January  2007                                     Vol. 3, No. 5
A Call to 21 Days of Prayer By Ryan Shaw Ryan is the International Lead Faciliator of SVM2. We are living in critical times indeed! Never before has the possibility of seeing the literal fulfillment of the Great Commission realized been greater. As a result, never before has the spiritual warfare around such a possibility also been more intense. Jesus calls us to live in a perpetual state of being awake, alert, and watching (Luke 12:37) as we anticipate His return. Part of this is understanding the nature spiritually of the times we live in and responding accordingly with vibrant faith, uncompromising righteousness, and a wholehearted commitment to act and partner with God to bring forth His Kingdom purposes among the unreached.   The Bible and church history display the incredible power of the emerging generation of believers in helping to usher in God’s purposes in every era. It is inspiring to read the accounts of campus awakenings over the past 200 years. Around the world today it is no different. God is on the move among the emerging generation of believers, aligning hearts with His own, strengthening spirits to trust Him, crushing the obstacles and clearing the way, renewing vision and purpose, and saturating His people with an ever-growing love for Jesus. The enemy, however, is deeply disturbed by this fact and is using every counterfeit attempt to confuse, disrupt, sidetrack, lie to and deceive, accuse, discredit, and rip-off this generation. It is crucial that we wage spiritual war against the kingdom of darkness now over and among the emerging generation and recognize what God recognizes in and through them – the increased potential to bring about the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the return of the King for the reward of His glorious sacrifice. This is not a pipe dream, but an absolutely plausible outcome if we will but seek God with wholeheartedness for it.   Zechariah 4:6 is a helpful parallel to consider. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord!” The context of this well-known exhortation is the children of Israel having returned from the Babylonian exile and residing in Jerusalem.  With them they carried the authoritative decree from King Cyrus for the rebuilding of the temple. The work was progressing with great enthusiasm when organized opposition grounded it to a stunning halt. Discouraged by the turn of events, the people of God spiritlessly gave up their task. J. Oswald Sanders comments, “It would be easy to condemn their lack of spirit and lack of confidence in God, were we unfamiliar with the intricacy and treachery of our own hearts. Under less testing circumstances we have doubtless made no better showing.” (Sanders, p.150). During these circumstances God unveils a prophetic vision to Zechariah for the purpose of building hope into His people once again. The vision centers around His promise to complete the work started through the hands of His servant Zerubbabel and bring the temple construction to completion. The achieving of such a feat, however, would be “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.” Sanders goes on, “Despite the virulence of the opposition, despite their lack of resources, despite the incompetence of their leaders, victory was assured so long as they followed the Divine strategy. Success depended on neither Zerubbabel nor Joshua; on neither human force nor human power, but on the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Sanders, p. 151)   The task of the church will never be accomplished through human endeavor. The idea behind the phrase “not by might” relates to a focus on collective power, force of men, and their means. The Lord is highlighting the concept of human resources. The phrase, “nor by power” is used in connection with an individual and their proficiency and enthusiasm. These two together communicate that those who put their hope and trust on the “combined strength of men organized to assist one another, or on the prowess and drive of any single individual” are laying foundations on faulty ground. Instead our task depends wholly and thoroughly on the Holy Spirit as it is completely a superhuman task we have been called to. Sanders again states, “the great danger faced by the church is lest, in the midst of careful planning and seeking improved methods, she forget the superhuman factor without which her task will never be encompassed.” (Sanders, 153) Just as success for the children of Israel depended on the power of the Holy Spirit and not on the absence of opposition or human power and resources, thus we also find ourselves before an increasingly dark world.    God is building a prayer movement for the nations among the emerging generation! Its focus is on seeking His face for more abandoned devotion to Jesus and wholehearted commitment to global proclamation in our lifetime. To help propel this focus across the student mission world Student Volunteer Movement 2 (SVM2) is calling for a corporate 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting starting on January 22 through February 12. The great need in this hour is for the people of God to see themselves as His message bearers and light bearers and through the Spirit be aflame with that light. That light only remains bright and vibrant to the degree that it is consistently consuming the oil of the wick as it bears no light in and of itself. This is a great focus of this call to prayer. God is waiting for a generation who will be so heart sick with love after Him that they will be motivated to do whatever it takes to see the gospel planted in today’s most unreached areas by long-term message bearers. A generation who throws off all that so easily entangles and runs the race with perseverance and sacrifice. Those who wait upon Him and are ravished with affections for Him and who dwell in the secret place. Those who are ready to pay the price in ongoing and committed intercession to see entire people groups prepared to receive the gospel.   College campuses and college ministries are uniquely positioned for developing deep and mature devotion to Jesus Christ, resulting in cultivating the characteristics necessary for fruitfulness among the forgotten. These have historically and can be today powerful places of preparation for the missionary movement and must be seen as such. It is time to pray corporately for campuses, asking God to pour out His Spirit and bring spiritual revival and transformation for the purpose of preparing and fashioning His message bearers for labor in the hardest places around the world. Revival is not an end in itself but for the purpose of preparing and shaping those who will be used to take His power and message to the nations and to all ethne. Together, we are seeking revival among the emerging generation that will thrust the supremacy of Christ to the forefront of every college ministry and cause multitudes to respond to His supremacy by giving themselves in full surrender to His role for their lives among the forgotten.   This season of prayer and fasting can be undertaken by individuals, campus ministry fellowships, local churches, and whole Christian campuses. Go to http://www.svm2.citymaker.com/21days2007.html for detailed information, articles on fasting and the 21 Days daily prayer guide. Here you can download a poster to promote the 21 Days as well as register with the network of likeminded people participating in the 21 Days.....     * Sanders, Oswald J. Spiritual Maturity. Moody Publishers, Chicago. 1994. How College Awakenings Impact the Missionary Movement By J. Edwin Orr J. Edwin Orr was a revival scholar at Fuller Seminary and was priveleged to himself participate in several campus awakenings. Can you imagine one-third of a university's student body coming to Christ in a single year? Fifty percent of those new believers going into full-time Christian work following graduation? More than 20,000 students eventually serving Christ overseas due to the influence of a few of these students? Imagine it, because it all happened! It began in the early 1800s at schools like Amherst, Dartmouth, Princeton, Williams and Yale where up to half the students turned to Christ. By 1835, 1,500 students had committed their lives to Christ in 36 colleges. Impressive statistics, especially when you realize that in those days student bodies numbered only 100-250. Similar results continued to be seen from one generation of students to the next. In 1853, 11 New England colleges with a total enrollment of 2,163 reported that there were 745 active Christians on campus. Of this number, 343 planned to go into the ministry. Then in the 1880's, an unprecedented missionary enterprise, known as the Student Volunteer Movement, came into being. "The Evangelization of the World in This Generation" became its rallying cry. This spirit was evidenced in the movement's results - more than 20,000 serving in overseas mission fields in half a century. College students set the pace in this era of spiritual advance. The full dynamic of their story cannot be fully appreciated, however, apart from a look at the context of its beginnings. ALL-TIME LOW In 1790 America had won its independence, but it had lost something as well. In the wake of the Revolutionary War, French infidelity, deism, and the generally unsettled condition of society had driven the moral and spiritual climate of the colonies to an all-time low. Conditions on campus were no better. A poll taken at Harvard revealed not one believer in the whole student body. At Princeton, where a similar survey showed there to be only two Christians on campus, when the dean opened the Chapel Bible to read, a pack of playing cards fell out, someone having cut a rectangle from each page to fit the deck. Conditions on campus had degenerated to the point that all but five at Princeton were part of the "filthy speech" movement of that day. RADICAL CHANGE Then, suddenly, at the turn of the century, the nation made a spiritual about-face that affected every level of society -- from the frontiers to the college campuses. Something so radically changed the campuses of America that the same schools which a generation before had mocked the gospel began sending out workers into the harvest! In college after college, students formed similar Christian fellowships. At Harvard, Bowdoin, Brown, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Williams, and Andover, students began to meet and pray. At Williams College in Massachusetts, The scene of discouraging anti-Christian rioting, there was a small secret band of Christians as well. Burdened by the deplorable conditions on campus, they met twice a week to pray for revival. Little did they know how abundantly God used these students to make an impact on not only their campus, but also on an entire century? It was to be through the efforts of the son of one of these students that the Student Volunteer Movement would eventually be launched in the 1800s. However, the beginnings of their global influence for Christ were much less dramatic, as the following account will show. "WE CAN IF WE WILL" One hot August afternoon in 1806 these five students hid themselves to pray under the camouflage of a maple grove. As they met, the sky began to darken, and the accompanying thunderstorm and lightning persuaded them to run for cover. Before they could reach the campus, however, the clouds began to disperse and they were able to continue their meeting under the privacy of a haystack. The group's leader, freshman Samuel Mills, began to guide the discussion toward the topic of foreign missions. He contended that it would be impossible for the masses of Asia and Africa to hear the gospel unless the students from Christian nations were willing to dedicate their lives to the cause of the Great Commission. As he shared his vision for world evangelization, he said, "We can do it if we will," revealing a determination lacking in the expected, "We will do it if we can." Drawn by the challenge of their commitment, this group attracted the "cream" of the student leadership, including the valedictorian of 1809.  Four years later they asked their denomination to send them out as missionaries. Prior to this, there was not a single American engaged in preaching the Gospel overseas. While awakenings in Britain had already led to the formation of missionary societies, American agencies for sending workers into the harvest had not yet been established. The leadership of the Massachusetts Congregational Churches agreed to help them and formed the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions--the first American organization of its kind. Shortly after this pioneering venture, many similar agencies were begun by other denominations. All owed their origin to a group of students from Williams College who had caught God's vision for the world during a prayer meeting. THE YMCA IS BORN The revival at Williams and other colleges was part of a far wider movement of the Holy Spirit that affected not only every level of American society but also other countries around the world. In Britain, where the movement had originally been, in addition to numerous missionary and Bible societies, God raised up the Young Men's Christian Association in 1844. The YMCA, which was at first as evangelistic as it was social, provided an organizational structure that would one day link the numerous student Christian groups across America. Through this network the vision and challenge of total world evangelization would eventually spread to thousands of students. The development of the YMCA for its role in sending student volunteers to the world occurred during another period of world-wide revival from 1857 to 1899. Awakening again broke out as a result of prayer. Jeremiah Lamphier began a weekly noonday prayer meeting in Manhattan in September 1857. The first week, six attended. The following week there were 14, and by the third, 23, at which time it was decided to meet daily. By March 1958 every church and public hall in down town New York City was filled. Horace Greley, the famous editor, sent a reporter racing throughout the city by horse and buggy to count how many were attending the prayer meetings. At the 12 locations he was able to get to in an hour, he counted 6,110 people. By May, 96,000 New Yorkers, 10 percent of the population of one million had received Christ. By the end of the year more than a million throughout the country, 3 percent of the nation's population of 30 million had turned to Christ. CAMPUS AWAKENINGS As during the early part of the century, the awakenings in 1875 and following years quickly spread to America's colleges. In 1858 at Yale, 204 students--45 percent of the school's 447 students--received Christ. As a result of revivals at the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia, the first college YMCAs were begun to mobilize and equip students for effective ministries of evangelism and discipleship. By 1877 approximately 50 of the 200 student Christian societies scattered across the country were affiliated with the YMCA. That same year the Cambridge inter-collegiate Christian Union was formed to unite the various British student Christian groups. Then in 1879 Oxford formed its Inter-collegiate Christian Union. At Princeton in l875 there was no YMCA. However, a student Christian group known as the Philadelphia Society had 110 active members. Luther Wishard, who became the group's president in 1876, united the society with the growing YMCA movement. Through his leadership and the student's prayer, evangelist D. L. Moody was persuaded to conduct a series of evangelistic meetings on campus. As a result, nearly a third of the student body received Christ. Among those working in the Princeton YMCA were some of the most outstanding campus leaders. One such student evangelist was Tommy Wilson, who eventually became president of the university. Later still he became better known as T. Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States. Luther Wishard's efforts extended beyond the ministry at Princeton. In 1877 he spearheaded the formation of a separate intercollegiate division of the YMCA. As the organizations first full-time secretary he was instrumental in establishing student associations nationwide. By 1890 there were more than 250 college YMCA's with 12,000 members. THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT Thus by the 1880's the stage was set for an unprecedented thrust forward toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission. It would be from this vast reservoir of students associated with the YMCA that the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions would arise. The key figure in the movement's birth was the son of Royal Gould Wilder, who had participated in the 1806 haystack prayer meeting at Williams College. After more than 30 years of missionary work in India, the Wilder family had returned to America where young Robert eventually enrolled at Princeton. While there, Robert P. Wilder, Phi Beta Kappa scholar, as well as Christian activist, was instrumental in beginning the Princeton Foreign Missionary Society in 1883. Members of this group signed a covenant pledging "We, the undersigned, declare ourselves willing and desirous, God permitting, to go to the unevangelized portions of the world." They adopted a watchword which expressed their objective, "The Evangelization of the World in this Generation." Having inherited his missionary father's world vision and burden for those without Christ, in 1886 the younger Wilder influenced 100 students to dedicate their lives to missionary services during a summer YMCA conference at Mount Hermon, Dwight L. Moody's retreat grounds in Northfield, Massachusetts. Encouraged by what God had done and wanting to capitalize on this momentum, Wilder and a fellow Princeton graduate, John Forman, traveled from school to school the next year to recruit more volunteers. By 1888 over 3,000 had pledged themselves to the cause of foreign missions. Thus, while God had used the YMCA to mobilize Christian students into campus chapters, the Princeton Foreign Missionary Society grew into the Student Volunteer Movement, which was used to send them into the harvest, Robert Wilder's father had been praying that a thousand students from American colleges would be raised up. God answered powerfully as more than 20,000 set sail over the life of the movement! On college campuses during the 19th century, God revived generation after generation of students and used them to move the church closer to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. They first pioneered work along the coastlands of Africa and Asia. Then by 1886 a second era of Protestant missions saw footholds established in the vast inland territories of those lands through thousands of student volunteers. As today's students are sensitive to the conviction and call of the Holy Spirit, perhaps they can match their predecessors' faith and actions. Could it be that a movement of 20th-century volunteers and national believers might make this the third an final era of missions! Perhaps the volunteers' objective, "The Evangelization of the World in This Generation,' will be realized during your lifetime. Recommended Books of the Month ABANDONED DEVOTION BOOK Ablaze for God By Wesley Duewel Written by one of the world's leading missionary statesman, this book describes the spiritual dynamics of leadership, how one can be more fully a Spirit-filled leader, and how to be more aflame for God. www.amazon.com GLOBAL PROCLAMATION BOOK Waking the Giant: The Resurging Student Mission Movement By Ryan Shaw College campuses and ministries of the world have historically been the premier place where laborers for the nations have been fashioned by the hand of God. these individuals have most often been influenced by powerful and united student mission movements in their college communities. Now it's this generation's turn! Waking the Giant envisions and provides practical tools for individuals and ministries among the emerging generation to be set aflame through a grassroots mission movement. God is on the move in extraordinary ways. The time has come! The baton has been passed! Go to www.SVM2.net to purchase Waking the Giant! Upcoming Events 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting - January 22-February 12 - www.svm2.net The 21 Days are here! Join your peers on multitudes of campuses starting this Monday for a season of focused prayer! View the Daily Prayer Guide online at SVM2.net as well as other information regarding fasting.	In this Issue A Call to 21 Days of Prayer How College Awakenings Impact the Missionary Movement Recommended Books of the Month Upcoming Events Have You Signed the Creed Yet? Other Online Resources To read more writings on pertinent topics for Message Bearers click here. Spread the Abandoned Times by Forwarding this newsletter to a friend. Thank you! Sign up for the Abandoned Times Click here to receive the Abandoned Times General Info info@SVM2.net 626.644.2887   Want to Give? Would you like to get involved in the work of SVM2?  Have You Signed the Creed Yet? Are you committed to serving Jesus cross-culturally in the nations when you graduate? If so, join with hundreds of others in today's united student mission movement by clicking here. Other Online Resources Check out other web resources for building the student mission movement! Momentum Magazine - www.momentum-mag.org Mission Frontiers Magazine - www.missionfrontiers.org Powerful Articles on Revival and Global Mission - www.awakeandgo.com Global Prayer Digest  - www..global-prayer-digest.org
SVM2 is an informal network of students, ministries, and organizations serving a grassroots mission movement among the emerging generation toward the fulfillment of the great commission in our lifetime. www.svm2.net