Hope is not something college age people struggle with. Well, typically. Most are extremely hopeful for what the future holds. They look forward to a career path, family life, you know, life after college. Most view college as a preparatory stage (which it is) for a successful life (which depends on how success is defined). But a sense of hope in what’s to come is not hard to come by when working with college students.
But when the word “hope” is used, it’s more like wishful thinking than biblical hope.
The New Testament always points us toward placing our hope in what is certain to come. A career is not certain and especially so today. Nothing in this world is.
Put another way, when people say or inherently think a college education gives them hope for the future, they have sadly misplaced their hope. In fact, according to scripture, they might not have “hope” at all. I know a bachelor degree is pretty much a necessity in our culture, but it’s not a proper placement of hope.
One of the most important roles for those of us working with college age people is helping people place their hope in the right thing – or person. Instead of having hope in a successful career or a better family life than they grew up with, as believers our hope ought to be fully in what’s to be received at the coming of Christ (1 Peter 1:13). I’m not saying it’s easy to have our hope fully placed here, but that doesn’t make it any less true. This is the only thing we can truly be certain of.
I recently read an article in USA Today called, “Outlook For Job Market Is Grim.” It’s a pretty thorough article that I’d recommend you reading. It gives some perspective to what college grads ought to be looking forward to – or dreading, whichever way you look at it. But maybe the “grim future” of the job market can be a means for us to get college age people to think through where they are placing their hope.
Recommendation for today: pay attention to where people place their hope. If it’s misplaced in things of this world, be intentional about helping them adjust that.
Oh, and we might want to check ourselves as well…
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Chuck Bomar is pastor of Colossae Church in Portland, Oregon and founder of CollegeLeader (
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Great reminder. Thanks, Chuck.
you know Chuck, i totally agree with you in that nothing else besides Christ is worth putting your hope in. I also agree that wishful thinking is a lot different than biblical hope. However, what i have a problem with is that while these are good things to think and talk about, a lot of people don’t know how to give this abstract idea (and it is abstract) of hope a concreteness in their life, including to some extent myself. Too often I hear things like “you just have to have faith” or “just put your hope in Christ” from student ministry leaders. Just as often, there will be no instruction or suggestions of putting that into practice. I think this is somewhat do to the fact that a lot of student ministry leaders are volunteers and do not necessarily know how to use the Bible and make it applicable and pragmatic. Another factor in this is that a lot of student ministry leaders do not know what questions to ask to get college aged people to start thinking for themselves and their faith. In other words, they do not know how to engage in meaningful and thoughtful conversation with college aged people. I am not trying to downplay the role of the student ministry leader in any way, but at the college level there has to be some real guidance and shepherding from the leaders. It isn’t like high school and middle school level where the typical Christian solutions will suffice. College aged people are looking to actually do something tangible as a byproduct of their faith.
i would like to correct my statement in which i said that most student ministry leaders are volunteers. i would revise that to say something like most college leaders are volunteers. i would also like to add that a lot of times college ministry will put under the “authority” of the youth pastor, which is not beneficial. while college ministry and youth ministry have some similarities, they are two different ball games. i guess an appropriate analogy would be hockey and lacrosse (at least as i understand them…but then again, im not an athlete in either sport) but the point still remains.
Dale, speaking as a volunteer student ministry leader – what is difficult to find around my church are adult mentors who actually model what it means to place our hope in Christ. Our own lives need to be an example of how this is applicable and pragmatic, however, they way we run our businesses and households and yes, our church, sends a message that we are concentrating on other things in life besides our hope in Christ. I have looked for older adult mentors who could model “hope in Christ” for the college students – - and I’m still looking.