I’ve been talking with others about how to reach out to college aged adults for some time now. The advice I’ve received has consisted mostly of what not to do:
1) Don’t bother: they’ll only go to para-church campus ministries.
2) Don’t bother: young post-moderns won’t come to an established church.
3) Don’t meet in a church building.
4) Forget about Sunday morning; college students don’t like to get up early.
5) Do fun stuff; lots of trips.
6) Don’t do lots of trips: they don’t have any money and won’t go to things that cost real $$.
7) Focus on relationships.
8 ) And of course, the ever present (at least in Baptist circles) “if you feed them, they will come.”
Lest you think I’ve only spoken to senior pastors, church planters, and other professional ecclesiastic types… all of the above came from college students themselves.
Now, let me stop thinking like a churchman and start thinking like the family counselor I’ve been trained to be. Some random thoughts about reaching college age people:
First, re-define what “college age” means. Traditionally, “college aged” meant 18 to 22 years-old. Baptist churches would have “College and Career” Sunday school classes and ministries: college referred to university students, 18 to 22 year-olds who skipped college and went straight into the work force were in the “career” category. Now, the typical university student takes 5 years to graduate, not 4. And, many people are taking even longer.
This is especially true in Tulsa. TU and ORU are both traditional four year schools. But the state schools (OSU-Tulsa and NSU-BA) are relying on the junior college system (TCC) to provide the core undergraduate classes. If you stick around Tulsa, there’s not the expectation of four years and you’re out.
Second, college students are working now more than ever. Few kids have the luxury of leaving high school and being full-time students without a job. People are taking fewer hours at school and working more; often working two jobs while going to school. These are busy people who are prioritizing their time and are not looking to attend meetings and programs because someone tells them they should.
Next, sociologists have long seen college as inadvertently extending adolescence. If you think of adolescence as a developmental task and not a time period, this makes sense. The task of adolescence is to answer the question, “Who am I, really?”. Adulthood begins when one has a clear answer to that question and begins to pursue life activities consistent with the answer. (I like thinking in those terms because it explains the presence of 25, 35, and even 45 year-old adolescents.) I think this calls for remembering they are a work in progress. No longer teens, not quite settled into a place where they are comfortable with themselves. Adults, but still working out major life issues like career and relationships.
Finally, no one life stage exists independently of the others. In other words, a strong youth group in a church might help create a strong college ministry. Which means a strong children’s ministry. Which requires a solid ministry to parents. Each reacts to and feeds off the others.
Putting it all together, I’m looking to try and establish the following at my church:
Building relationships first… these are busy people who don’t have the time or inclination to attend another program just so they can say they did.
Do some things away from the church building.
Aim for integrating the ministry into the life of the church: mentoring relationships, ministry to other age groups, a voice in planning equal to the other (read older and married) adults.
Focus on building community.
Work hard (ministry, discipleship, and evangelism) and play hard.
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Interesting stuff on college students. I’m no expert but I’m finding very different results than some of the findings that I am reading. And I think a lot of that might have to do with location, possibly.
But we get a lot of students who don’t want to do a para-church ministry. They feel they want to connect more to the life of the church community. We also have 56 plus Christian groups at UCLA, and about 40 plus at USC; two of the schools most of my students come from.
We don’t plan tons of trips. We plan about 2-3 retreats a year…about 1 social a month. 1-2 outreach projects a month as well. And they do the rest on their own. We are trying to allow community to form, without us forcing our hand, and without us overplanning, etc.
We meet in a church building. They love getting away, to church and off of campus.
We don’t do anything on Sunday morning; but that’s because about 80% of my group attends the 11am service; and the rest, the 6pm service. With a Wed. night group; Bible studies and events; we feel Sunday should be free for them to worship with the larger church…
anyways…just some thoughts…I enjoy what you are doing with this stuff…..
I think we are sort of an enigma in Los Angeles though….it’s a very disconnected city, and people are looking for community…..
rhett
Rhett:
Thank you so much for commenting. BTW, I’ve looked at the website for your ministry and your church: if you’re not an expert, I don’t know who is!
Haaa. Thanks for the kind words. But I’m definitely in the ministry school of trial and error. Learning as I go, and am learning a lot from my students.
rhett