I have been thinking about the different terms we use for our ministries for a very long time (about 9 years or so). So, I wanted to throw out some of the different terms and thoughts behind them and see where you land in the mix. Here are some different terms used to describe our ministries:
College Ministry
- Pro’s: hits the age stage we’re trying to reach, provides a natural progression after high school, is universal enough to include community college or university students
- Con’s: limits the ministry to students – possibly alienating those not attending school, makes it tough for those who graduate college and still find themselves in a limbo/late adolescent stage of life to feel comfortable
University Ministry
- Pro’s: same pro’s as above, but also makes it more comfortable for those 5th and 6th year seniors to feel comfortable in the ministry. It also allows graduate students to feel more comfortable coming.
- Con’s: limits it to students, often leaving non-students wondering if it’s appropriate for them to come
Emerging Adults
- Pro’s: avoids limiting ministry to students, newer terminology, helps articulate the stage of life being one of people that are entering adulthood – but aren’t there yet
- Con’s: ambiguous, can be linked with the “emergent” movement (this could be negative or positive depending on your focus), doesn’t give any age range of appropriateness which can alienate graduating high school students
Young Adults
- Pro’s: gives the impression of including all phases of life after high school and before married life, can take on any personality and reputation
- Con’s: is very ambiguous, suggests that an 18 year old is an adult – which can make it difficult for them to feel comfortable transitioning right after high school, will likely focus more either on recent high school grads or those older twenty somethings
College-Career
- Pro’s: allows for the most amount of people to feel comfortable
- Con’s: recent high school grads need specific attention – very different from college grads pursuing a career – so consequently it will tend to focus on one end of the spectrum and neglect to other, some high school grads can be intimidated
Post High
- Pro’s: easy transition for recent high school grads, focuses on age range
- Con’s: seems “young” so tends to alienate those 21 and older
Many of these are good, but I’ve chosen not to use any of them. The one I choose to use is “College-age Ministry” because it doesn’t limit it to students, it provides natural progression for high school grads, allows the church to define what this age range is, and pretty much says everything most of the above does without alienating anyone. I personally don’t see any con’s other than it’s longer. But, feel free to chime in!
Which one do you use, and why?
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Chuck Bomar is pastor of Colossae Church in Portland, Oregon and founder of CollegeLeader (
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We’ve made the same choice with college-age ministry….although we do still use college ministry a lot. We’re in a city with TONS of college students so I still want “college” to be part of the name….it makes for us to target students. But we also want to include those who head straight to the workforce.
I’ve blogged about the same thing in the past. I don’t use terms like “student” ministry, “college” ministry or anything like that. I think we’ve effectively Myspacerized ministry and put people in niches that few people neatly fit in.
Our youth ministry just went from 7th grade to age 22, so we see the limitations of those lables. How do you say “student” ministry and hope to minister to 17 year old high school drop out?
I use a very controversial term when discussion the people who attend our youth church. I use the term “people.”
The pro’s to calling them “people”: You never alienate anyone in attempts to create neat demographics in our church. Noone feels too old, too young, too far in school or neglected as a drop out.
The cons to calling them “people”: You neglect the animal kingdom
Why do you feel like you are alienating or pushing away students by the title of the ministry. I believe some of you are just over analyzing your situations. If you have a ministry that is Biblically based and you are an energetic Youth Pastor who can get the students involved than the name doesn’t matter. All you have to do is make it fun. If it does not look fun they won’t want to do it. I call my post-high ministry College and Career. If you are not in College than you need to be in a career. As believers we need to not be lazy. I don’t see how College and Career is a con because of students who are not in college and after high school don’t want to come because they are not in a career. The College and Career ministry here helps students find a career, we want to help the students who finish high school get a career. So they are in College and Career. One way you can minister to a 17 year old drop out is to encourage that student to get back in school. Yes that person is still a student. We need to encourage them that dropping out of school is not a good move and we should not call the group students because some might not be students because they dropped out is just wrong. I am sure that the students parents did not want there son/daughter to drop out. So they are going against a 10 commandment. They are not honoring their mother and father. Are we to encourage and foster that, or say, you should go back to school?
Jonathan, good points. General practice has shown in the experience where we are, the titles have limited some and mistakenly including others that weren’t designed to be reached in our setting. Our change is from some experience. I can’t speak for every single situation – if it works for you, use it. In my community, “student” ministry doesn’t work.
The title doesn’t matter for the won, the title specificity is for the lost.
i changed our ministry title from college and career to college and twentysomething ministry.
for me, being a 25 yr old college grad myself, felt that twentysomething defined who our ministry is trying to reach.
im not in my career and career is too narrow of a discription to apply to those post college to 29 yrs of age.
Singles is a horrible description, no one likes to be defined by their martial status or lack there of, especially at this age.
young adults is old school and kinda of stale. from 18-24 sounds a bit old while the 25-29 you feel that young adults sounds a bit young.
twentysomething implies anybody between that ages of 20-29 at any stage of life, still in college, graduate, career, finding yourself, married will find a place to fit in, connect and get fed.
its a long title but i think it defines it nicely.
so many post college are not in their career and personally for myself and others that are in the same boat feels like it alienates bc it implies that this is a group that “has it together” and makes one feel like they cant relate or there is no one to connect to who might be in the same boat as them
twentysomething is very defined while at the same time not.
I used 18-twentysomethings as the official subtitle for our ministry, but most of us just called it “twentysomethings”. This allows a little more inclusive approach so that someone 28 who still hangs out with younger 20somethings feels comfortable.
Chuck,
I attended your college ministry session at the Orange Conference back in April. You really challenged my thinking on college and young adult ministry. The site is really helpful too, as I am just getting my feet wet in this ministry area. Thanks for your insight!
As far as ministry names, we have a “Young Adult” ministry that has been growing steadily for a couple years and has naturally formed into two subgroups, one more college-age and the other post-college.
We have considered at some point establishing them as two distinct ministries to better reach people in each range.
Any thoughts on names if you have two such age ministries – “College-age” and “Post College”… “Post-High School” and “20-somethings”… “Young Young Adults” and “Old Young Adults”…??
Eric, glad to hear things are going well! I personally think it would be great to make them two distinct ministries. this way you can concentrate on the specific issues each group is facing, which is perfect! Since you’re asking for my personal opinion (just remember that’s all it is!) in print, meaning a church bulletin or something like it, I would go with “college-age” and “Post College/Career.” hope that helps. blessings.
I have a 4-year degree, as do my mother and sister. All of us waited three or more years to start college after high school. Between high school and college I cringed at the thought of going to anything “college” because you always get asked what school you go to, what’s your major, etc. Three of my four kids are currently in the same boat, toying with college but all currently working in fast-food, and one a single mom (the three are ages 19, 20, and 22). Also, fast-food is hardly a career. Going to a “college” event is the worst thing for a kid in that situation. It’s awkward and they’d rather swallow thumb tacks. Ministry should be all-inclusive, not unintentionally elitist. If you care about my kids, you’ll provide them with a safe, loving environment. And, by the way, non-college kids outnumber college kids. From a secular marketing perspective, it’s a very poor business decision. I love the “Twenty-something” phrase listed above. I think I’ll recommend that to my church.