Posts Tagged ‘college ministry’

Essential Church?:
Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts

I’ve tried to show in this series of entries that for us in the church or the campus to do effective collegiate ministry, we must begin far earlier than when students arrive on the college campus. The senior year in high school is too late as well. Thom Rainer argues effectively in his book Essential Church that age 16 is when teens start to drop out of church. (It’s a great resource for those wanting more research and insight into the subject of reaching young adults.)

In summary, here are some things I’ve highlighted that may help us re-begin our witness and encouragement to young adults in the church:

• Desegregating youth groups from the church at large
• Establishing well-defined and meaningful transitions to adulthood
• Raising our expectations of church and young adults
• Making the faith stories of church members a vital part of worship and small groups

Collegiate ministers located on the college campus have their work cut out for them. They face a difficult, time-consuming challenge: proclaim the Gospel to lost students and reclaim the “Christianized” students. In the latter, they work to transform an apathetic, dead faith crawl to a vibrant, glorious faith walk. At present, it’s a losing battle. Collegiate ministers need help from the church.

They must not disconnect from the church in frustration, but instead radically reconnect with the church with a fresh vision of what it will take to reach this generation together. I believe that in order for collegiate ministry to be done well, it must be done early. The hurdles in our churches are not insurmountable. Let’s jump high!

Here’s the year-end video/Powerpoint from the 2000-2001 school year.

UAM BCM Year End Video 2001 from Jeff Noble on Vimeo.

Disappearance of Testimonies

It’s hard to do collegiate ministry these days when the college students we’re attempting to minister with and to have never heard from anyone what it means to follow Jesus personally. Oh sure, they’ve heard tons of sermons, VBS lessons, youth devotionals, and Sunday School lessons. But the American church today is silent when it comes to personal stories of faith.

When was the last time you heard someone besides your pastor or a church leader share about the difference following Christ has meant in their personal life? Where do young adults hear the real stories of faith today in our curriculum-intensive, content-focused churches? Faith stories are infrequent, and for the most part, they are considered “special” parts of most services.

For collegians, it has a powerfully negative impact on their own faith development to never hear how others have encountered God personally. This lack of understanding what it means to have a personal, intimate relationship with God brings collegians to the university campus with a Velcro Christianity that is easily replaced.

Youth need to hear personal faith stories from each other and from adults in their churches early and often. They need to see how God works in the lives of others, and how a personal love for God is fleshed out in someone’s life. If all they observe about Christianity is a series of church services, events, and programs, they will quickly toss that aside in exchange for what will bring them more personal fulfillment. Unfortunately, there are a lot of negative options on the college campus.

It’s this disappearance of reality-show faith stories that makes it difficult for young adults to relate to most churches today. They don’t want to be a part of a crowd. They want to be involved in a movement. If those in attendance are simply logging in religious hours, college students quickly discern their lack of transparency and opt for places where they can be “real.”

Another sad tendency of many churches is to only put refined Christians on display. If we do hear from members in the pew, it always seem to be those who have had their situations tidily resolved. That’s not true to life. Most of us are aware of friends and family members engaged in intense faith struggles or other challenges. It’s precisely during the hard times that we need to hear from them how they are finding faith and Christ to be sufficient. Young adults don’t want a polished, shiny plastic faith story that would be just at home in the display window in the mall. They learn more from those in the trenches, those who are gritting it out with God. When you see a person slugging it out with Satan, defiantly proclaiming, “Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ,” – that’s the right time for a person to share their story.

Faith stories and their proclamation help growing believers see and relate earthly life with the spiritual realm. Descriptions of struggles and successes help us put feet and faces to our faith. Even in the New Testament, we see a retelling of some of the great faith stories of old in Hebrews 11. Reminding one another what God has done in each of our lives is a powerful tool for shaping and discipling college students.

You Get What You Expect
Maybe the main reason we don’t see many churches producing dynamic young disciples for the Lord Jesus is because we just don’t expect much from our young people. I have found that people will generally rise or fall to our level of expectation from them. Let’s paint with big strokes for them for God’s glory!

Unfortunately, another reason we don’t see many dynamic young disciples in our churches – and I can speak only of my own denomination here – is because there is a famine of older dynamic disciples in our churches. Across the board, we just don’t expect much from church these days. Stand in the back of most traditional churches today and listen to the amazing depth of the 21st century American church:

Nice sermon, preacher.
Boy, the choir was great today!
Went a little long today, didn’t we, pastor? (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
Good crowd today, huh?
Man, the capuccino shop in the church foyer was a great move!

We might as well be attending Rotary. Where is the attitude of expectancy for our God to show Himself? Where is the reverence? Where is the holy thought of being used by God to build His kingdom in our communities? Put simply, it’s gone.

We have not because we expect not. No one expects anything, and no one’s talking about it. The deafening silence of God-experiences is the last hurdle to jump in order for effective collegiate ministry to begin in the church.

What in the world would persuade a teen in church today to passionately embrace a love relationship with the living God when he is surrounded by so many that lack it? Have teens today been conditioned to accept a pragmatic “what Jesus can do for you” Christianity than the forgiveness of Christ Jesus through repentance? Our kids through many of our children’s ministry programs are steadily weened off of God.

Entering the greatest arena of spiritual warfare and philosophical disputation in our society today – the university – is like marching our churched students off a cliff. We have not expected much from ourselves, from our churches, or from them… except maybe that they meet a nice girl or guy and make a good living…

To be continued…

• Segregation of Youth Groups

Our churches have ensured their own demise by segregating their youth into “youth groups”, entertaining these same youth for 6 years (instead of challenging them in daily discipleship), and then, as if to put the nail in the coffin, giving them sweet little graduation presents (like “Wisdom for the Graduate”) as they bid them well on the eve of their collegiate experience.

Such is a guaranteed recipe for mush. There is little or no thought about how to produce a disciple that will stay the course in many mainstream churches. One dismal statistic began alarming leaders a few years back: 89% of churched youth leave the church when they go to college. Those who leave may return, if at all, after they’re married and have their first children.

While some dispute this alarming statistic, a more significant, subjective tool can also be used. If your church is located in a community where there is a college, how many college students attend your church? Are the high school students that graduated from your church last year actively involved in a church right now? Ask them. You may be surprised at their answers.

The “black hole” of the church is soundless; it’s a great void that sucks life from every denomination. Where are the grown-up children? Where is the generation aged 18-25 in the church? Or even 30-somethings? Are they all flocking to the new megachurch in the suburbs, or are they staying at home, making Sunday the new Saturday?

One reason we may not be seeing these ages in the church is because they don’t feel like church “belongs” to them. Our churched youth have no sense of ownership of their church. As soon as they began thinking for themselves, they were ushered off into a segregated church-world. Most have no voice, no vote, and no influence whatsoever on their church. Add to that problem the issue of the occasional youth minister that perpetuates that “us vs. them” mindset in his youth group, and well, why should we wonder where youth are going? They don’t get a fair shake in the only place in the world they should expect one.

Another reason that youth may not be in the church is that the church just isn’t into youth. Too many churches think they’re doing “collegiate ministry” by providing Sunday School classes for them. Yet these students, who are old enough to defend our country, drive, and even drink alchohol are not deemed mature enough to serve on most church leadership teams or committees.We treat young people as lower class citizens in the church. They’re great for numbers, but we don’t want them having voices of influence.

Articles on the Christian collegiate dropout problem:

• Lifeway Research
• Busting the Dropout Myth
• Church dropouts

The remarkable trend of the last 40 years of a separate, high-octane “youth ministry” may have produced a lot of noise and created the church van industry, but have youth ministries effectively prepared and discipled students? Are they reaching the college campus able to not only defend their faith but thrive in it?

To be continued…