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God on Campus: Sacred Causes Global Effects
God on Campus traces a remarkable legacy of spiritual awakening that stretches from the founding of the earliest colleges in the United States to a global movement of nonstop student prayer spreading across campuses today.
"This is a book to help you remember your roots," Trent Sheppard writes, "ordinary people like you and me--bold and timid, brilliant and insecure, disillusioned and dangerous, ambitious and naive, holy and fallen, fearless and afraid--people who prayed, people who conspired together with their friends in faith and action, people who believed their lives could actually help shape the unfolding narrative of history."
From the establishment of early American campuses during the Great Awakening to the rapidly spreading collegiate movements of the twenty-first century, Sheppard shows how students can integrate their passion in prayer with practical Christlike living in culture. "The goal," he explains, "is not for us to abandon our studies in economics or education and all become preachers instead. The goal is to live like Jesus in the very soul of society."
"This is a book to help you remember your roots," Trent Sheppard writes, "ordinary people like you and me--bold and timid, brilliant and insecure, disillusioned and dangerous, ambitious and naive, holy and fallen, fearless and afraid--people who prayed, people who conspired together with their friends in faith and action, people who believed their lives could actually help shape the unfolding narrative of history."
From the establishment of early American campuses during the Great Awakening to the rapidly spreading collegiate movements of the twenty-first century, Sheppard shows how students can integrate their passion in prayer with practical Christlike living in culture. "The goal," he explains, "is not for us to abandon our studies in economics or education and all become preachers instead. The goal is to live like Jesus in the very soul of society."
205 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 8, 2025
“Mission is telling the story of Jesus, who he is and what he has done. Mercy is loving people like Jesus did, and that especially involves loving the poor. Marketplace is where we live like Jesus, including every area of culture and society.”
This was a good book about the history of college students and their place in global movements of faith. It prompted me to consider how I can encourage students in prayer, in service to others, sharing faith with others and staying focused on these most important things.
This was a good book about the history of college students and their place in global movements of faith. It prompted me to consider how I can encourage students in prayer, in service to others, sharing faith with others and staying focused on these most important things.
September 13, 2018
Trent Sheppard’s book, God on Campus: Sacred Causes & Global Effects, may sound like a book only relevant to College Ministers and students. To the contrary, it is a book that every believer, young and old, can read and find within its pages a deeper appreciation of our spiritual heritage and a clearer focus on the “Great Commission.”
Trent writes, “This is a book to help you remember your roots. It tells the stories of ordinary people like you and me – bold and timid, brilliant and insecure, disillusioned and dangerous, ambitious and naïve, holy and fallen, fearless and afraid – people who prayed, people who conspired together with their friends in faith and action, people who believed their lives could actually help shape the unfolding narrative of history.”
I love what Trent wrote on page 63, “The urgent need of our generation, and one of the most important themes of this book, is the rejoining of heart and head in our understanding of spiritual awakenings and especially in our day-to-day following of Jesus. Even though the curious case of the modern mind drove a dividing wedge between the sacred and the secular, one of the redemptive elements of the postmodern mind is a genuine desire to bridge that great divide. Can you imagine the global effect in communications and the arts, in the fields of business and science and technology, and in education and healthcare and diplomacy if a new breed of believers emerged on campus whose entire lives (heart, soul, mind and strength) were fully surrendered to Jesus?”
Stories I Never Want to Forget
Trent really did his homework for this book, digging up stories from history that I’d never heard before. I agree with Pete Greig, who wrote in the afterword, “The many extraordinary stories recounted in this book should shoot adrenaline into our veins, terrifying and inspiring us to pray.”
Some of my favorite stories include:
1. Harvard’s College Laws, 1642 – written under the leadership of President Henry Dunster, “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life, John 17:3, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord giveth wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer, in secret, to seek it of Him.” Later in 1654, Dunster - the first president of America’s first college – was accused of heresy, dismissed from his presidency, and banished from the colony over the question of infant baptism and the Puritan tradition. Accepting the very charge he gave his students to seek and teach truth, his conscience would not allow him keep silent, regardless of the consequences.
2. The “Holy Club” at Oxford, 1729 – Students like Charles and John Wesley, William Morgan and George Whitefield practiced prayer, fasting, service to the poor, and accountability together. This club emerged into the movement we know today as the Methodist Church; helped fan into flame the Great Awakening; and contributed to the abolition of slavery in English society.
3. The “Haystack Prayer Meeting,” 1806 – At Williams College, freshman, Samuel Mills, led a prayer meeting with four other students and dreamed about mission work in China. This evolved into the American foreign missions movement. Mills ended up in London where he dreamed with William Wilberforce about a solution for slavery. He then moved to Africa where he created Liberia as a place where free slaves could rebuild their lives.
4. “Mount Hermon One Hundred,” 1886 – When Princeton graduate, Luther Wishard, thought up the idea to host a month-long Bible Conference with speaker, D.L. Moody, one hundred students pledged to give their lives to missions. Students at this conference later formed the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) that inspired over 20,000 students to go into the mission field. SVM’s primary leader from Cornell, John Mott, was later awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.
The book goes on to tell story after story of remarkable such people as Jeremiah Lanphier, William Borden, and Allison Brooks. Trent Sheppard also touches on the establishment of student organizations such as YMCA, InterVarsity, The Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ, YWAM, The Jesus Movement, and 268 Generation.
Quotes I Never Want to Forget
1. “Humility…almost comes naturally when we are awestruck.”
2. “Imagine that – God and Harvard in some sort of sacred pact from the very beginning: a holy conspiracy of education and conviction woven into the earliest foundations of America’s original college.”
3. “The oldest university in the English-speaking world is Oxford, whose history of teaching extends all the way back to 1096. Oxford’s motto, Dominus Illuminatio Mea, comes from Psalm 27 and is translated, “The Lord is my light.” …It is obvious that God and campus have been in vital partnership from the very beginning.”
4. “The earliest laws of Harvard include knowing God as the “main end of…life and studies.”
5. “Contrary to the modern trend of pitting faith and scholarship against one another, the extraordinary spiritual legacy these earliest campuses extend to us is the essential knowledge that God and academia are by no means mutually exclusive.”
6. “Simple faith is sometimes followed by extraordinary results. The seemingly insignificant footnotes of history, those little-known personalities…are sometimes far more influential in shaping the narrative of history than we initially realize.”
7. “One of the greatest myths and most disempowering concepts of our collegiate years is the faulty idea that real life starts later. As if the daily decisions that deeply influence our friends, significantly shape our campuses and regularly recenter our lives have no actual bearing in the real world.”
8. “Sometimes…through failure we find what we are looking for all along.”
9. “The turning points of history are surprisingly simple sometimes. You and I may or may not be called to lead a movement…but we do have a part to play.”
10. “Learning to think like Jesus is a vital part of learning to live like Jesus.”
11. “God does not intend to suppress our minds in order to awaken our souls.”
12. “Before the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, there were nine officially chartered colleges in the colonies…. Common to all of them is a foundation of faith.”
13. “Since Jesus’ time numberless bands of Christian youth have “turned the world upside down” and thus led [humanity] forward in its struggle for freedom and deeper religious experience. The universities have always been breeding places for such groups.” ~Clarence P. Shedd
14. “In the purposeful mind of [Samuel] Mills, stupidity had less to do with one’s test scores and more to do with one’s overall life direction. The question was not, Are you making the highest mark in class? but rather, Are you living your life on purpose?”
15. “Though you and I are very little beings, we must not rest…till we have made our influence extend to the remotest corner of this…world.” ~Samuel Mills
16. “I am willing to go anywhere, at any time, to do anything for Jesus.” ~Luther Wishard
17. “Why is it important to see Jesus? Because to see Him is to see God.” ~Robert Wilder
18. “Prayer and missions are as inseparable as faith and works, in fact, prayer and missions are faith and works.” ~John Mott
19. “We must always remember that evangelism is essentially about Jesus. The goal is not to convert people to our cultural understanding of Christianity but to introduce people to the life of Christ. May it be said of us, as a student once said of Robert Wilder, “I never heard anyone speak of Jesus Christ as he did.”
20. “If Jesus is on the throne, you will go where He wants you to go.” ~Williams Borden
21. “I heard Him call “Come follow” that was all. My gold grew dim. My soul went after Him.” ~John Oxenham (1913)
22. “One of the best ways we can respond to the [season] of our own era is by choosing to be marked by confession instead of accusation.”
23. “Am I known more by what I am for or by what I am against?”
24. “Our vision is…Jesus: obsessively, dangerously, and undeniably Jesus.” ~Pete Greig
25. “A genuine obsession with Jesus has the potential to be wildly contagious.”
26. “When a doctoral student at Princeton asked, “What is there left in the world for original dissertation research?” Albert Einstein replied, “Find out about prayer. Somebody must find out about prayer.” ~Philip Yancey
27. “For the friends and followers of Jesus, it was not as if the controversial issues of their time no longer mattered to them, it was simply that Jesus mattered more.”
28. “Unity in prayer does not mean unanimity in opinions, but it does mean that we have to humbly recognize that none of us have the whole truth.”
29. “This extraordinary season of student prayer must initially result in a more Jesus-like engagement with the needs of the world through mission, mercy and marketplace.”
30. “In the mind of the Creator there is not divide between the sacred and the secular. God made it all.”
31. “One of the most disempowering and shortsighted misunderstandings in the history of Christianity is that the calling of a pastor or preacher is somehow more sacred than the calling of a research scientist or elementary school teacher. Jesus was no less holy as a carpenter than as a rabbi, was he?”
32. “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.” ~J.K. Studd (1886)
33. “It is vital that the campuses become, once again, greenhouses for the formation of the spirit and the mind.” ~Pete Greig
34. “How can evangelism consider its task accomplished if it leaves the university unevangelized?” ~Charles Malik
35. “If we get down on our knees side-by-side, we’ll stand up much stronger together. Unified and humble prayer around the person of Jesus is a powerful prescription for the ills of our time.”
Five Stars
I give this book a five star review, and heartily recommend you pick up a copy to read soon. You’ll especially like the personal application questions at the end of each chapter, along with the mention of many helpful links and resources.
Trent writes, “This is a book to help you remember your roots. It tells the stories of ordinary people like you and me – bold and timid, brilliant and insecure, disillusioned and dangerous, ambitious and naïve, holy and fallen, fearless and afraid – people who prayed, people who conspired together with their friends in faith and action, people who believed their lives could actually help shape the unfolding narrative of history.”
I love what Trent wrote on page 63, “The urgent need of our generation, and one of the most important themes of this book, is the rejoining of heart and head in our understanding of spiritual awakenings and especially in our day-to-day following of Jesus. Even though the curious case of the modern mind drove a dividing wedge between the sacred and the secular, one of the redemptive elements of the postmodern mind is a genuine desire to bridge that great divide. Can you imagine the global effect in communications and the arts, in the fields of business and science and technology, and in education and healthcare and diplomacy if a new breed of believers emerged on campus whose entire lives (heart, soul, mind and strength) were fully surrendered to Jesus?”
Stories I Never Want to Forget
Trent really did his homework for this book, digging up stories from history that I’d never heard before. I agree with Pete Greig, who wrote in the afterword, “The many extraordinary stories recounted in this book should shoot adrenaline into our veins, terrifying and inspiring us to pray.”
Some of my favorite stories include:
1. Harvard’s College Laws, 1642 – written under the leadership of President Henry Dunster, “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life, John 17:3, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord giveth wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer, in secret, to seek it of Him.” Later in 1654, Dunster - the first president of America’s first college – was accused of heresy, dismissed from his presidency, and banished from the colony over the question of infant baptism and the Puritan tradition. Accepting the very charge he gave his students to seek and teach truth, his conscience would not allow him keep silent, regardless of the consequences.
2. The “Holy Club” at Oxford, 1729 – Students like Charles and John Wesley, William Morgan and George Whitefield practiced prayer, fasting, service to the poor, and accountability together. This club emerged into the movement we know today as the Methodist Church; helped fan into flame the Great Awakening; and contributed to the abolition of slavery in English society.
3. The “Haystack Prayer Meeting,” 1806 – At Williams College, freshman, Samuel Mills, led a prayer meeting with four other students and dreamed about mission work in China. This evolved into the American foreign missions movement. Mills ended up in London where he dreamed with William Wilberforce about a solution for slavery. He then moved to Africa where he created Liberia as a place where free slaves could rebuild their lives.
4. “Mount Hermon One Hundred,” 1886 – When Princeton graduate, Luther Wishard, thought up the idea to host a month-long Bible Conference with speaker, D.L. Moody, one hundred students pledged to give their lives to missions. Students at this conference later formed the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) that inspired over 20,000 students to go into the mission field. SVM’s primary leader from Cornell, John Mott, was later awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.
The book goes on to tell story after story of remarkable such people as Jeremiah Lanphier, William Borden, and Allison Brooks. Trent Sheppard also touches on the establishment of student organizations such as YMCA, InterVarsity, The Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ, YWAM, The Jesus Movement, and 268 Generation.
Quotes I Never Want to Forget
1. “Humility…almost comes naturally when we are awestruck.”
2. “Imagine that – God and Harvard in some sort of sacred pact from the very beginning: a holy conspiracy of education and conviction woven into the earliest foundations of America’s original college.”
3. “The oldest university in the English-speaking world is Oxford, whose history of teaching extends all the way back to 1096. Oxford’s motto, Dominus Illuminatio Mea, comes from Psalm 27 and is translated, “The Lord is my light.” …It is obvious that God and campus have been in vital partnership from the very beginning.”
4. “The earliest laws of Harvard include knowing God as the “main end of…life and studies.”
5. “Contrary to the modern trend of pitting faith and scholarship against one another, the extraordinary spiritual legacy these earliest campuses extend to us is the essential knowledge that God and academia are by no means mutually exclusive.”
6. “Simple faith is sometimes followed by extraordinary results. The seemingly insignificant footnotes of history, those little-known personalities…are sometimes far more influential in shaping the narrative of history than we initially realize.”
7. “One of the greatest myths and most disempowering concepts of our collegiate years is the faulty idea that real life starts later. As if the daily decisions that deeply influence our friends, significantly shape our campuses and regularly recenter our lives have no actual bearing in the real world.”
8. “Sometimes…through failure we find what we are looking for all along.”
9. “The turning points of history are surprisingly simple sometimes. You and I may or may not be called to lead a movement…but we do have a part to play.”
10. “Learning to think like Jesus is a vital part of learning to live like Jesus.”
11. “God does not intend to suppress our minds in order to awaken our souls.”
12. “Before the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, there were nine officially chartered colleges in the colonies…. Common to all of them is a foundation of faith.”
13. “Since Jesus’ time numberless bands of Christian youth have “turned the world upside down” and thus led [humanity] forward in its struggle for freedom and deeper religious experience. The universities have always been breeding places for such groups.” ~Clarence P. Shedd
14. “In the purposeful mind of [Samuel] Mills, stupidity had less to do with one’s test scores and more to do with one’s overall life direction. The question was not, Are you making the highest mark in class? but rather, Are you living your life on purpose?”
15. “Though you and I are very little beings, we must not rest…till we have made our influence extend to the remotest corner of this…world.” ~Samuel Mills
16. “I am willing to go anywhere, at any time, to do anything for Jesus.” ~Luther Wishard
17. “Why is it important to see Jesus? Because to see Him is to see God.” ~Robert Wilder
18. “Prayer and missions are as inseparable as faith and works, in fact, prayer and missions are faith and works.” ~John Mott
19. “We must always remember that evangelism is essentially about Jesus. The goal is not to convert people to our cultural understanding of Christianity but to introduce people to the life of Christ. May it be said of us, as a student once said of Robert Wilder, “I never heard anyone speak of Jesus Christ as he did.”
20. “If Jesus is on the throne, you will go where He wants you to go.” ~Williams Borden
21. “I heard Him call “Come follow” that was all. My gold grew dim. My soul went after Him.” ~John Oxenham (1913)
22. “One of the best ways we can respond to the [season] of our own era is by choosing to be marked by confession instead of accusation.”
23. “Am I known more by what I am for or by what I am against?”
24. “Our vision is…Jesus: obsessively, dangerously, and undeniably Jesus.” ~Pete Greig
25. “A genuine obsession with Jesus has the potential to be wildly contagious.”
26. “When a doctoral student at Princeton asked, “What is there left in the world for original dissertation research?” Albert Einstein replied, “Find out about prayer. Somebody must find out about prayer.” ~Philip Yancey
27. “For the friends and followers of Jesus, it was not as if the controversial issues of their time no longer mattered to them, it was simply that Jesus mattered more.”
28. “Unity in prayer does not mean unanimity in opinions, but it does mean that we have to humbly recognize that none of us have the whole truth.”
29. “This extraordinary season of student prayer must initially result in a more Jesus-like engagement with the needs of the world through mission, mercy and marketplace.”
30. “In the mind of the Creator there is not divide between the sacred and the secular. God made it all.”
31. “One of the most disempowering and shortsighted misunderstandings in the history of Christianity is that the calling of a pastor or preacher is somehow more sacred than the calling of a research scientist or elementary school teacher. Jesus was no less holy as a carpenter than as a rabbi, was he?”
32. “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.” ~J.K. Studd (1886)
33. “It is vital that the campuses become, once again, greenhouses for the formation of the spirit and the mind.” ~Pete Greig
34. “How can evangelism consider its task accomplished if it leaves the university unevangelized?” ~Charles Malik
35. “If we get down on our knees side-by-side, we’ll stand up much stronger together. Unified and humble prayer around the person of Jesus is a powerful prescription for the ills of our time.”
Five Stars
I give this book a five star review, and heartily recommend you pick up a copy to read soon. You’ll especially like the personal application questions at the end of each chapter, along with the mention of many helpful links and resources.
August 19, 2011
Great historical read, but had no idea where the author was going in some chapters. I may use parts of this for vision casting around prayer.
December 12, 2017
My 15 years of campus ministry experience resonated with the perspective of the author that the college campus, and in particular college students are ripe with potential for the Kingdom! Also a compelling call to first and foremost to be a people who pray!
March 17, 2019
Great book. I loved the way Trent Sheppard took the stories of revival and missions breakthroughs and tied them to the history of university campuses. We need these reminders and stories to keep our eyes also on the future and increase our faith for what’s possible and what’s coming.
August 29, 2017
A good historical primer of evangelical movements and revivals on university campuses written for undergrads and intended to inspire thoughtful action and prayer. There are many other historical works that are much more comprehensive and thoughtful, however, this makes for a good recommendation for students since it emphasizes application, unlike most historical compilations. The short dramatizations of several key turning points are uneven but helpful summaries. Almost outdated already, the book especially and understandably emphasizes the role of prayer movements. A quick read that unexpectedly sometimes turns a critical eye on some of these movements instead of glorifying them. Required reading for our new staff in InterVarsity (though, to be clear, it doesn't really cover much about InterVarsity history). See also A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories for more like this.
March 4, 2011
Very similar to the book "Fireproof" but with much more updated material. There is a past and present aspect to many of colleges written about. I have given away every copy that I own because I think this should be read by as many college students as possible. Trent came to a college near where I go to school and after meeting him I can tell you that he is a man of passion and fire for reaching campuses for Christ. We've been praying and hoping for a Christ-Awakening in America and feel that through Trent's book, that may just happen within our generation.
July 31, 2014
The first 2/3 of this book is great. Really encouraging stories of how college students have shaped the world and the amazing things that can happen when just a handful of kids get together to change the world for Jesus. Very uplifting for those who work in college ministry. The last 1/3 is a promotion for the Campus America project, a prayer initiative. I've haven't personally seen great things come out of movements whose main focus is prayer instead of service and missions - a lot of that section I skimmed over.
January 20, 2011
What an inspiring book for campus ministry people. Sheppard outlines some of the key moments in history where God uses the humble hearts of young people to do His incredible works of greatness. Absolutely a "must-read" for anyone interested in campus ministry or anyone who simply wants to be inspired to live obediently to Christ.
June 9, 2011
I really enjoyed Trent's style of sharing stories and talking about what implications it has for us today in this book. The rhythm is that of "story>implications>next steps" over and over, and sharing the story of prayer as it pertains to God's movement on campuses both past and present. Trent begins with Harvard, and ends with the Campus America movement. It's inspiring and a light, fun read!
November 9, 2013
Great way to get a bigger perspective of God moving through prayer across college campuses and the impact prayer has had through the years. I'd recommend this especially for college students who are new prayer leaders or desire to grow in prayer on their college campuses.
September 9, 2012
Absolutely recommend this book to EVERY student :)
May 18, 2015
An excellent and challenging read detailing the history and presence of God in campuses all over America. I was gladdened to learn of the roots of my alma mater, Rutgers.
November 19, 2015
This is a must read for every Christian.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews