For the past seven years I have been the college pastor at Grace Bible Church in College Station. Over the years our church has been blessed with thousands of students from both Texas A&M University and Blinn College. Roughly half of our congregation consists of university students, and our year ebbs and flows according to the school calendar. While Easter Sunday is the biggest week for many churches, our biggest week is the first Sunday of a new fall semester. It's a unique and wonderful ministry environment.
When I speak with other pastors and church leaders, they often express a reluctance to invest ministry resources in college students. Some feel that parachurch ministries are adequately caring for college students, making church-based college ministry redundant. Others worry that college students will create a strain on their facilities and staff without giving much in return. The rationale is that students are notoriously poor givers, since they don't have steady incomes. Finally, others agree that college ministry would be productive, but they simply can't find the time and energy to reach out to the campus when there are so many other needy people right on their doorstep.
While not every church is in a position to minister to university students (especially those in very rural areas), there are a number of compelling reasons that churches ought to at least consider reaching the campus:
1. Most major missionary movements and revivals in history began on campus. Martin Luther's college education in Wittenburg was critical to the start of the Reformation. In the United States, the earliest missionary movements were driven by college students. If you want to know more about the influence of students on the spiritual life of our nation, read about the Haystack Prayer Meeting and the Student Volunteer Movement. College students are passionate and excited about knowing Jesus, and they tend to produce positive change. They often create messes, and they can cause headaches for churches that are set in their ways, but they can also bring a dying congregation to life again. By investing in students, you might just be a part of the next great movement of God in the world.
2. Students are in the midst of major life decisions. We have the opportunity to help them make these decisions in God-honoring ways! During college many of them will choose a career, a spouse, and a worldview. They will decide if walking with Christ is going to be their main priority or not. The Church is often absent from the lives of students during these critical four years. As a result, many students emerge from college with the mindset of the world around them. We can challenge them to pursue Jesus instead of pleasure, money, or personal glory.
3. College students are willing and able to learn. They sit in classes all day long absorbing information, so students are already pre-programmed to listen and to learn. Have you had a hard time getting your congregation interested in studying the Bible? Sprinkle in some college students and see what happens. You can usually spot a college student in church because he or she is avidly taking notes and rushing to ask the pastor theological questions after church. They create a climate of learning in a church that can be infectious.
4. College students are eager to serve. While students do not always give a great deal of money to the church, they more than make up for it through service. The nursery at our church is almost entirely staffed by college students. When we opened a second church site a few years ago, students did the bulk of the heavy lifting and manual labor. If you make opportunities available to them, students will nearly always rise to the occasion.
5. Students are not only the leaders of the future- they can be leaders right now! Gone are the days in which the leadership of our culture was over 40 years old. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, was only 19 when he started the company. His concept has changed (for better or for worse) the way we communicate and relate to another. In many ways he is an anomaly, but the concept of youthful leadership is not an unusual one right now. Men and women between 18 and 25 may not be political leaders, but they are the cultural leaders of our country. Do we want them to lead people toward Jesus or away from Him?
6. Parachurch ministries are valuable, but do not provide everything. University parachurch ministries teach students to share their faith, make disciples, and they even serve many functions traditionally performed by the church. However, they do not usually provide students with a full picture of the body of Christ, since their attendance is relatively homogenous in terms of age, socioeconomic status, and stage of life. Students benefit greatly from interaction with saints from across the spectrum of life, and the local church is able to provide that. In addition, when students graduate from college, their transition to walking the Lord in the "real world" is usually much easier if they have been involved in a local church during the college years. For most students, parachurch opportunities fade after college, and local churches are the way for them to find Christian community. We can help them develop a healthy understanding of church during their time in college.
So do you think your church would benefit from university ministry? Are there students in your area who would benefit from involvement in a healthy church? In the past few years, more and more churches have begun to hire college pastors and to add university ministry to their list of priorities. It's exciting to see churches begin to take an interest in this vital segment of the community. In a future post, I hope to share a bit about how to get the process started for those who might be interested in starting a church-based college ministry.
In the previous article I discussed how college ministry can be a blessing to your church and to the students who participate in the ministry. In this article I will describe a few thoughts for how to get a church-based college ministry started. Although every church and context is different, there are a few general principles that will hopefully be effective anywhere.
1. Seek to gain the active support of key church leadership. Although this is true for the success of any ministry in the church, it is particularly critical for college ministry. On the surface, college students appear to be a drain to the church's resources, so it is important to explain to your leadership that university ministry is an investment. If the elders and other ministry leaders are enthusiastic and vocal about college students, it will likely thrive because they will arrange church resources to accommodate them. If they are opposed to it or even indifferent, the college ministry will likely die an early and painful death. In some exceptional cases, college ministries thrive numerically without the support of key leadership, but the students suffer because they have little interaction with the church as whole. On the other hand, when the elders and key leaders are in support of the ministry, the adults and students develop a nice symbiotic relationship. Students bring energy and passion, and adults bring maturity and wisdom.
2. Do a bit of research. Presumably you already know which colleges and universities are within a few miles of your church. Students are as diverse as adults in their interests, personalities, and needs. Different colleges tend to attract different types of students, and the students tend to group themselves by affinity. Does the college near your church consist primarily of conservative engineering students, free-spirited art students, international students, local commuter students, or a combination of all of these? Knowing this information will help as you determine how to structure your group meetings and what sort of programs will interest the students who attend.
It also helps to talk with other churches and ministries in your area who are engaged in college ministry. In my town there are at least four or five large churches and dozens of parachurch ministries reaching out to college students, so we are careful not to recreate the wheel. Through prayer and counsel, figure out a niche that your church can meet. One church I know of in a major urban area is right across the street from a university that consists largely of international students. Their college ministry will naturally look different from the church across the street from the wealth private school on the other side of town. Developing friendships with other ministry leaders and knowing each one's unique contribution can help prevent the jealousy and competition that often marks church and parachurch relationships.
3. Recognize that you might have to make an initial investment of resources. Most churches develop children and youth ministries by necessity, since families attend the church expecting a ministry to their kids. College ministry is a bit different - most college students will not attend at all unless they already know that a ministry exists for them and their fellow students. Students are highly influenced by word of mouth, so they tend to go to churches that actively communicate that students are valued. Although it happens occasionally, it's rare for a church to be overwhelmed with university students and forced to hire staff to meet the need. In most cases, if you wish to commit to student ministry, you will need to invest in some staff and physical resources up front. This can be as simple as a part-time seminary student who is willing to go to campus several times a week to meet students and share the Gospel. The meeting space can simply be a small classroom or even an on-campus location that you rent once a week for meetings. The point is that student ministry is proactive rather than reactive - it is a wonderful outreach opportunity but it will require some initial investment before seeing obvious results.
4. Get onto campus. Find the most popular dining and meeting places on campus and be visible there. If the college will allow, set up a table with information or allow your Bible studies to operate on campus under the umbrella of a student organization. If your church is starting a brand new college ministry, the leader or adult staff will probably need to be on campus nearly every day meeting students and sharing the Gospel. Doing so will be the most effective way of drawing in new students, and it sets a pattern of evangelism and outreach from the beginning of your ministry. If the ministry is established, the leadership still needs to be visible on campus at least once or twice each week. The campus is your mission field, so it is critical that you spend regular time there. Never allow your more mature students to forget that we are constantly called to invest in reaching out to others for the sake of the Gospel. Remind them to constantly be sharing with their friends on campus and seeking to draw them into discipleship and community with other believers.
5. Emphasize discipleship. This may seem like an obvious point to those in church ministry (based on Matthew 28:18-20), but it is easy to get sidetracked. Although many national parachurch ministries gain attention by focusing on large gatherings of students, the local church is usually more effective with small group and individual discipleship. A large gathering might be a necessary component of your college ministry, but the emphasis should always be on drawing them toward smaller contexts where they can be intentionally discipled. If students attend a wonderful worship service and hear a gifted teacher but are never given an opportunity to grow in a smaller setting, they will flounder once they finish college. The goal is to train them to study the Scripture, share their faith, practice spiritual disciplines, and worship Jesus. None of those goals are most effectively accomplished in a large meeting, although the large meeting might be their first taste of the discipleship process.
6. If you have a large group meeting, make it excellent but not cheesy. High quality music and teaching makes a difference. You don't need to hire a rock star to lead worship or a highly polished conference speaker, but you do want people who take their teaching and music seriously and are gifted in those roles. If you take shortcuts in your preparation or delivery, students will notice and be turned off. On the other hand, if you are over-the-top or condescending, they will be turned off as well. The goal is to aim for a large-group experience that is biblically sound, honest and sincere, and well-executed. For better or worse, students are bombarded with Hollywood-caliber presentations all day long, so their expectations are high. You do not need to cater to their entertainment mindset by being showy, but poor quality will not afford you a hearing with them.
7. Provide opportunities for significant service and leadership. At Grace all of our college small groups and service teams are led by students. The students are trained and directed by one of the pastors, but they have the real opportunity to disciple and influence their fellow students. Although they are young, many students are gifted and able to lead. In addition they have the benefit of participating in a leadership laboratory of sorts - we create a safe environment in which failure is not devastating and is even expected to a degree. When failure happens we have the chance to follow up with students in order to encourage them and help them do better the next time. With proper oversight and evaluation, they can emerge from college confident and ready to lead in their homes, workplaces, and churches. This is one of the most exciting aspects of college ministry. In the first article I mentioned that students are responsible for great movements of God throughout history - we have had the chance here at A&M to see some of those movements begin through faithful and gifted student leaders.
With regard to service, give students the chance to organize and plan service projects and events. It's amazing what they can accomplish if you provide the resources and support they need. For example, students Texas A&M University organized the largest one-day, student-run service project in the country. More than 10,000 students participate each year in more than 1,000 jobs - and it's all student-led. At our church, students organize our retreats, serve as nursery coordinators, plan events, and do a variety of other tasks. Churches that give students real responsibility will have a vibrant community of young men and women seeking to know Jesus and serve His people.
8. Provide missions opportunities. As I mentioned in the previous article, students were at the heart of the early missionary movement in North America. While they are in college, students have the time and energy to go overseas, whether for a few weeks or for a year. At Grace we partner with a parachurch ministry to send students overseas - we recruit and train the students and they provide the structures and leadership that our teams need on the field. However you accomplish it, cast a vision for the Great Commission around the world.
9. Connect students to older and wiser saints. This is a mutually beneficial exercise. Adult men and women benefit from the energy and passion of students, and students benefit from the wisdom and experience of adults. Create a process to connect college students to meaningful discipleship relationships with adults. Train and equip the adults to provide training in the essentials of Christianity, pre-marital counseling, career advice, and broad discipleship. Leverage the benefit of being a local church - you have men and women from across the spectrum of life who can influence the lives of these future leaders.
Conclusion
These are just a few broad ideas for approaching college ministry in your local church. The specifics will vary from place to place, depending upon your church's location and the students you are called to reach. Perhaps it's time to start praying about whether the Lord would have your congregation invest in young men and women during this critical phase of their lives. If you need any Bible study or discipleship resources for college students, check out the Leader Resources section of the Grace Bible Church website: http://www.grace-bible.org/downloads/LeaderResources.aspx.