The Most Powerful Subgroup

I want to continue on a theme from a few days ago. In reading about the life of Jonathan Edwards, it became apparent that the seeds of the First Great Awakening were connected to young adults. At least early in his career, Edwards seemed to have a good connection with young adults and it was their response to Edwards' teaching that laid the foundation for the work of the Spirit.
Though there is not a strict connection, revivals, awakenings, and new movements of God's Kingdom have seen their genesis with college aged/young adults. I do not know of a recent book that chronicles movements in history that began among young adults. I recall a book many years ago by Patty Burgin, when she was with Crusade staff, wrote about the powerful percent. In the book she asserted (at that point) that only 1% of the world's population have the opportunity to attend a university.
It's here that two things have happened. First, those that attend university tend to be the ones who shape society and culture for the future. In that sense, college students are absolutely critical to reach as they are the shapers of countries. Second, it is out of this subgroup that new expressions of expanding God's Kingdom were launched. College is not only an extreme privilege (Some estimates are that still 1% of the world's population has a college degree) but it's also the place where God stirs new dreams and passions for a lost and dying world and for the Church, God's holy bride. We can speculate why God has chosen young people, college students to lead the way. But that's another discussion. The fact is that throughout church history God has used young adults to shift the prevailing paradigm.
A couple of examples will suffice...as noted, young adults were central to the beginning of the First Great Awakening here in the U.S. Later in history (1806), five student at Williams College in Massachusetts began gathering to pray. At one of their meetings a thunderstorm broke out and they rushed to the shelter of a haystack. This was the beginning of the first solid North American missions work. In the first fifty years over 1,000 students were sent to the mission field. Both the Student Volunteer Movement and Intervarsity have their origins in the Haystack Prayer movement.How about Jim Elliot? It probably escapes most of us who know about his life that it was his college years that mostly launched him into serving on the missions field until he was martyred in Ecuador. And we can continue with the start of Campus Crusade and the Navigators! I used to serve the Crusade so the story of Henrietta Mear's influence on Bill Bright and Dawson Trotman (who would go on to found The Navigators ministry) at Forest Home was recounted for new staff. It was through the influence of Dr. Mear's that both men began to pray and received direction from the Spirit to reach the college campus. More recently, we have all been affected by the Passion movement with Louis Giglio.
This is the short answer to why even devote time and energy to college students. The strategic nature of reaching collegians with a compelling and lasting picture of the gospel is critical to the health of the Church both here in the States and also around the world. God uses college students! If this is the case, it is in our best interest then to invite our college students to participate in something big and not just "youth group". It has everything to do with making the kind of disciples whose hearts are enlarged to love God and others, who are re-trained to live life well with the Great Commission and Commandment in mind (and not just more behavior modification and getting people pumped up).