Parachurch Ministries for College Students
Currently we live in a world where college students are avoiding Christianity more than any other time in history. So…discussing the role of church and para-church in the United States is kind of like two ants arguing over who is going to eat the elephant? Ultimately, it seems that para-church organizations exist because the church has not been doing its job in regard to effectively reaching and discipling college students. One of the most significant shifts in recent years is the declining reputation of Christianity, especially among college-aged students.
Most churches in the USA place strategic emphasis with staff and resources towards youth 0-18 and 30+ married adults with children. However, there is an enormous gap in most churches discipleship continuum where college-aged students and “twenty somethings” literally fall.
It is time for the Christian Church in the United States to take a deep theological reflection into how effective we are at walking/discipling people from childhood to adulthood. We, the Church, seem to be suffering from severe mission amnesia. We have forgotten why we exist. While most churches boast a mission statement that usually includes “making disciples” and “winning the lost” the bottom line is that they are not effectively doing it. If most churches were a business, and their goal was to make a profit (i.e. disciples), they would be on a crash course with bankruptcy. Dallas Willard explains: “Non-discipleship is the elephant in the church.” The further we go down the generational food chain, the less effective we are at reaching emerging generations. Thus, I think churches and para-church organizations must be creating strategic partnerships in order to more effectively reach college students to introduce them into a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ and each other. While at the same time we need to be continuously challenging church leaders to address the discipleship continuum problem in their churches and in our nation. I believe God is consistently looking for godly and passionate men and women who have the courage to stand up and be a prophetic voice in our nation and call church leaders to pull their heads out of the sand and start building a bridge for college students.
Vince Beresford is the College Pastor at Friends Church in Yorba Linda, California and is also an Affiliate Professor of Leadership and Youth Ministry at Spring Arbor University.
Conversation
Hi, I just wanted to add
Hi,
I just wanted to add something that I hae noticed. I see the elderly falling through the cracks of the system and the churches as well. Please encourage PARA CHURCHES to build programs for them as well.
Thank you for a great
Thank you for a great article. One of the troubling by-products of this church "gap" for young adults is that they don't get the message about grace right when they need it. Youth group ministers spend lots of time telling kids how to avoid sin and keep the faith in the real world / college? But what happens when they do sin, or doubt, or walk away for a time? Without the powerful message of grace, guilt sucks them in and the world, unfortunately, offers a better alternative -- "there's nothing to feel guilty about." We as the church need to fix this.
MsTonya - you should write
MsTonya - you should write articles on this website. You got right to the issue - keeping commitments. There is no felt problem for students not coming to something. We, the church and families, have taught them that time-management means to say "yes" or "no" to commitments based on how they feel at that given moment.
I think the problem is
I think the problem is bigger than building a bridge. In our case, the bridges have been built, rebuilt, redesigned, designed by the college students themselves, you name it. But what good is a bridge that the students will not commit to walk on? In my experience in ministering to college-aged students, the level of commitment on the part of the students takes a nose dive after high school. I'm talking about students who were not only active in youth, but leaders.
When I try to discuss the issue with church leaders and campus ministry organizations, I get the same, non-responsive answer. I'm sure you've heard some of these: "Well, that's the age that everyone leaves the church for a while." "They are so busy, they just can't devote themselves to church or a ministry." "Don't worry about them, they'll come back around." It seems to me that we've entered an era when people (not just college students) do not understand what it means to truly be committed. I've seen college students, within the church AND within a parachurch organization, make a plan for a time of fellowship, and then not even attend the same event they themselves have planned. Why? Something more interesting came along.
I think the issue is not a failure of the church or a failure of the parachurch. We're all in this together! I think the problem begins at a much younger age. Parents and the church need to start teaching what it means to make a commitment and keep it! As it says in James, we need let our yes be yes, and our no be no and we definitely need to teach that to our children. I don't think the Church has their head in the sand. I think the Church is weary from building it and waiting for them to come.
We have created a college culture where students go to one church for Sunday worship, another church for Bible study, still another church for fellowship. It seems harmless at first, until one realizes that they have become spiritual nomads, belonging no where, loyal to nothing.
I would love to hear some ideas here about the experience of other churches in developing college programs. What works? What doesn't? God bless all of you who struggle, as I do, to hold on to our college-aged young adults.
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