Called for This Moment: How Christian College Students Can Shape America’s Next 250 Years

By Ashley Durand (BS 13)

America is celebrating 250 years of history. As Christians, that milestone invites an important question:
What kind of people will shape the next 250 years?
I don’t think the answer is primarily politicians, celebrities, or influencers.
I think many of them are sitting in classrooms right now.
Students at Christian colleges like Grace have a unique opportunity to influence the future—not because of their age, but because of the moment God has placed them in.

Throughout American history, God has used ordinary believers to make an extraordinary impact. Some became well known, like Myles Standish, William Bradford, Abraham Lincoln, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and Billy Graham. But America was also shaped by little old ladies who cried out to God behind closed doors, teachers who invested in children when no one else would, business owners who chose integrity, parents who raised strong kids, missionaries, journalists, and faithful church members whose names history rarely remembers.

Many simply lived lives marked by conviction, integrity, and faithfulness.

One example is Billy Sunday, whose ministry was headquartered just down the road from Grace College in Winona Lake. A former professional baseball player, Sunday became one of the most influential evangelists in American history.

Recently former Grace Professor Terry White wrote about him in the Times Union:  

“It is hard to overestimate Sunday’s national influence. His house is decorated with autographed photos of his friends and supporters. They include Presidents Harding, Coolidge, Wilson, Taft, and Hoover, financier John D. Rockefeller, auto magnate John Studebaker, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, food entrepreneur H. J. Heinz, war hero John “Black Jack” Pershing, entertainer Buffalo Bill Cody, film impresario Cecil B. DeMille, and many more.

In all, somewhere around 850,000 people made conversion commitments during Sunday’s crusades, and many of them went on to found churches, colleges and seminaries, denominations, radio and TV ministries, and much more.”

One person faithfully following God’s calling changed countless lives.
History is filled with people like that.
The next generation can be too.

Your Generation Has Unique Challenges

Every generation faces different battles.

Yours is navigating a world where artificial intelligence can blur the line between truth and fiction. Social media rewards outrage over wisdom. Anyone can promote their version of the “truth,” and it gets passed on and on until no one questions it. Anxiety and loneliness are at record highs. Many students are searching for identity, purpose, and belonging while wondering what is actually true.

Yet none of these challenges caught God by surprise.
You were not born in the wrong century.
God intentionally placed you here.
Mordecai challenged Esther with these famous words:
“Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Those words still challenge believers today. God has entrusted this generation with opportunities previous generations never imagined. Through technology, one faithful Christian can encourage, teach, or reach people across the globe.

The question isn’t whether you’ll have influence.
The question is what you’ll use it for.

Three Ways to Shape the Future

1. Know the Truth

In an age of AI-generated content, fake news, and competing worldviews, truth has never been more valuable.
Followers of Christ cannot simply repeat what they’ve heard. They must know God’s Word for themselves.

The one thing that has never changed is the Ancient of Days, and the words He has given us in the Bible. And upon that foundation is the only place to build lasting influence.

Psalms 1:1-3 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on that law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that yields its fruit in season and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers.” 

If you want to influence the world, begin by allowing God’s Word to shape you.

Make time with the Lord a priority in your life. Not because it’s a nice thing for Christians to do, or another item to check off your list, but because the Word of God is the only source that will feed your soul. It is the only way you can be stronger in your faith and understand what is true.

2. Stand Firm in the Truth

Knowing truth is only the beginning—there’s really no point if you are willing to compromise it. 

Far too many Christian leaders over the last decades have chosen the road of infidelity, manipulation, and secret sin. We need more people who are willing to commit to integrity deeply within themselves. Clinging to the truth and choosing to let it sink deep into your soul will propel you towards obedience to God’s commands when no one else is watching. And that’s the only way to continue in integrity if and when the world is watching.

Living the truth often comes with a cost.
It might mean denying yourself something or facing an uncomfortable life.

America was built largely by families who called themselves Pilgrims, Puritans, and Quakers who came here fleeing spiritual persecution from other nations. Many of them were not willing to compromise what they knew to be true about God, their faith, so much so that they uprooted and said goodbye to all they knew in order to raise children in freedom.

Our future rests on our decision to do the right and true thing, no matter if it costs us jobs, homes, reputation, or friends. 

Faithfulness matters more than popularity.

The world doesn’t need Christians who simply fit in. It needs Christians who stand with humility, conviction, and love. We need more people like John the Baptist and Elijah, who were willing to speak out against evil and remind people of what was right. 

3. Act on the Truth

Truth is meant to be lived.
College is one of the greatest opportunities you’ll ever have to put your faith into practice.
Serve your local church.
Lift up your roommates in prayer.
Disciple younger believers.
Study diligently.
Treat classmates with kindness.

Use your gifts to solve real problems. Start a petition to change something in the government. Create a new group on campus. Raise money for a good cause. Invent a new product that will help someone.  Start a new organization that meets a need and offers the hope of Christ simultaneously. 

Share the hope of Christ with people who are searching.

Whether God calls you into business, education, healthcare, ministry, engineering, politics, the arts, or raising a family, your work can become an act of worship and a means of serving others.

You don’t have to become famous to change history.
You simply have to be faithful.

We Need Christians Who Are Ready to Work Hard

America was shaped by people who weren’t afraid of breaking out in a sweat, built their homes by hand with nothing but a saw and mallet, spent weeks in a covered wagon to cross rugged country so that they could start entire new towns, etc. And now, the opportunity is different but still necessary: we need people who are ready to embrace a tough emotional/ spiritual landscape and put in the hard work to build God’s kingdom, pray over the lost, gut out sin in their own lives, break strongholds in Jesus name and speak the truth in love.

You don’t have to be a pastor or a missionary to build God’s kingdom. Simply plant seeds wherever you are, watering them, tending them. Cultivate the fertile soil that God has called you to, and then watch Him bring the growth and the harvest of goodness from it. Work hard as unto the Lord, and see how God will use it to impact your community and bless you. 

The Next 250 Years Begin With Today’s Decisions
No one knows what America will look like in another 250 years.
But history teaches us that cultures are often changed by ordinary people who consistently obey God in ordinary places.
Maybe you’re one of them.
Maybe the future pastor, teacher, entrepreneur, engineer, missionary, parent, or public servant who will impact thousands is sitting in a classroom today.
God has already placed you where you are.
The question is whether you’ll answer His call.
The next 250 years won’t simply be shaped by people with the loudest voices. And it won’t be shaped by accident, by simply allowing nature to run its course. 

If America is to have a good future, it will be shaped by Christians who know the truth, stand firmly in it, and faithfully live it every day. Without it, our grandchildren and great grandchildren may live in a country so far removed from God that they do not know what it is to have freedom to worship him and to know the truth for themselves. Democracy itself may fall apart without the foundation of morality that Christians know through a relationship with Christ.

As John Adams famously said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”

We have already seen Christian college students making huge waves in America over the last few years, with thousands coming to Christ in stadiums, Christian college chapel services continuing on long past closing time, prayer meetings breaking out, and massive worship services and baptisms being celebrated all around our nation. 

God is clearly working in your generation. 

How will you participate? What will you do to shape the future of our nation? We can’t wait to see and to partner alongside you to become all that God has called you to be, both now and in the future.