next generation of missionaries. Although not an “Urbanaite” himself, Hill sees a global generation ready to put “legs” to missions.
CP: The first Urbana conference was held right after World War II, with missionaries reaching out to countries devastated by the war. What would you say is the WWII of today that calls for the need of these students to mission works?
Hill: One of the differences is the folks who came back after World War II were the first InterVarsity leaders. So a lot of those students were 25, 30 years old who had seen the world. So there was a maturity about those early Urbanaites who came. The comparable is that this group – this generation of students – really is global in their orientation. They’ve traveled; they’ve been overseas. So I would say compared to the 70s, you have a much more sophisticated audience with the students.
In terms of the parts of the world, clearly after World War II you have a ravaged Europe. Today, of course, you have Muslim countries, Africa with the AIDS pandemic. … Part of what’s going on is partnering with what we do overseas. Let me give you an illustration out of Mongolia. Tom and Nancy Lin, for five years, went over to Mongolia and partnered with South Korean campus workers there. They went to Ulaanbaatar and they planted a new student movement there. And I think, as I understand it, they have three or four campuses; they’ve spread to different cities, and they now have indigenous campus staff.
CP: What’s the trend of missionaries going out of North America? Are they getting younger?
Hill: I don’t have the demographics on missionaries in terms of ages. I would like to think there are a lot of second career people and people who make decisions later in life. What I can speak to is the enthusiasm of this generation. At Urbana ’03, we had a speaker and the line waiting to go and serve was amazing. Clearly the response rate is very high. I think we had in 2003 the highest the number … of students signing up for [a decision card]. Millennials want to change the world. They want to go.
I worked for World Relief years ago and the example I gave [at a seminar] was I went to a pastor in the states and I was talking about doing work with refugees in his neighborhood. He said ‘No, that’s not part of the gospel that we do.’ And I pointed out that his brother, who is in Calcutta, ran an orphanage, a medical facility and a school. And he said that’s overseas. And I walked out totally discouraged. I do not see that with this generation. I do not see a sense of an artificial divide between proclamation and justice and service. It is absolutely fabulous. So I love the Millennials – the idealism and the “do it” sort of feeling. They want to put legs to it. They’re not just theoretical.
I’m asked sometimes about this generation and you hear all these woe stories. I’m just the opposite. I’m really excited.
CP: A lot of the students aren’t too aware of what’s going on with global Christianity. So they’re largely focused on aid work especially with poverty. Do you think after becoming aware of the global issues, they might shift their missions focus?
Hill: My guess [is that] last night – if the students were listening carefully with Oscar [Muriu] – was a shocking moment when they realized that we are in the declining church in the West, although it’s less pronounced in the United States than in Europe or Australia. … In 1900, 90 percent of Christians were in the West. Today, it’s 30 percent. The center has shifted. Americans, we tend to think we’re in the center of the world of everything. The reality is that we are not the center. The center has moved to Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia. And I think for a lot of our students, that is an awakening. Continue »
