Since the birth of the church, it’s been God’s design to take the gospel to every living soul and for Christians to be discipled in the faith. Christians are to be strengthened as much as possible so that they live godly, devout lives, serving as salt and light to the larger culture. By God’s grace and as recorded in Tom Holland’s book, Dominion, and elsewhere, the world has been radically, positively impacted by the advancement of the gospel. The core factor in the church’s progress is the development and mobilization of fully consecrated Christian leaders who are filled by the Holy Spirit and willing and able to serve as His ambassadors in society. Across America and at the nation’s most influential, secular universities, it’s Christian Union’s calling to advance this aim.
The majority of America’s most influential, secular universities were expressly founded as Christian colleges. But, over the years these gradually shed their religious affiliation and became secular institutions. I love these universities (I directed a ministry at Princeton for many years before founding Christian Union), including my alma mater, Cornell.
It grieves me to see where they are today, spiritually and intellectually, especially because these institutions and the ideologies they promote, will shape American culture for decades to come.
Our Leaders Matter video was created to show the remarkably disproportionate impact just a handful of universities have in America.
If we are going to change the world, we need, by God’s power, to see these campuses radically changed. The Lord put on my heart to seek an increasing and dramatic spiritual revival at these very schools. So, in 2002, I launched Christian Union at the campus I knew so well by that time, Princeton. The Christian leadership development ministry would take a strategic approach to national culture change; by bringing sweeping spiritual transformation to the nation’s most influential universities and to key cities that shape American culture.
Everything in our university ministry is tailored to the academically intense and secular environments of these schools. The ministry faculty we hire teach and train students who are bright and motivated, and who take readily to leadership development, yet often know very little about Scripture. The programs tested and refined at Princeton were rolled out to additional campuses in the years that followed.
We have since launched programs across the country – online and in New York City, to begin developing networks of influential Christian leaders.
What is the long-term goal? Christian Union envisions a country in which the Gospel has penetrated every people group and where Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit, are seeking God as the defining characteristic of their lives. Our desire is that this spiritual vibrancy is ongoing.
Scripture and more recent history make plain the intimate connection between widespread, heartfelt revival and social reformation. Reformation includes rolling back destructive ideologies and reversing the harm they inflict on a society. Reformation involves men and women embracing and promoting what God loves; there is renewed emphasis on life-giving social norms that benefit all, especially the most vulnerable.
Would you join me seeking the Lord with great energy, asking God to soften hearts and move the nation to desire Him more than we do today? Please explore this website to learn more about the ministry. I’ve unpacked our mission in five parts below. You also might enjoy this interview I did with CBN, which they ran in 2017:
We need partners like you to accelerate this exciting work, and I invite you to join Christian Union to bring God greater glory in the United States, to develop Godly leaders, and, God willing, to see a transformed America truly bless the world.
Matthew W. Bennett
Founder and President
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