It is estimated there will be 600 million university students worldwide by the year 2040, and despite remarkable histories and contemporary work it is notable that the harvest is abundant but harvesters few. As this collegiate population grows, so do beliefs that life is meaningless and secular, leading to notable degrees of brokenness and social ills, such as, depression, anxiety, addiction, and hopelessness. Consequently, the Society exists as a guild to solve for this with the hope of the Gospel, by speeding up its (Core Actions) with worldwide collegiate ministry partners.
The point of the Society’s spear is fundamentally the hungry hearts of truth-seeking students. Hearts and minds being formed in the critical university years that will eventually lead families, businesses, nations, and civilizations. We believe we need revival in this collegiate world, renewal in our collective commitment to it, and new global relationships & resources to get the work done. Together we can do it!
The Society’s namesake originates from Tissington Tatlow (1876-1957) who embodied these values and beliefs leading to stunning impact. He became the British Isles Traveling Secretary for the Student Volunteer Missionary Union (1897) at twenty-one. He was later appointed the Secretary of the associated body, the British College Christian Union (1893), and again named the first Secretary of the Student Christian Movement (SCM), a position he held for 23 years.
It was said of him, “He is an Irishman, with a vision rather like that of his American friend John R. Mott, a vision of a whole world first evangelized and then won for Christ.” In official roles, he worked in university student ministries for 32 years. As a result of his influence and impact, unofficially, Tatlow was warmly called, “the apostle of the student world”. The Society is a union of collegiate people around the world who carry this same torch as Tatlow!
