We want our college students to be for Christ, for the church, for the world, for life.

For Christ

We want all our college students to be able to say with the Apostle Paul, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” (Philippians 1:21) and really mean it! There is no one greater and there is no one more important than Jesus. Jesus changes everything and he is changing the lives of college students for his glory and for their good. He lived the perfect life we were supposed to live and he died the shameful death we deserved to die. Now he calls everyone to take up their cross and follow him by faith. Following Jesus doesn’t make life easier, but it does make it better. We want all college students to passionately live for Jesus!

For the Church

“What do you offer college students?” is a frequent question for us when we meet new students. And, our answer is always the same – the church. That doesn’t seem too compelling, does it? But, that’s because we have a shallow view of the church.

The church is the locus of God’s work in the world. It’s through the church that the “manifold wisdom of God might now be made known” (Eph 3:10), which is the gospel of Jesus. The church possesses the greatest mission in the world: to make disciples of Jesus Christ. It’s for this mission that we exist. Our students are most effective in living out this mission when they’re connected to, trained in, and sent out from the local church.

It’s in the church where multi-generational discipleship flourishes. It’s the environment where young and old coming together to be pushed towards greater love for and faithfulness to Jesus. You need people in your life who’ve walked with Jesus for 30 years. You need to see married couples following Jesus together. You need to see parents striving to raise their kids to love the Lord. You need to walk alongside folks nearing the end of their lives who praise God as they head to meet Him. And just as much as you need them, they need you. The family called “church” is where all of this happens.

For the World

Richmond, KY is ground zero for our mission efforts. But, God’s footprint through our church is much larger. Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations. He said that we are his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

That means our mission isn’t limited to only reach folks here in Richmond with the gospel (although it’s certainly true that we want to reach as many people as we can here). No, our vision is to plant churches all over the world. Currently, we’re focusing on planting churches in New Orleans, LA and in Peru.

College students are a vital, indispensable part of that vision. Each summer, we want to send students to each one of our church-planting cities for six to eight weeks where they’ll be directly involved in our on-the-ground church planting efforts. You can find out more about these opportunities and other ways to go using our Go Guide at: www.ashland.church/go

For Life

It’s our prayer that the students the Lord gives us for the four (or five or six) years they’re in college would follow Christ in this life until their dying breath. We aim to train and disciple them to that end. We focus on trusting the Word of God, embracing biblical friendship in our Bible Fellowship Groups, and cultivating a life of serving others.

As students make decisions about what they’ll do with their lives and where they will do it, we encourage them to think cross-culturally and beyond the bounds of our city and state. We are delighted when students decide to be rooted in Richmond, Kentucky for their post-college life, but we also want them to consider using their occupations, skills, and gifts to serve in one of our church planting cities, as well as other parts of the world. Graduating seniors can apply to serve for up to two years as one of our Ends of the Earth Interns in one of our church planting cities.