Hard times evangelism

The day I got married, I was cool as a cucumber until I got to the "richer or poorer" part of the vows. As a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch, I hadn't contemplated a future consisting of "poorer." This year's crop of college graduates is being confronted with the reality of a poorer, too. These difficult times give us an opportunity for winsome evangelism beginning with Creation rather than the Fall.

An organization of career counselors, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, reports that companies will hire 22 percent fewer college graduates this year. Combine that with the national unemployment rate hitting 8.9 percent last month, and it's likely the worst time for college grads to look for work since I received my diploma and experienced poorer firsthand in 1983, when unemployment rose to nearly 11 percent.

In the spring of 1983, there were few good salaried jobs to be had in western Pennsylvania, where the bottom had just fallen out of the steel industry. Since I knew I wanted to achieve a childhood dream of being a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch, I took the advice of my Merrill broker---I had been investing my summer job money in the stock market since a young teen---and sought to gain experience in financial sales, so I sold life insurance on 100 percent commission.

At one point I ran out of food and money and was too proud to ask my parents for help. While a college professor was showing me his garden, he asked if I would like some of his huge crop of zucchini. I eagerly accepted and had nothing to eat but summer squash for three meals a day for a week. When I got married four years later, I was more likely to vow never to be poor again than to endure "poorer" while married.

Certainly many of today's college graduates were driven to succeed in their studies by a desire to obtain riches. Yet many are experiencing poorer today. Their dreams are not working out. Many graduates are working two jobs, making far less than they expected to make at just one job, living with their parents, and trying to pay off college debt. The future may not look bright to them because the financial press tells us that it could be a long time until the economy turns around.

What a great time to tell these young folks that their worth is not tied to their net worth. They may be eager to hear for the first time that they were created in the image of God. "Let us make man in our image," God said. Is there anything more valuable than that?

Moreover, this may not be the time to begin this conversation with "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." In her book Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey writes, "If we start with the message of sin, without giving context to Creation, then we will come across to nonbelievers as merely negative and judgmental." She also writes, "The Bible does not begin with the Fall but with Creation: Our value and dignity are rooted in the fact that we are created in the image of God, with the high calling of being His representatives on earth. In fact it is only because humans have such a high value that sin is so tragic."

Because our secular world and colleges give so little value to humanity---we are nothing more than evolved matter---we have an opportunity to tell struggling young graduates that they are more valuable than their small paychecks. Indeed, they are far more valuable than gold in God's eyes. After they hear the message of Creation, they may better understand the Fall and desire to embrace Christ and his work of Redemption at a time when their hearts are ready for the harvest.