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For the last three years, I’ve posted an essay connecting what we see in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament with the glories of college ministry. Below, you’ll find the update for 2010. Hopefully it will encourage you – and perhaps you can use it to help potential college ministers, your supporters, local Christian leaders, or others understand the value and wonders of serving college students! (An easy link for sharing is http://bit.ly/64tribes).
Each year in March, a famous basketball tournament serves as a highly publicized window into a magnificent mission field – the college campuses scattered throughout our nation. The college ministers who labor among these “campus tribes” are often surprised that American Christians don’t get more excited about impacting college students. Fortunately, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is our chance to take a unique “vision trip,” observing this particular people-group and picturing what mission work among them can accomplish.
Imagine you’re a missionary having just arrived in your country of service. Near your village, eight different tribes from across the nation meet in their great annual contest – while seven other locations around the nation are hosting similar gatherings. Each region has selected champions to compete, and other tribes are invited to join the contests because of their warriors’ widely recognized abilities. Thousands of other tribe members will watch these contests.
So of course, you choose to observe the contests; it’s a phenomenal chance to start exploring the culture and qualities of this highly unreached people-group you have been called to serve.
As the weekend begins, you first notice that each tribe promotes its own identity with great fervor – and even the unique tribal names make it clear this is no normal mission field. At your site, for instance, two tribes are named after animals known for their ferocity, but another has adopted a much less menacing animal. Yet another tribe centers its loyalty around a tenacious insect. Three others have chosen names that honor heroes from various global cultures, while another has simply appropriated a locally grown nut believed to bring good luck.
The urban setting of the Golden Gophers tribe illustrates many of the contextual differences that can affect mission work among the campus tribes.
At these contests, dancers are prevalent, as are costumes, musical instruments, food, drink, wagers, merchants, and religious invocations. The chiefs of the tribes are here, often found cheering next to some of the youngest from their villages. Healers stand by, though actual bloodshed in these contests is minimal. Impartial judges are assigned to regulate the contests, but they will face much taunting through the length of the weekend.
As you continue to watch the contests, you begin to notice traits beyond the extensive festivity, pageantry, and revelry here. Certainly the character qualities required for these contests – prudence, discipline, justice, courage, unity, chivalry – are admirable. But you are also unable to deny the deep passion here, among warriors and watchers alike. Some fighters win, and the crowd’s elation is profound. Some lose, and the contestants and tribes weep together – with an unbridled bitterness that would be shocking if not for the fervent zeal you have seen displayed all throughout these contests. You view transcendent, singular shining moments when Davids take down Goliaths, when boys become men for a few crucial minutes, when weakness is turned to strength so opposing armies might be put to flight.
And through it all, you begin to notice the clear opportunity in reaching these passionate people for Christ right now:
- The enthusiasm in these tribes has yet to be tamed. There is a grit here, a rowdiness, a messiness, a wild youthfulness in everyone: the warriors, the dancers, the battle-leaders, the musicians, and the crowds.
- The bonds brought about by community spirit are not frivolous. The natural connections and unity within these tribes will help God’s work to spread between their members.
- Creativity abounds within these tribes. Channeled for the Kingdom of God, this same ingenuity could serve to impact not only the natives’ nation but the entire world.
- This people-group is not short on energy, either – another opportunity to maximize fruit for Christ. If God allows you to touch even a segment of these vibrant people, their impact on others could be quick and profound.
The bicycles that swarm the many campus bike paths are one unique aspect of the Gaucho tribe of UC Santa Barbara.
So as the contests come to a close, you find yourself a little humbled. This is an amazing people you do not deserve to spend even the next year with, let alone a longer stint. No, this will not be an easy mission (as though any missionary activity is ever easy!); these are distracted people at times, and the blessings they possess may stand in their way of recognizing a need for Christ. Surely you will find other roadblocks to your mission, as well. But though there will certainly be the sorrows and hardships that come with any missionary activity, the field to which you have been called is a unique adventure and a blessing indeed.
All the “madness,” the virtue, the passion, and the valor found here simply reflect the tribes from which these crowds have come. This time, the tribes are Panthers, Golden Grizzlies, and Golden Gophers; Yellow Jackets, Gauchos, Cowboys, and Musketeers; and, of course, Buckeyes. And that’s just in Milwaukee; there are seven other cities hosting many other amazing campus tribes.
This is the beautiful mission field available through college ministry, and there are far more than sixty-four tribes to reach.
So far, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to visit 45 of the schools in this year’s Tournament (including 7 of the 8 tribes mentioned here), along with at least a couple of hundred more campuses in the last few years.
God is doing amazing things throughout the campus tribes! For more on what’s taking place (and some great pictures from dozens of campuses), see my free ebook, Reaching the Campus Tribes.
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You might know that I’ve been exploring the campus ministry scene in the great town of Fort Worth; as I began preparing this post, I was still there. Then a birthday dinner with my sister and her buddies, and then I finally made it back across the Metroplex to home.
It was a good few days, though! I’ll probably blog sometime soon on how valuable a 3-day excursion could be for you, too – lots of learning, lots of observing, and lots of collaborating are easily available to you in this incredible way.
For now, however, there are other great ways to learn, observe, and collaborate – namely, plenty of cool online discussions that relate to college ministry! Eat up, and enjoy (and don’t miss all the great college ministry methods people have been describing – they’re at the bottom!).
vocational theology & transitions: Mike Hickerson of InterVarsity’s Emerging Scholars Network interviews Derek Melleby of the CCO and Center for Parent / Youth Understanding – about Derek’s book (The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness) and his work on the Transition to College that’s such a struggle for so many Christian kids. A lengthy interview – in a good way. For more on one of those topics, Tim Ehrhardt posts some great thoughts on helping students consider their education and vocation theologically.
why college ministry matters: A great profile of one college minister’s work way up at Syracuse University could be really helpful for sharing the value of College Ministry – and presenting College Ministry as missions. All the more helpful for getting the attention of outsiders, it’s from the major Christian news service Baptist Press.
thinking theologically about the iPhone: The Washington Post looks engagingly at information-obsession, smartphones, and public connection with others. A lot has been written along these lines, but this is better than much of what I’ve seen – in large part because it asks questions more than it offers answers. It could be a really good, basic piece for waking up your students to this important discussion. (HT: Rhett Smith)
weeding out students?: Brian Barela continues his helpful posts on Starting a College Ministry, this time looking at creating purposeful ministry aspects that work to weed out students who aren’t really aligned with the ministry. A tricky topic, and one that I don’t have completely settled in my own mind – but a good read, and definitely worth pondering.
lifechange opens up ministry opportunity: Tim Ehrhardt provides a cool evaluation of our opportunity to minister to students because of – not just in spite of – all the transitions taking place in their lives.
you can help…: …Chad Logan develop a brochure for explaining the basics of Christianity to international students. …Tom Grosh develop a bibliography of resources for understanding the various Generations and how to minister to them!
learning from others: Justin Wallace posts a phenomenal apologia for exploring other college ministries – complete with results from a couple of recent visits he’s gotten to make. A great post, and very worth reading. (And if you could use even more basic motivations for collaboration, Russ Martin provides one.)
two famous new presidents: Christianity Today has posted a couple of interviews with the two new (famous) presidents of two major Evangelical schools: Wheaton College (Philip Ryken) and Baylor University (Ken Starr – yep, that one).
a new college ministry partner to consider: Guy Chmieleski had several helpful posts this week – including reflecting on his NYC mission trip from this week. Perhaps the post with the most heuristic value discussed ministry partnership with alumni – an endeavor that could certainly be worth putting some energy toward in the coming months. (But you should check out the others while you’re there.)
How-tos, Methods, and Under-the-Hoods
- …for starting in a new college ministry position: Lance Crowell has been writing a series on how college ministers (particularly church-based ones) should get going in a new college ministry. Solid stuff, with five brief parts so far. You can find the first post here, and then two, three, four, and five.
- …for engaging students in play: Wes Woodell gives detailed instructions for playing “Humans vs. Zombies” – an interesting way to draw people to your group and have a good time, campus-wide
- …for engaging students in discussion: Mike Hurt provides a really solid look at using discussion groups (instead of “lectures”)
- …for engaging students in spiritual conversation: Mike Mattson of a secular recruitment consulting organization describes his interaction with a Christian campus ministry’s great discussion-starting table at USC. Great chance to see an outsider’s take on a method that has become pretty popular within college ministry.
- …for raising up college ministers: Steve Lutz has been posting his content from a talk he recently did on discerning the call to college ministry – and preparing for the call. Definitely worth giving your students who are (or should be) considering a campus ministry vocation. Start here; 4 posts so far.
- …for getting support for college ministry: Jerry Beavers notes an effort within one denomination to re-emphasize collegiate ministry. While the example applies specifically to their group, it’s a really helpful example for others, who need to consider doing the same within their own denominations or networks! Work the system!
- …for evangelism: Tom Greentree takes a look at one simple evangelistic presentation that’s growing in popularity – and even links to a book that helps go further on this tool and its theology.
- …for celebrating Passover with your students in a few weeks: Derek Leman goes all-out on the instructions and other helps. (HT: Scot McKnight)
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Several times recently I’ve been asked about my calling. Usually I say something along the lines of, “I’m called to help develop the field of college ministry.” This has been my call since right before I took my yearlong road trip to see our work in action, and it remains my call today.
After describing that interesting vocation, however, I often feel the need to make sure I haven’t been misunderstood. Because I can imagine someone hearing that the field of college ministry is underdeveloped and assume that the work of college ministry is something less than fruitful or needs to be “overhauled.” But the only reason I want to develop our field as a field – increasing collaboration, for instance – is because I think SO much great stuff is happening that we’d be even stronger if our “profession” become more cohesive and collaborative.
There is much fruitful college ministry taking place all over the nation (and, as far as I know, the world). My particular portion in life has involved getting to watch a small part of that impact in real time, at locations throughout the States. But there are decades’ worth of testimonies of God’s great work in college ministry – on campuses, in churches, through men, through women, through students themselves.
Nor is college ministry’s outstanding fruitfulness a new fact; it’s been fruitful for decades. And despite some real (and often acknowledged) difficulties helping well-impacted collegians transition to being well-assimilated church members, there are still countless adult individuals presently walking with God who can trace their spiritual heritage to a campus ministry experience.
Yes, there are lots of ways we can grow stronger. But these seem to be largely areas of pruning and grafting, not razing or uprooting. And though we certainly need to evaluate and adjust, several of the paths of improvement I identified in Reaching have more to do with helping outsiders better understand the work – instead of simply dispensing with the present foliage.
R&D, even!
Not only is college ministry bearing fruit with those it serves directly, but college ministry is very profitable “Research & Development” for the Church at large. Its success and growth over the past decades have built an armory of wisdom that’s available to anyone who will make use of it.
Whether the Church wants to know more about “missional” or evangelism or small groups or leadership development…
…or encountering skeptics or ministry funding or missions mobilization or disciplemaking…
…or regular teaching or reaching the next generation (each time there is one) or unity or diversity…
…or contextualization (in the good way) but also abundant counter-culturality…
…or coming secular trends or coming Christian trends or developing community or zeal or fun, your average, semi-experienced college minister would already have much to share. This is the basic stuff of much college ministry work, of this realm inhabited by radical missionaries serving at the cutting edge of culture, education, and each new generation’s release into the wild. (Seriously, read back through that list – it’s not hyperbole. Each of those 19 items is found regularly within college ministries.)
so anyway
So anyway, thanks for letting me vent in praise of what you do. If I get to be nothing else but a voice in appreciation of the good God does through college ministry work, so be it. That would be a blessed portion indeed.
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Yesterday, I tweeted,
I am embarking on a process from which I may or may not come back alive: A full catch-up on all aspects of my life. Approximately.
The first day of that adventure included combing through the many online resources I have, as yet, not dealt with in a nice-and-neat way. So today I figured I’d fill you in on some of the things I’ve (re)found interesting – and that might be helpful, too!
The Annex’s Effect on My Ministry: how his College Ministry experience (as a student at First Pres Boulder) taught one church planter what “missional” means – before “missional” was cool
To an Unknown God: A Journal of Christian Thought at Berkeley: There are a handful of really awesome-looking faith journals (often by students) at prominent schools like Berkeley out there, and I figure I’ll try to catalog those sometime. Here’s one… and I’d love any thoughts on how the rest of us can use items like this? Maybe just show our students?
fulleryouthinstitute.org: Don’t forget the important work Fuller Seminary is doing – often quietly – to look at transitions to college through its College Transition Project. Their work is likely to have greater value than much of the popular work on the subject.
Russ Martin’s list of the Top 5 talks he heard in 2009: This leader of Campus Crusade’s Canadian arm is a very helpful blogger, and it’s good to hear about what impacts very helpful bloggers.
whyismarko.com: the blog of Mark Oestreicher, recently displaced head of Youth Specialities. (Cleverly enough, he switched to this site after blogging previously at ysmarko.com.)
hackcollege.com: might be a site your students appreciate.
This American Life looks at Party School Penn State: not sure if I ever linked this, but it’s one of college minister Steve Lutz’s favorite go-to resources for describing the interesting nature of his campus tribe (and for good reason).
That’s it for now. But I wouldn’t be surprised if more dregs-draining is posted later this week!
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While I was prepping for my seminar at this weekend’s Jubilee Conference, I came across something that really touched me – a book passage that has both a unique tie-in to a particular campus and offers a great parallel to the amazing campus environment in which we get to labor.
During the yearlong road trip, I visited Reed College in Portland – perhaps best-known among many of us for its inclusion in Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz.
It is indeed a unique campus setting. (As you probably know, I tend to argue that every campus is quite unique. This one is simply more… obvious in its uniqueness!) And one of many interesting finds while there was this mural:
I hadn’t ever looked up the quote above the hallway before. Turns out it comes from a book published in 1987: Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge. That particular line is found on page 23… and thanks to Google Books, I was able to read the paragraphs that precede it.
When it came time to close my seminar yesterday, I felt it hit the perfect note – reflecting the environment that all those called to college ministry get to bring Jesus into. In the book Dodge’s protagonist is actually reflecting on his life among the Beatniks (“pre-hippies,” I explained to the students yesterday), it sounds a lot like our campus worlds.
(Of course I can’t recommend the book itself – I haven’t read much more than the two paragraphs I’ll include below. And I apologize for the (minor) cursing. I didn’t write the book.)
Sounds like a freshman, right? How many students come to college with that same feeling – that this is a good time, that this is finally what they’ve been looking for?
Isn’t this already descriptive of the college campus? “A passionate willingness to be moved.” Some pretending and putting-on-airs, sure, but better than “the real world.” Those with religious backgrounds often feel just like this guy – that the boredom of religion is dull and desire-smothering and afraid.
Courage. An desire to be moved, and an openness to it. This guy with his passion for cars and the open road sounds like the many students who get thoroughly engrossed in their majors – and he found others meeting (or trying to meet) the same underlying passions in their own “majors.” Laughter and drunkenness, and the “walk of shame.”
And then the climax, the description that made the mural at Reed and that sums up our world: “An eruption of people hungry for their souls. And for all the poses and silliness, it was splendid.”
We have souls to offer the posing and the posturing and the hungry. And yet, even now, it is a splendid place in which to give our lives.
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Drew Brees, Purdue
Peyton Manning, Robert Meachem, and Jabari Greer, Tennessee
Gary Brackett, Rutgers
Jeff Saturday, the Tarheel tribe
Ryan Diem, Northern Illinois
Dwight Freeney, the Orangemen tribe
Marques Colston, Hofstra
Antonio Johnson, Mississippi State
Pierre Garcon, Mount Union
Scott Shanle and Carl Nicks, the Cornhusker tribe
Robert Mathis, Alabama A&M
Austin Collie, BYU
Jerraud Powers, Auburn
Jahri Evans, Bloomsburg
Will Smith, the Buckeye tribe
Jermon Bushrod, Towson
Sedrick Ellis, USC
Jeremy Shockey, Jonathan Vilma, and Reggie Wayne, the Hurricane tribe
Darren Sharper, William & Mary
Remi Ayodele, the Sooner tribe
Kyle DeVan, Oregon State
Roman Harper, ‘Bama
Melvin Bullitt, Texas A&M
Tracy Porter, the Hoosier tribe
Daniel Muir, Kent State
Joseph Addai and Devery Henderson, LSU
Jonathan Goodwin, Michigan
Philip Wheeler, Georgia Tech
Dallas Clark, the Hawkeye tribe
Ryan Lilja, Kansas State
Charlie Johnson, Oklahoma State
Scott Fujita, California
Jon Stinchcomb, Georgia
Antonie Bethea, Howard
Pierre Thomas and Kelvin Hayden, the Fighting Illini tribe
Clint Session, Pitt
Bobby McCray (plus #45, the star of one particular commercial), the Gator tribe
and a bonus #46, Carrie Underwood, Northeastern State
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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!]
Happy Twelve-Twelve, 2009! Less than two weeks ’til Christmas, so I hope the semester or quarter wound up (or is winding up) nicely.
I don’t know what your Christmas Break looks like, but those weeks might be a great time to familiarize yourself with opportunities to LEARN in college ministry. Of course, if you’re already reading this blog, you’re clearly already participating in some professional development (I hope this blog provides that, at least!).
Along those lines, let me point you to some of the discussions around the ‘net that I found most interesting this week:
a new college ministry legal case: The U.S. Supreme Court is actually taking up a college ministry case involving offering membership to students who don’t hold a ministry’s theology or values. So this is a HUGE something we should all be watching (and praying about). See Christianity Today‘s synopsis here, or a larger article from Inside Higher Ed.
more on evaluating college ministry success: As you’ve hopefully seen, multiple blogs have been discussing how to measure success in college ministry. I had the honor of guest-posting at Heart of Campus Ministry, and the approach I suggest is actually one of the most important things I’ve ever learned about ministry to collegians. In related veins, Alice Connor posts a great article reflecting on what “on-the-ground” success really often looks like for us college ministers, Ian Clark provides a solid 10-question assessment tool NewChapter has used to help college ministries evaluate their own work, and Jason Hayes is asking what successful disciplemaking looks like.
If you’re interested in all the recent posts on this topic, check out the top entry on last week’s review.
evangelism on the college campus: Interestingly enough, there are sometimes providential pepperings across various blogs – unconnected posts that address the same college ministry issue! Pretty cool!
One such “theme” has been evangelism. First, Eric Pederson gives us the chance to test-run a creative new Evangelism / Pre-Evangelism approach, through “Spiritual Conversation Cards.” The first 150 to respond get a free copy and get to help test the effectiveness of this approach! (HT: Ryan McReynolds) Second, Keith Davy wonders aloud if evangelism to Postmoderns works the same now as it did ten years ago – a really important question for many of us.
using volunteers in campus ministry: Another of those multi-blog themes has shown up in two posts about using / training college ministry volunteers. Chuck Bomar has gotten a few good comments on his request for helpful methods / resources for this area. And though I’m not sure it’s applicable to our work on every page, Walt Mueller highlights a book written for Youth Ministry Volunteers that could be useful just the same. (I also think it’s really cool that somebody published a book like that!)
articles for promoting college ministry (for our overseers & otherwise): Several places have also provided entries that might be perfect for passing on to those who need to understand our work better. Whether it’s supporters, overseers, pastors, parents, youth pastors, or somebody else, these might be illuminating to them:
- Jason Locke (a college minister-turned-preacher) with a great primer on differences in college ministry today vs. the past
- Bob Hetzler on involving younger people in a church’s vision-forming and planning process.
- Baptist Press with some attention-grabbing reasons parents should care about ministry to collegians
highlights here at ECM: On this blog, the highlights include an urgent encouragement for you to consider lending your talents to help the whole field of college ministry, a suggestion to recount your college ministry’s history, and some college ministry theology dealing with our field’s relative lack of suffering. (Interestingly enough, Brian Beckstrom just thoughtfully posted on a college student’s funeral he attended this week.)
and more good reading: Bill Westfall applies Good to Great to his college ministry, Mint.com provides a really cool visual stat-sheet regarding charity-giving that might be useful with students (HT: Todd Engstrom), my good friend Mark Warrington finally starts blogging with a cool post about implementing some Millennial technology in our college ministries, and another cool Dallasite – Mike Reading – continues the history of his unique college ministry.
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Yesterday’s post, “The Surprisingly Unmissional Approach to College Ministry,” garnered with some really great comments. So in case more people want to chime in (or people want to chime in again), I didn’t want to post on an entirely new topic – just extend the conversation.
First, I encourage you to read yesterday’s post and comments if you haven’t.
Further, Todd Engstrom of The Austin Stone Community Church very helpfully posted their collegiate methodology on his blog in response to my post. It’s an excellent example of a church that runs in “Emerging-Missional” circles but has seen the need to impact students as students (while also assimilating them into the church).
For my addition to the conversation today, I felt like it might be good for us to help each other remember some of the reasons the college campus is a unique “neighborhood” of its own, deserving of being reached on its own terms.
Clearly, for many Americans the collegiate experience certainly “feels” singular, not particularly similar to any other time of life. But I would go further and say that this “feeling” reflects something very real. Several aspects of this experience are drastically different enough that – at some level – students need to be reached like the collegians they are.
(That’s not to say we don’t also integrate / assimilate – read yesterday’s comments for some really great thoughts on that balance.)
I think any well-performed study would find significant differences between college students (as a group) and other groups in at least the following areas. As with any sociological grouping, there are variations along each of these lines. Each student is different. But as a group, college students experience a special world.
To get us started, some of the differences many college students experience:
- Financial situation
- Employment situation
- Schedule flexibility / “Margin”
- Weekly schedule
- Annual schedule
- Opportunities for stretching / growing experiences (study abroad, special summer activities, travel, etc.)
- Center of community (that’s a huge one)
- Felt needs (to some extent – but college ministers recognize students don’t always have a great grasp on what they need most. See next.)
- Actual discipleship needs
- Lack of intergenerational encounters
- Nearly all single (and those that are married have often left the “collegiate world,” even if they are still attending classes)
- Less sociological diversity in other ways, too (because schools are both selective and selected, and they function as fairly closed systems, resulting in true “tribes” of varying homogeneity)
What would you add?
The point is, these factors directly affect students’ present discipleship needs, opportunities to involve them and disciple them, or the impact discipling them now instead of later has. So if all we ever do is pull them out of that world, their experience of Jesus won’t have much correlation with the very unique world they actually inhabit.
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.
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