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About a month ago, I had the opportunity to sit in on a local gathering of Young Adult Ministers. It’s been interesting to compare and contrast their work with the work of College Ministry, and this is the third (and probably last?) post looking at thoughts following that lunch. (The first post is here and the second is here. You can also see similar observations after a Youth Ministers’ lunch right here.)
Today, three more thoughts.
the spectrum is larger than ours
In the first post, I noted that what “Young Adult Ministry” means varies pretty widely place-to-place. It might mean Singles aged 23 to 29 at one church, and somewhere else it might include anybody “post-college, pre-family, married or single.”
But within individual young adult ministries, I think there might be a broader audience spectrum (in some senses) than we have in our college ministries. Right now, for instance, many young adult ministries serve Millennials, members of Gen X, and those in-betweeners (like me) who don’t completely identify with either. On the other hand, we campus ministers are almost always able to focus on serving one generation at a time.
Likewise, many young adult ministries nowadays do have married couples as well as singles. They have a wide variety of occupations represented, along with some full-time grad students or nontraditional students. Young Adults have widely divergent levels of education, too (whereas we’re generally reaching the “completed some college” crowd, of course). Young adults also likely live in a wide variety of local areas (at least in larger cities); many college ministries’ audiences probably live within a three-mile radius!
If I was a young adult minister, I could probably point out other ways that audience varies. But in any case, I’d say their audiences probably vary on certain axes a lot more than ours do.
they get to tell us what to do
Maybe Young Adult ministers don’t exactly get to tell us college ministers what to do, but I do believe – strongly – that we should be getting some cues from them about how we disciple students. Just as I wish Youth Ministers would ask us how to best prepare future collegians, we need to listen more and more to Young Adult ministers.
What are our Christian students lacking when they leave our ministries? And… what do they need in order to succeed when they step into the “real world”? Young Adult ministers may be better prepared to answer these questions for us than anybody.
it’s a newer field
One fascinating realization is that “modern Young Adult Ministry” is really quite new. With the marriage-age dramatically shifting over the last decade, there are suddenly high numbers of 20- and 30-somethings who aren’t married but will be someday. And even many of the married young adults are finding companionship with other young adults (married or single); the real life-stage marker now seems to be having kids, not saying your vows.
In other words, this certainly doesn’t seem to be the same field as good ‘ol “Singles Ministry” of the 1990s.
So while we college ministers (rightly) groan about the lack of development in our field of ministry, we have decades of experiences to learn from. For today’s Young Adult Ministers, it’s kind of a brave new world, isn’t it?
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Last week, I started jotting down what I noticed while attending a gathering of Young Adult Ministers here in Dallas. I think it’s helpful to compare and contrast our field (College Ministry) with others, and perhaps the two best areas for that kind of pondering are the ones that fall (chronologically) before and after ours: Youth Ministry and Young Adult Ministry.
Why?
- Because much of our crowd comes from or moves to those areas.
- Because there’s some overlap in strategy, wisdom, and resources between College Ministry and each of those fields.
- Because in some cases (both in churches and parachurch organizations), these areas share organizational ties.
- And because these areas often get confused with ours – even though Youth Ministry, College Ministry, and Young Adult Ministry are clearly separate fields.
So today, a couple more observations! (If you missed that first post, check it out here.)
Less organic connection… and less competition? Another thing I realized as I sat with two dozen young adult ministers was that these guys and gals are far less likely to run into each other than we are. College ministers’ stomping grounds are usually defined by the campuses they serve, so college ministers naturally end up interacting. This includes the opportunities we have to collaborate and cooperate; after all, we’re serving not only the same type of person… we’re actually serving the same people when we view the campus as a whole.
Those reaching out to young adults don’t seem as likely to cross paths. There’s no “crossroads” they might share (except for a coffee shop or two). So I would imagine the opportunities to interact would be fewer - but so would any tendency to “compete.”
Leadership and volunteers that are harder to “wrangle.” By this, I’m referring to the leaders and volunteers that arise from within our respective ministries.
When you think about it, we’re often able to get some pretty amazing stuff out of our student leaders and other student volunteers. After all, even though they think they’re busy, many college students have more free time now than they’ll have ’til retirement!
But young adults are in that in-between, when free time seems a lot harder to come by. The topic for the lunch I attended happened to be on Using Volunteers, and it was fascinating to realize how much harder (in many senses) it must be for young adult ministers. Not only is it harder to ask for a large commitment, but young adult ministry volunteers may also have a harder time submitting under the leadership of the young adult minister.
So while some developed college ministries might raise up leaders who lead a small group, come together for leader training, and are on-point to help during ministry activities each week, young adult ministries might be fortunate to find people who can give a few hours a month. Obviously that’s not true for every volunteer – and there might be a maturity level that we’d envy a bit – but we should be thankful for the availability of our students.
more to come! (The last post in this series is here.)
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A monthly gathering for Young Adult Ministers has recently started up here in Dallas! And since I had helped with a little input on the front end, I had the chance to sit in with them last week.
To avoid any confusion right off the bat: While there are people who serve both college students and young adults (in some churches, at least), those groups are significantly different. I’ll likely blog more about that in the future, but I just didn’t want anybody to be confused by my contrasting of Young Adult Ministers and College Ministers here.
Last semester, I got to attend a Youth Specialties lunch and blogged about the interesting differences I noticed between Youth Pastors and us College Ministers. So I figured I would do the same for the Young Adult Ministers – not just as a thinking exercise, but to help us examine what we do a little more closely!
It’s churches. Unlike our field, which encompasses four distinct branches (campus-based, church-based, institutional, and collegiate churches), Young Adult Ministries are generally housed in churches… at least for now. The only common exception isn’t really an exception; the “citywide” worship service might draw young adults from across church lines, but even that is often run directly by a single church.
Young Adult Ministry’s “target” varies more widely than ours. In College Ministry, our lines aren’t perfectly clear – some people who aren’t attending classes are still quite “collegiate,” while some who are students will feel most at home in Young Adult or other Adult ministries.
But I think Young Adult Ministries have even much more varied definitions of their audiences. Even in that room of 15-20 Young Adult Ministers, the definition of “Young Adult” varied – in age and in marital status. As I’ve seen around the country, “Young Adult” can mean 18-25, 23-30, 20s and 30s, or similar combos. And it doesn’t always mean just singles. In fact, I think the trend (and it’s a trend that makes a lot of sense) is for churches’ Young Adult Ministries to reach “post-college, pre-family, married or single” – as one young adult minister put it the other day.
But in some sense, we can be thankful that the lines are (usually) a little clearer, and they don’t change much with generational shifts (like the average marriage age).
Clearly, college students are part of the equation. Of course, not all Young Adult Ministries have “post-college” as part of their definition. Many churches try to reach both collegians and young adults as part of an overall “Young Adults” or “Singles” ministry, with varied success. This is an important aspect to note, of course, because it affects all of us who reach college students – including college ministries that aren’t in churches.
As I’ve seen at an awful lot of churches around the U.S., it can be really hard to reach both groups simultaneously. While I certainly think one achievable College Student Plan for churches involves activity overlap between the two groups, it needs to be done strategically and with a recognition that collegians and young adults are simply different. Hopefully our field can help churches think through their plans, including helping them see that sometimes a cooperative approach with already-established collegiate ministries may make a lot of sense!
more observations to come! (Read the second post here.)
One of the most illuminating interactions I’ve been a part of occurred a few years ago at a forum for college ministers.
At the event, a major publisher sent a representative to gauge our interest in their products. They had marketed quite heavily to the collegiate ministry crowd, and they wanted to know how to connect with us even better. (Kudos to them for seeking our opinions!)
What followed was quite interesting.
The college ministers in attendance kept asking if this publisher planned to release any collegiate editions of their Young Adult small groups materials. Or, they suggested, perhaps the publisher could put out collegiate “study guides” to go along with the present materials, which – again – were targeted toward young adults.
It was fascinating to watch, because the representative was quite confused. In fact, I’m not sure he ever wrapped his head around what we were asking for. In his mind, their materials were for college students. But college ministers know better: What is needed by Young Adults isn’t always the same as what’s needed by collegians.
lumping
This is one example of the ways outsiders to the field of College Ministry often “lump us together” with other ministry fields. And so we’ve got another BIG opportunity to help advance our field – by helping delineate our arena of ministry from others.
College ministry isn’t the same as youth ministry. College ministry isn’t the same as young adult ministry, either. Sure, some events (like some large group meetings) might fit multiple groups. Sure, some positions (in churches, at least) might have to cover multiple arenas. But none of that means these fields are close enough to be lumped together in general. It’s like with veterinarians: They may be able to treat different species, but all those species are still different enough to matter.
We’ve got a long way to go here. Far too many churches, for example, treat “18-25″ (or an even larger span) as a natural grouping for ministry, when that’s only applicable in a few very specific contexts. Some seminaries try to put both youth and college ministry training under the same umbrella. Publishers, as noted above, might not even imagine we would want something different for our students than their standard Young Adult or Youth fare.
delineate
When we kindly, patiently, and clearly delineate these areas for outsiders, we’re actually helping advance our field! How?
- They realize that what goes on in our field is something unique.
- They realize that college students need different things than either high schoolers or young adults.
- They realize that college ministers need different things than ministers in other fields.
- …So they have the chance to tailor services and products that help us best.
Often, doing this can be combined with the Catalytic Questions idea: By asking what groups have specifically for college students or for college ministers instead of these other groups, you’re automatically delineating the arenas!
Other times, you may just need to ask for clarification, or provide clarification when outsiders lump us with other fields. (I’ve done that at least two or three times this week!) A question like, “Wait – did you say this was for youth ministers or for college ministers?” helps them know you see these arenas (rightly, I’d argue) as different enough to matter.
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I noted yesterday one of the major resources we have for determining how best to grow the college students we’ve been called to shepherd. Those resources are the Singles Ministers, Young Adult Ministers, and really anybody else who works somewhat up-close with post-collegians.
(Add this area to the list of research projects somebody needs to pursue for our field of ministry. But for now, you’ve got plenty of people in your town you could talk to!)
While I would urge us to “go to the source” and observe our students’ future through the eyes of these ministers, I figured it might be edifying to note what I’ve observed myself. ‘Cause I am indeed a “single young adult,” and I’m involved in a church with a pretty thriving young adult crowd. So after spending a Labor Day retreat with 4 or 500 fellow young adults, this topic is rather on my mind.
What do we as college ministers need to do better to prepare students for their young adult lives?
Again, to be clear, I’m just pondering this one. This is not an area of particular expertise (which is why we need to consult those who actually work in this area!). But I was interested to see the list I’d come up with, and I’m interested to see if you – or even your young adult minister buddies – might have anything to add.
Here are some areas that may deserve a little more suitcase-packing:
- understanding the power of intimate Christian community and getting over the roadblocks to participating in it
- being great in the basics of the Christian walk
- watching out for the legalism and Gnosticism-lite that descends on college students and young adults alike
- learning and using spiritual disciplines (of various sorts)
- learning and using their personal spiritual gifts (of various sorts)
- the wonders of intergenerational connections
- having a battle-plan for the post-graduation disillusionment & other difficulties
- biblical literacy
- reading through the entire Bible by the time they’ve finished college
- shining the light of what God’s doing in their lives – both among non-Christians and among Christians
- knowing that God is calling them into a great, personal, impactful adventure…
- …but realizing that they were never, ever meant to “choose their own adventure” based simply on passions, hopes, desires, or circumstances
- understanding church
- finding a church
- singleness and its glorious opportunities
- servanthood and its glorious opportunities
- doing something cross-cultural (or even outside the country) by the time they graduate
- a realistic understanding of the various waits, slowdowns, and other patience-trying years that may await them in their 20s and 30s
- glorifying God via their vocations
- the amazing opportunity to give away much of what they earn, and everything else that it can mean to glorify God with finances
This honestly came off the top of my head, but it was interesting to ponder. What might you add? What do we college ministers need to be better about packing in our students’ post-graduation suitcases?
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A while back, I had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion by leaders in the field of Youth Ministry at a seminary. The panel was very well attended and really informative… plus, it even showcased an impromptu debate between two really well known communicators about the value of home schooling.
There was space for Q&A, and I got to head to the front and ask a pretty simple question, along the lines of, “In what ways have you been able to get wisdom from college ministers about how high school students should be trained?”
Crickets would have chirped, had there been crickets in the room. Tumbleweeds would have tumbled, too (it was Texas, after all). They clearly had nothing to offer; my question was met with an agreeable response: “That’s a great question, but we really haven’t had opportunity to look at that,” basically.
I think most (or all) of those reading this would agree: Youth Ministers absolutely must seek the thoughts of College Ministers as they strategize the shepherding of their students. If those on the receiving end aren’t consulted about what students will need, what they generally seem to be missing when they get out of youth group, and the general climate into which they’re being thrown, then aren’t Youth Ministers missing an enormous opportunity for wisdom?
Of course they are.
But that’s not what this blog post is about.
Because if you agree with me… and I kinda bet you do… then there’s one more question that needs to be asked: When’s the last time you (as a College Minister) talked with a Young Adult Minister, a Singles Minister, a Young Marrieds Minister, a Premarital Counselor, or any other adult-area minster-type about
what young adults will need,
what they generally seem to be missing when they get out of college,
and the general climate into which they’re being thrown?
You can at least start with the locals, right? Couldn’t you grab coffee this week with somebody on a local church staff?
Tomorrow, I’ll post some thoughts after spending a whole weekend with the (fellow) young adults at my church. [Here's that post!] But don’t wait for me – there’s better wisdom from the people who actually serve full-time in ministering to the future versions of your present college students!
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If you’re unfamiliar with Byron Borger and Hearts & Minds Books, then that’s a major piece of our field that you should add to your puzzle! But it’s likely you have seen him / them, especially if you’ve made it to an Ivy Jungle gathering or the Jubilee Conference anytime recently.
This week, Byron released a gigantic list of books focused on ministry to young adults, by which he means the segment past high school. In other words, this is perhaps the most exhaustive annotated list available for books connected to the field of College Ministry!
Here’s how it begins, and you can click the link to see Borger’s impressive list:
Sometimes I like to share with readers some of the lists I generate for customers who inquire. Just today I did a serious list of commentaries about 1 & 2 Timothy, a brief list about war & peace, a good list of some favorite novels for a church-based reading group, and a bunch of books for a friend who has a seeker at work who may read about a book about Christian faith. Want to see ‘em, such as they are, just give a holla.
Here is another I just finished, at 2 am tonight. It is for a good friend who is writing a paper on how churches might reach out to young adults, and how to better understand that “missing generation.” Since we just did that special offer on the Outsider Interviews I figured this might be good to share now.
Please keep in mind it isn’t exhaustive, and was created for a customer I know well. There could be some others, but this pretty much is just the real list I sent out today. Thanks for allowing me to send it to you, here, as well.
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In our intro session / orientation for the Brazil trip last night, we had the chance to learn a big difference between what it means to be a college student here (in Brazil, or at least in São Paulo) and what it means back home in the States. Here, college students are generally what we would call “Young Adults”; their post-high school lives are immediately thrust into the working world. While many may begin attending college classes (at the numerous schools in this city), those educational endeavors are placed on top of their lives, instead of providing the setting for their lives. It sounds like there are very few dorms; one girl also noted that students rarely see campus as a place to build friendships.
(Don’t worry; none of this means we won’t be learning applicable things this week – beginning with one big point of this post, contextualization.)
It’s vital that anyone reaching post-high schoolers recognize that there is a spectrum: Some individuals are extremely “collegiate,” while others – even if they happen to attend classes – would never be defined in that way. And there are shades in between those extremes.
Without recognizing this spectrum, we might ridiculously extrapolate our contexts to nations that don’t treat “collegeness” in the same way.
But lack of attention to this spectrum also causes some U.S. churches to lump young adults and college students into the same categories. In our country, there are generally deep sociological differences there, so we have to “mind the gap,” as it were – perhaps making use of wise overlap, while never forgetting that the truly collegiate person is often quite different in key ways from the non-collegiate person, regardless of the age (or enrollment) of either.
Forgetting to recognize this spectrum also causes some campus ministries (of any kind) to be less campus-oriented than they should be, even though their students’ center of community happens to be right there, on the campus.
Meanwhile, others ignoring this spectrum err on the opposite side, treating their college students exactly the same as they might at a big State School – despite the fact that college students in their context may not situate their lives around the campus, might not be nearly as “collegiate,” or might truly be much more like “young adults who happen to be taking classes.”
Our hopes to be missional, if anything, demand that we be contextual. And this is a start – one we can learn even by comparing Brazil with North America. Examine how “collegiate” our college students actually are, and we’ll understand better what they need from us.
This post was adapted for use at the Planting Brazil blog, as well.
Update: Brazil Missional Trek
Friday and Saturday: I met those who had flown into Dallas, where we all took the red-eye directly into São Paulo (after several delays because of weather issues in Dallas. On Saturday, we hit the ground running, holding our orientation and attending the weekly service at Zoe, the church we’re working with this week. (To follow along, see our blog at plantingbrazil.wordpress.com.)
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Merry Christmas! This week, as you and I celebrate and (hopefully) rest, I’ll be posting some Best of the Blog from 2009! Whether you missed these posts the first time or not, hopefully they’ll present some helpful, interesting, or surprising thoughts on our amazing ministry field.
One of the most-visited (and most-commented-on) posts of the year came in June, as I reflected on a unique paradox. It seems that many of the most “missional” American churches actually take a very UNmissional approach to college ministry. This is an important consideration for all kinds of college ministry, as we examine how local churches can/should be involved in reaching collegians on their terms and on their turf. Enjoy – and new comments are welcome!
On page 30 of Reaching the Campus Tribes, I broach a subject that I believe is really important for churches to ponder. The interesting dilemma is that some modern-style churches may actually impact students worse while striving to break with tradition. In fact, while trying to be more missional, some churches may end up less missional.
Some churches have opted to go the “non-traditional” route by pointing students directly to their intergenerational structures, “fully assimilating” them into the adult programs of the church. They plug them into small groups, Bible classes, or other activities alongside the church’s adults – without any opportunity for small group discipleship as college students or specialized outreach to local college campuses.
(Certainly, this sometimes takes place by default when churches haven’t taken the time to plan anything for students, leaving collegians to trickle into other areas of the church – and otherwise not stick around. That’s not what I’m talking about.)
As I write in Reaching, the full-assimilation method “certainly reflects a clear respect for college students as full members of the local congregation.” So on one hand, I applaud the motivation behind not separating college students and treating them as a distinct congregation (as one leader at a famous Emerging church described).
But for these highly missional churches, the funny thing is that this approach may be LESS missional in regard to those college students. Why? Because this method usually involves yanking them out of their actual community.
Though a college campus is located geographically within a particular area, it rarely has a high degree of sociological similarity to the rest of that area. Especially at residential colleges, many college students have one primary community – and it isn’t the local neighborhood, nor is it particularly similar to the local neighborhood. It’s the campus, and it’s (obviously) a world of its own.
This means that these otherwise missional churches are being highly “attractional” (in a sense that’s opposite from their normal efforts). If I’m not mistaken, this format pretty clearly demands that collegians leave “them” to come away with “us” to do church – both in location and in identity.
If we desire to be missional with college students, we have to think through what that means in their special case. Just as reaching our neighborhood missionally involves connecting with people “on their terms” and “on their turf,” impacting college students missionally involves recognizing their unique terms and turf, too. While it’s good for college students to get out of their small worlds some of the time, learning to live for Jesus within those worlds is vital, too.
The way I put it in the book was:
At the same time, it must be remembered that many college students’ cultural identity and community are located not in the local neighborhood but specifically within their collegiate experience. Thus any church aiming to reach people “missionally” and contextually should consider the special situation of college students. Unless efforts are made to reach campus tribes on their own terms, we may actually be missing opportunities for relevant impact in this important life stage. And we will be removing students from the very communities in which they presently have the most influence for God’s Kingdom.
I’m still thinking this one through. That’s one way we advance college ministry – through debate and rigorous thought. So while I’ll keep thinking, I did want to address this here. And I’d love to hear your thoughts – positive, negative, or illustrative.
[See the dozen or so original comments here!] [Add a new comment here!]
As a college ministry fan, I was excited to check out “Post Grad,” which opened last night. It’s a romantic comedy that looks at Life after College for today’s college grads. This is a theme that’s really important for us to investigate for ourselves AND discuss with students, especially for two reasons:
- Transitioning students to the real world is an area in which we need major improvement
- 20-something life seems to be less defined and more disillusioning than it was even a decade ago
I’m sad to report, however, that “Post Grad” may not particularly help us – or our students – figure this stuff out.
I’m not trained in Movie Reviewing, but there’s a whole list of “proper” movie reviews to choose from at Rotten Tomatoes. (Of the several reviews I read, the one at Reelviews was probably closest to my own thoughts.)
What I can offer is a review from a college minister’s point of view. And this movie’s plot certainly connects with our field: A recent college graduate (from Creston College), Ryden Melby, has a post-college plan – but then her dream job falls through. This forces her (gasp!) to move back in with her family and search for what’s next.
I like Millennials. A lot. But every generation’s strengths are coupled with weaknesses. And what I found interesting is that this movie seems like it simply shares weaknesses with its Millennial audience, rather than either accurately representing the “real world” OR honestly reflecting the “generational mood” as a whole. So there’s plenty to learn from, even if it’s not entirely what the movie was attempting to “teach.”
For one thing, Read the rest of this entry »
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