Thoughts on College Ministry By College Students

Last week, i met with a wide variety of college students from different churches and tried to pick their brain about what college ministry should look like. These findings may be surprising.

Relational Connection is the most important reason students are involved in a particular ministry. However, community may look like exclusivism; therefore, pursue Biblical community that is inclusive. Students understand this tension will always exist.

College students don't prefer the professional branding of a ministry such as a cool logo, name, or t-shirt. In the past at BCM, one student said that we promote BCM over Jesus. For all the many reasons branding is good, it may feed that type of negative thinking. Collegians still prefer a grassroots approach.

Do college students want Topical or Expository messages? They prefer an and/both approach to messages. Students want to hear from a book of the Bible with a practical theme.

The top choices of study students picked out were affiliated with 1. Lordship of Christ. 2. Ways Not to drift from God 3. Apologetics in light of other religions... I would've never guessed these.

What would be the area of ministry that needs improvement? It’s not the sound system and not better communicators etc… Year in and year out, the best way to improve is to stay connected to those who have been disconnected.

Do students want to be energetic or reflective in worship? Yet again, the answer is both, but they prefer a cohesive worship experience that flows appropriately.

Praise and Worship music style is also beginning to shift towards a mellow coffee house feel. The large bands are sending rock star vibes and students are now preferring a stripped down experience that allows them to be reflective.

Interestingly, students don’t see campus based ministry more or less "spiritual" than church based ministry. However, because of location, students prefer to bring unchurched friends to campus based ministries.

Finding your niche empowers your ministry to reach students no one else is reaching.

The most essential characteristic college students prefer about their ministries is OWNERSHIP. Student ownership should be indicative in every facet of ministry.

Evaluating College Worship Services

Assessment is important for every component of ministry so every year we evaluate the main BCM events in order to make sure they are achieving our end goal of life transformation. There’s no perfect evaluation form to show whether or not the goal is being reached, but here are some questions to ask your students that may help you tweak programming in order to be more effective. Here are some questions we ask in evaluating our college worship.

College Worship Evaluation

If someone said, “Why should I go to that ministry? What would you say?”
What is one area of our College Worship you would change and why?
What are some good Bible study ideas for the future?
How can there be a good balance between celebration & reflection during worship?
What worship elements can be improved?
How do we better monitor number of salvation experiences?
What is the goal of our weekly worship service and how do we align every element to that goal?
What is the best music style to connect to students?
How can Bible study better relate to those “far from God?”
In light of the changing college campus and church-based ministries, what areas of ministry need to be strategically tweaked?
How can every element of worship seamlessly fit together as one?
what are some distinct niches that differentiate our ministry from others?

Dear Graduating Senior

Many of you just had your senior prom and you are on top of the world. Some of you are burned out on high school life and anxiously awaiting college this fall. Be careful not to wish your life away too quickly. Now is the time to sit back and be proud of your high school accomplishments because life will change drastically in the fall when you become a freshmen all over again. However, this time is different because many of you will be leaving home. Leaving home will be one of the hardest experiences of your life and even harder on your parents. However, it will grow you immeasurably because you will be planted into a life of new responsibilities. The safe-haven of youth group, home, and faithful teachers will shift to roommates, classmates, and professors who may all be unbelievers. No feel defeated because God will use you in great ways if you allow Him. This is why you need to discover your faith before you are tempted like so many others to lay your faith aside for 4 years. Mindless Christianity (Christianity that is accepted on blind faith and handed down from family) will not be sufficient for standing up for your faith in college. The Christian faith is a faith based on the historical reliability of the scriptures and the resurrection of Christ; It’s gravely important to know why you believe during this time in your life.

You will show up on a college campus very soon and feel seemingly anonymous and insignificant, but that is far from the truth; there are student organizations and strong Christian collegians that can support you and will partner with you in growing your faith and making Christ known on your campus. But there’s one small stipulation; you have to be willing to get involved. There will be a natural temptation to run back to the safe-haven of home and high school friends, but I challenge all of you to make new friends and take ownership of your faith, get involved with a Christian organization, a local church, and “make disciples” of all nations on your campus this fall.

Chad

College Students & Their Helicopter Parents

Among the variety of “rites of passages” for adolescents, going away to college is arguably the most important. What phenomenon is belittling this all important rite of passage?

Helicopter parenting...

Helicopter parenting is a form of micromanaging, over-involving, and overprotective parenting techniques. A recent survey said as many as 60% of all college freshmen parents are admittedly overly involved in the lives of their children. This may be the generational results of a number of both positive and negative social factors. Some parents have been deceived into believing that hovering is an act of love; hovering may stifle social, emotional, and spiritual growth and delay adolescence well into the 30’s. Put differently, individual responsibility is directly related to social, emotional, and spiritual growth.

One move-in day a few years ago, a father asked a minister friend of mine who was responsible for making sure his son got to his church every Sunday.  Before he could answer (my reply would have been “that’s your son’s responsibility”), the dad felt the need to clarify that he meant his church, in his hometown, some 90 minutes away from campus.

One of the reasons Freshmen are unchurched is because their parents want them tied to "the mothership” church. (the church they grew up in regardless how far away it is) We should teach students the value of finding and joining a church independent of parental force. I can't tell you how many times students tell me they didn't take ownership of their faith until they took the initiative to plug into church etc...

I tell incoming freshmen that going to class is only a small part of college education. Students will miss out on a complete college education if they isolate themselves from campus life and maintain the same circle of friends.

One of the goals for higher education is social acclimation, not academic. USA Today reports this real scenerio:

“When Peter entered the University of Evansville (Mom's choice), he did fine academically but struggled to make decisions, speak up in class, and form relationships with faculty members and classmates. "It got to the point where because I had been so enclosed, I didn't know how to talk to people," says Peter, who requested that his last name not be published. "I was depressed. I had to learn how to break out of that shell; How could I when my circle of friends were still in high school." 


The most critical time for new students to get involved are the first 3 weeks on campus. Students should expect stress and homesickness, but the remedy is not to go home, but rather, get involved and become independently responsible.

Northeastern University administrators at orientation provide guidelines for parents of incoming freshmen. The 49-year-old incoming freshmen from Albany, N.Y., has committed them to memory: Do not call your student, let her call you; do not e-mail in lieu of calling; do not call the university president when a roommate situation flares.

If that little voice in your head is asking the question “am I being a helicopter parent?”, you don’t need to wait for an answer.  If you’re asking that question, you have your answer

A better question to ask is this. Are you coaching your students from the sidelines or running the plays for them?

Easter: Why did Jesus Die? The Old/New Debate on Substitutionary vs. Moral Influence Atonement?

The evangelical/theological world is unbiblically vicious & vitrolic when it comes to arguing for their theological system of choice. This is the result of theological elitism that is found in every systematic camp from fundamentalism to liberalism. Judgement day will leave many dumbfounded when many find that God’s bigger and wiser than their man made system;

What I would say about atonement is this. Theories of atonement rightly focus on the attributes of God. Noone argues that. However, different views focus on different attributes of God. Substitutionary atonement focuses more on majesty, holiness, and justice: whereas Moral Influencer focuses merely on Love.

The biggest problem I have with Moral Influencer is that God is perceived as essentially love to the virtual exclusion of His justice and holiness. Tell me if I’m wrong, but is this not the case? Love is NOT mutually exclusive to holiness and justice. We can't allow language to confuse our perception of God. For instance, anytime we overemphasize one attribute of God over another attribute of God equally as true, a misconception of God can often happen, which is true of all theological camps.

While Paul’s soteriology surly was culturally influenced, we can’t negate his conclusions on propitiation and label them restrictive rather than universal. I'm confused about the moral influencer's view of sin. If sin doesn’t deserve punishment, then is there a reality of sin or just a spiritual sickness? What is a spiritual sickness? This begs a question about the nature and condition of man etc. At this point, our theological systems determine our hermeneutic which becomes dangerous.

The death of Christ was more than mere bad fortune of God’s mission to love. Is there no need for retribution? The crucifixion is more profound than Christ being a trophy of Love.

I simply can’t get past the innumerable scriptures that discuss Christ dying for our sin, bearing our sin, and dying as a propitiation. If Christ didn’t pay for our sins, how do we trust him to forgive our sins?

I may be wrong in labeling Bell as a moral influencer as I alluded to friend earlier; someone said he is Schleiermacher 2.0? They may be right; I'm not sure about labeling Rob Bell as anything, but his view of atonement may be more mystical. That is if he’s willing to admit. At any rate, these "new" evangelical views are nothing new, but rather, a repackaging of late 19th and early 20th century protestant liberalism.

It is certainly true that Christ is an example for us in his death, but I’m not convinced atonement ends there.

The more I read scripture, the more I agree with the old hymn that reads "what can wash away my sin? what can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus."

Now, I would add that some Christians can overly fixate on asceticism, self flagellation, and the brutal passion of our Lord to the point of an R rated movie. But His passion is a reality and there is worship spiritual growth found in it.

BTW, sorry you found me on a day that I’m brutally honest & non-ecumenical. Hope this finds you well.

This post was created from a friend in Atlanta who supports a moral influence view of atonement and asked me my brief thoughts on substitutionary vs. moral influence.

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10)