Across the country, youth workers express alarm about the large numbers of students who ditch their faith when they go to college. College pastors share their burden. As director of The Ivy Jungle Network, a resource for campus ministers, I talk to both groups.
To help high school workers get a better understanding of what campus ministers think, we contacted some of the key members of our network and asked them: "What would you say to youth pastors if they had the chance?" Here's what they told us.
The First 7 Days on Campus Are Crucial
As students arrive on campus they will undergo a barrage of new ideas, opportunities, experiences, and relationships. Youth workers would do well to help their students make their spiritual growth a priority, say our experts. And to establish the best trajectory for a healthy spiritual life on campus, the first few weeks are critical.
"Things like their friendships, their roommate, their study habits, and what groups they will be involved in are all decided in those first weeks. I wish [youth workers] would tell their students how important it is in those first two weeks to visit some campus ministries, find a church, and establish their spiritual priorities right from the start of their college career."
—Timothy Hudson, campus director for the Campus Christian Fellowship, the University of Georgia, and part of the national leadership team for National Association of Christian Campus Ministries
"Tell students, 'Prepare to be proactive about your faith.' For most Christian high school kids, their involvement in church and youth programs has come through the encouragement (oftentimes the mandate) of parents, or through following their friends. When they get to the university these instigators for spiritual activity are often removed, or at least greatly diminished. I encourage youth ministers to have both public and one-to-one talks with college-bound students to prepare them to be proactive about their spiritual growth during their college years."
—Nik Harrang, Every Nation Campus Ministry, at the University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University and the University of Seattle
"I guess the biggest help youth leaders can give their students going to college is to help plug them in. Contact campus pastors ahead of time and give them your students' contact information. Also, equip your students with information about the campus ministries. I think it's also helpful to have a relationship with the campus pastors in your area, as many students will not go far. Promote the campus ministries in your youth group and follow up with the students after they go away."
—Chris Kennedy, Chi Alpha staff team, Rowan State University, Glassboro, New Jersey
Students Need an Integrated, Holistic Faith
Campus pastors often feel students arrive at college knowing the gospel but not knowing how to live it out in their lives. Lacking a framework to help them prepare for diverse ideas, students "fall away" because they never truly understood what it means to follow Jesus.
"My experience... is that 80 percent of all incoming college freshmen who are 'saved' youth group kids become 'lost' college students very quickly. Why? Because they didn't follow Jesus to college. (Instead, they followed their friends, parents, 'the system,' or whatever.) They are usually good kids but not very godly. They are nice Christians but not very Christ-like. They are kind of spiritual but not very Spirit-filled. The exceptions are those kids who were part of a nitty-gritty 'discipleship-band' or 'mission-trip' experience during high school, where they worked out how to truly follow Jesus and learned to pray and to not give up meeting together."
—Daniel Curran, East Bay Ministries/San Francisco Metro Ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ, based at University of California Berkeley
"A seasoned campus minister once said that many Christian students arrive at college with a kindergarten Christianity. Some students have a real, saving faith, but they don't know how it compares to alternative worldviews or how to share it with others with completely pagan backgrounds. Students need to know that they are not simply at college to survive as Christians, but to be Christ's ambassadors and to take the university by storm for the sake of the gospel."
—Camille Kay Hall, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, at Swarthmore College, Cheyney State University and Delaware State University
"I worry that in our concern for real and urgent issues facing teens (for example, remaining 'pure') we ignore other serious questions. Young people need to know that their faith is not only an inward spirituality, it does apply to every area of life: how they treat their roommate, what major they choose, what clubs they will join, whether they find a local church, and the myriad of social issues that are raised by professors and classmates."
—Becky Wainwright, the Coalition for Christian Outreach, metro Philadelphia
"I see so many students who enter their freshmen year over-saturated, anxiety-ridden, and faith-disintegrated—and these are the students who identify themselves as followers of Jesus. If they arrive at college with this spiritually lethal recipe, they're going to get picked off. Long before they walk the hallowed halls of academe and set up camp in Greek houses and dormitories, we need to help students get in step with seeking God's kingdom first, not when it’s convenient. That can only happen when we adopt a relationally-intensive ministry posture. Forget the programs. Invest in them as people."
—Gregg Taylor, campus minister and executive director of the Wesley Foundation at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville
"I hope that [students] are learning that there is a difference between acting like a Christian (saying all the 'right' Christian words and displaying the 'right' behaviors) and actually striving to become like Christ... I hope [they] are heading into college with the perspective that they first must be changed before they expect to transform their campuses. I hope that they are learning how to hear His voice for themselves."
—Daniel Kim, creative arts director for NewSong Church in California, currently ministering in Bangkok, Thailand
Train Students to Be Participants, Not Spectators
Students are major consumers of virtually everything—and that attitude extends to their faith. College ministers are shocked that new students, rather than coming to college equipped to lead and serve, lack leadership and initiative. They see these challenges developing in high school and hope youth pastors will join with them to turn the tide.
"One thing that I wish youth pastors understood about students and college is that youth pastors must help their students develop a participant ethic rather than a spectator ethic. Youth need to be conditioned and challenged to 'get in the game' of ministry, rather than be audience members who show up each week desiring to be entertained by the pastor. If they have been born of God, they are empowered by the Holy Spirit for a purpose: to go and make disciples. Any preparation that does not integrate this mission into their fabric is falling short of the mark, and making my job much more difficult, as I then have to overcome the 'holy huddle' culture of those Christians who gather together merely for social and entertainment purposes."
—Matt Thiessen, Campus Crusade for Christ, the University of Missouri
"I wish that more youth ministry was aimed at connecting students to the broader life of the church than simply having thrilling activities targeted at their generational desires. If students had greater connections to an intergenerational church community, whether through mentors or service in children's ministry, their transition into college would be more widely guided and followed by others. This would help students to view their spiritual lives as less individualistic and more community-oriented. They would see that their spirituality is not about them alone, but about finding their place within the body of Christ."
—Matthew Erickson, college pastor at Elmbrook Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
"One of the central tenets we uphold is empowering students to make the ministry their own—to come up with creative ideas, make a plan of action, and then to carry it out. Recently, however, it seems that students are paralyzed at the thought of taking part in the ministry themselves, as opposed to having the program planned for them and they just show up. If youth pastors would start earlier empowering students, in an effort to help them make decisions and see a plan come to fruition, for us in campus ministry there would most likely be an increase in students taking ownership of ministry and living into the fact that Christ has set them free to do so much for this world, including for their own peers on campus."
—Ryan Church, associate director for college ministry with The INN, the college ministry of University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, and Janie Stuart, coordinator for the Ascent Network, INN’s church-based campus ministries
Youth Workers Need to Stay Connected
College ministers' final consistent cry is for youth pastors and churches to remain connected to their students as they head off to school. Too often, seniors graduate and all the attention in the youth ministry immediately turns to the incoming freshman class, while the high school graduates stumble their way into college. As we already discussed, the first few weeks and months are crucial. Youth pastors have the relationships that campus ministers are seeking to build.
"Please don't abandon your recent graduates once they head off to college, especially for the first year or six months. With students who make a good transition spiritually to college, you are still a welcome and influential voice. For those who struggle, a call or visit or contact initiated by you during their first Thanksgiving or Christmas break could pay dividends in their lives which would be hard to overstate. You still have access and influence in their lives which no newly found collegiate minister (assuming they even have one) can match, so please use it."
—Dave Buschman, Baptist chaplain, Princeton University
"Remember, 'it takes a village to raise a child,' so know the village your student is in, especially the 'natives' you can refer to (churches, Christian bookstores, campus ministers, et cetera). Employ a team of parents and other adults who will serve as mentors who 'reconnect' with students when they return. Finally, employ prayer warriors, remind students they are being prayed for, and follow up on requests to remind them God is at work and faithful."
—Melanie Mar Chow, campus minister with Asian American Christian Fellowship/JEMS, Southern California
"Youth leaders need to be vigilant in staying in communication with those who minister on the campus so that they can keep their understanding of college life accurate. Many leaders tend to either rely on their dated college experience or on the media when they look to prepare their students for college."
—Patrick Bailey, Baptist Collegiate Ministry, Western Illinois State University
"The youth pastor's job should not end when [students] go to college. Stay connected with your students! Send them cards and care packages. A reminder of Christ's love from home can go a long way to a lonely student who feels like God is far away."
—Jackie Raffo, Campus Ambassadors, Worcester State University, Worcester, Massachusetts
Campus ministers are grateful for the work and relationships that youth pastors and volunteer youth workers have already invested in students. They want to challenge youth workers to do anything they can do to stay involved and help young people grow so they will be prepared to arrive on campus with a vision for what the college years can mean for the Kingdom of Christ.
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