The Forgotten People Group
Collegiates are the forgotten people group within the local church. Ministries to toddlers, preschoolers, children, middle schoolers and high schoolers are found in the majority of churches. But have you noticed how the level of investment and intentionality drops as you move from one phase of life to the next? There exists a ministry void to collegiates in the local church. Then the church picks back up with ministries to adults. Collegiates are left to wander in the desert of a secular culture to be molded by every other influence during the most crucial time of their life. Dr. Tim Kimmel writes that “90% of evangelical children leave the church after high school – and many never return.”
Any thoughts?
April 7, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I’m not trying to excuse the church for its deficiencies relating to college ministries, but there are some real difficulties with ministry to that age group. It’s difficult to gain any traction in college ministry largely because college students are highly transient, that is a large percentage of them do not permanently live where they are attending school. So from about Dec. 1 to Jan 15 and from May 1 to Sept 1, you’re going to be hard pressed to get 30 or 40% of the regular crowd coming to a college group. This type of inconsistency makes home Bible study groups and accountability groups very difficult to maintain. It also has the church either overstaffed or understaffed for about 5 months out of the year. Another consideration is that a huge percentage of the young adults in a college group will not attend that church after they graduate, I would bet around 90%. I’m guessing here, but churches may think their energies are better spent on people who they can minister to and grow with over a longer period of time. Students up through high school belong to families that are regulars at the church and young adults again are anchored in the area by jobs and are looking to make longer-term committments to the church. College students are generally not good candidates to serve in other areas of youth ministry again because they may be out of town for up to 5 months out of the year. One final issue I see is finding a pastor willing to pour himself into a ministry that will seem to be thriving 6 or 7 months a year and barely have a pulse for the other five. And let’s face it, college students in general don’t have to look hard to find reasons to skip church regularly even when they are in town. This would be tough pastoral duty.
So most of the issues seem to boil down to the fact that college is seasonal and church is not. I’m sure there are some creative ways to make college ministry go but I don’t know what they are specifically. I believe that Young Life moving onto college campuses has been very effective in ministering to students, but its able to work on the school’s schedule – the doors don’t have to be open every Sunday like a church. The effective model might be one that takes summer breaks and Christmas breaks, but that always leaves the challenge of what to do with the pastor/leader in the off times. Seminary interns might be a good choice for leaders. That’s my two cents for whatever its worth.
April 7, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Great comments on issues with ministering to collegiates. But these are actually exciting challenges. Rewarding challenges. Worthy to be tackled one by one. No one said it would be easy. We are smart and we should try to figure this out. As Han Solo would say “Never tell me the odds.”
April 8, 2008 at 2:03 pm
These issues are less problematic when you have a passionate, focused, leadership team. It can be frustrating when kids leave for school, but in our community, more and more kids are choosing to stay locally for a few years, and some even stay longer. We’ve created a true collegiate community for these kids and are doing our best to integrate them in the local church.
And while we have our share of struggles, the successes far outweigh the frustrations and disappointments!