I’ve had a great time here in Pittsburgh.  Spoke this morning at Momentum.  But, tomorrow is the NE CollegeLeader Regional training.  We can take registration at the door, but it isn’t ideal since lunch is being catered.  So, if you plan on attending, please register here.  Hope to see you tomorrow!

In my new book, College Ministry 101, I discuss what it looks like for a church to truly embrace college-age people.  I talk about what they need from leaders and give a bunch of practical advice and principles on how to implement these things in our churches.  But, in order to really grasp these things we need to understand why.  So, here are 3 quick reasons I would say it is vital for every church in every context to minister to college-age people:

High school graduates don’t feel a part of the larger church.  There might be some exceptions to this, but it’s very few.  Ask anyone that just graduated if they feel like an adult.  Shoot, ask just about any 24 year old if they do – at best you’ll get a, “not really.”  They need to be walked toward that by mature people.

The college-age stage of life is a transition stage.  This is clearly the stage of life where people are transitioning (or trying – some harder than others) from student life to adult life.  Some take longer than others to make the full transition, but everyone eventually does.  If the church doesn’t intentionally walk with them through this stage, who does?  We have to be there to guide their thought processes toward biblically mature conclusions.

Higher education has changed thought processes.  35 years ago when people graduated high school they were quickly moving toward adult-like living – and thus thinking.  Many would graduate and go immediately into a full-time job and supporting themselves.  Today, however, this has changed dramatically.  Graduating high school is now just the next stage of education – thus an extension of adolescent thinking.  As juniors and seniors in college they are thinking about adult life much like the juniors and seniors of high school were 35 years ago.  Maturity is different in ways, of course, but their thought processes regarding life direction is the very similar…just with unique freedoms.

Well, this week should be fun.  Today I’ve spent some time with some people from my college ministry in souther California.  They were here in Portland for a wedding, so it’s been fun hanging with them and showing them around Portland a bit.  Tomorrow is filled with meetings – but should be fruitful.  Then, Wednesday I fly out to Pittsburgh, PA.

There I will be doing a few different things.  Thursday morning I’ll be speaking at Momentum.  It’s a conference with about 3000 high school students.  It should be fun.  I’m looking forward to being there with everyone – the past couple years at that conference has been a lot of fun.

Thursday evening I’m having dinner with Scott Calgero, who is on staff with CCO (Coalition for Christian Outreach), which does a conference called, “Jubilee.”  That should be fun, looking forward to meeting him.  We have a few mutual friends, but have never met.

Friday, I’ll be teaching at our CollegeLeader training at Robert Morris University.  This will be 4 hours of intensive seminar time.  Should be fun.  This, by the way, is filling up.  So, if you want to register you should do so sooner than later.  You can do that here.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll issue some updates from that time later this week…

I’ve been getting a lot of questions over email regarding the release of my new book, College Ministry 101.  So, I thought I’d address some here.  I figure if that many people are emailing me about it, there must be more that have the same questions but aren’t emailing.  Anyway, here are a few questions I’ve seen multiple emails on:

Where can I buy the book?  You can pretty much buy them at any Christian book store, Border’s, or any other online store (Amazon.com, directly with Zondervan, or Youth Specialties… or you name it, you’ll probably find it).

What’s the cheapest place to purchase the book?  The least expensive place will certainly be Amazon.  They buy it in such bulk that there’s no way others will be able to compete with their price.  It’s crazy – they’re the Walmart of publishing, for sure.

Is there a place we can buy it that’s most beneficial to you?  Not really.  However, if you purchase it from CollegeLeader, it does benefit our ministry there.  CollegeLeader is dedicated to helping college ministry leaders in their context and we are trying to do much more, so every few bucks can help in that mission.  I don’t personally make anything off it when it’s purchased through CollegeLeader, whereas through other avenues it does equate to a personal royalty.  But I’d prefer it to go to CollegeLeader – in case you’re wondering.  And, by the way, I don’t currently take any money from CollegeLeader either.

Will there be online dialogue about it?  I am planning on putting together a site shortly where we will have ongoing dialogue about each chapter.  This will have video of me explaining the heart behind each chapter as well as ongoing discussion over specific topics covered throughout the book.

Is it just for local church leaders?  I really think this covers any context today.  I really tried to make it as universal as possible to any context and tried to focus just on those areas that could apply to any context.  That said, the first and last chapter do specifically talk about the local church context.  But, chapters 2-11 are definitely universal.

I’m realizing more and more that books you write, in many ways, define you.  Of course not ultimately, but people define you by what you write.  The thing that stinks about that is whenever I read something I wrote (whether it’s an article or a book) I always see things I’d like to change – yes, even in College Ministry 101 and it’s not even “officially” released yet.  I’ve had many friends who have written books warn me of that, but knowing it in my head and feeling the weight of it is another story.  Oh well, that just leaves room for more books I guess.

On another note, I did write about some things I stick by – which is by far the majority of the book.  And some of these I’m sure are going to step on some toes.  Here are some things that I discuss in College Ministry 101 that I’m curious to see how people respond to:

• I offer critique to the idea of simply adding church services to reach younger people (oh man, that’s a big one, but important for the thesis of my book) – but of course offer another/additional solution.
• I challenge the typical definitions of success (again, important for the thesis).  What I mean by that is I challenge the definitions that our actions preach – not necessarily the definitions we give with our words
• I’m fairly harsh with the mentality of most pastors that ignore – or at least aren’t being intentional about – ministering to college-age people
• The chapter on teaching and discipleship I’m sure will ruffle feathers (and brains) – we’ll see how much.

Yesterday I found out my new book, College Ministry 101: a guide to working with 18-25 year olds, releases this coming Friday.  Man, it’s been a long time coming.  I can’t even tell you how much of a relief it is to finally be able to hand this to people!  

Here’s what’s in it.  The first chapter I discuss the need for and role of college ministry in the local church context.  Then, the next 6 chapters dive into 5 areas of life that college-age people think through differently than anybody in any other age stage of life: identity, intimacy, meaning, pleasure, and truth.  It’s understanding these five areas and understanding how to guide people toward biblically mature conclusions in each area that will help us accomplish the goal of a college ministry.  Then, the next 5 chapters focus on practical every day areas for people working in college ministry: teaching/discipleship philosophy, working with volunteers (peer and adult), leader characteristics necessary, putting together a gathering point, and the last chapter discusses practical ways to connect college-age people to the overall church.

Anyway, I hope this book will be a help to you and your ministry!

I will be in Pittsburgh next week doing a CollegeLeader training day – a day focused on training those working in college ministry.  From what I understand the room can hold about 150 people and we are going to push the limits on that.  That said, if you want to attend this training day I’d recommend registering sooner than later.  This can also be useful for parents of college-age people or youth workers desiring to prepare kids for college.  For more info, click here.

Now that I’m twittering I follow some people and CNN is one of them.  This morning their update said that unemployment has reached the highest rate since 1983 – 9.5%.  In June alone there was another 476,000 jobs lost.  That’s all interesting to me, but mainly because it’s greatly affecting college graduates.

The harsh reality is a bachelor degree today is nothing more than a high school diploma was 35 years ago.  It’s a necessary level of education, no doubt.  But, even with obtaining the 4-year degree it certainly doesn’t guarantee you a job – just ask anyone that’s graduated from college in the last few years!  I do find it interesting that a lot of college students still view their education as a shoe-in to a career – I think that will certainly change in the next 5-7 years.  From an outside perspective we might not view a college degree as a sure thing for a successful career, but most students still do.  Again, that will change though.

Now, many graduates are not entering the corporate workforce, but instead finding more of a place working with non-profit organizations, community service organizations, etc.  I think it was NBC that just did a special on this a few weeks ago, tracking Duke graduates who many would automatically move to Wall Street after graduating – but now that platform has been taken away from them with today’s economy.  As I watched that show, I kept thinking to myself that there is some health to this trend.  I’ll likely be blogging much more about that soon.

But for this post, you may want to check out an AmeriCorps program designed specifically for 18-24 year olds.  It may come in handy as you talk to recent grads who are wondering what the next step is.  AmeriCorps NCCC could be a great next step for them to get involved in a missional way, but also build a resume for the future.

Last week I was speaking to a 1,000 high schoolers at Hume Lake.  It was an absolute blast, for sure.  From chapels to judging the bike jump and Gauntlet, to the cups of coffee with youth pastors…it’s all great!  I’m doing fewer camps these days so I can concentrate more on college ministry training, but Hume is one I’ll keep doing – if they keep asking that is.  Hume has a special place in my heart (and my wife’s) for sure!

I also had a chance to speak to the summer staff – what a blessing that was.  Hume hire’s about 350-400 summer staff every year.  This is on top of the 150 full-time staff (kind of a guess, but not far off, if at all, I’m sure).  I was planning on speaking about contentment and being faithful today to what God has called us to.  College-age people are looking forward to discovering what God wants to do with their life, but sometimes it’s at the expense of being faithful today.  Or, better put maybe: because they’re looking for what the rest of their life will look like, they forget about being faithful with what God’s called them to today.

But, the last song right before I got up, I threw that talk out the window.  I decided to speak on hearing God’s voice.  So many college-age people say they desperately want to know what God wants to do with their life.  But, there’s a huge dichotomy that few see.  And I wanted to point that out.

The hard balance here is that words and actions don’t always match up in this area.  Most say they want to do what God wants them to do, but meanwhile are trying to figure out what it is they want.  This is typically the most important thing in their life – to discover what it is they want.  Most are somewhat stuck in life…until they discover what it is they want.  I’m not going to say what they want and what God wants is always different, but there is certainly a danger of confusing the two.

My point was to challenge them on whether or not they know when it’s God’s voice speaking?  How do they decipher the His voice from their own?  Do they really want to hear what God will say…or is that just the “Christian” thing we’re all supposed to say? 

I pointed out one way in which we often wrongfully judge whether or not God is speaking: circumstances.  I talked about the dangers of this.  Most often if the circumstances line up just perfectly, we assume it must be God speaking!  But, is this really how God works?  Could that possibly just be my voice or my sinful desire to have everything be easy for me?  

Judging God’s direction based solely on circumstances is extremely dangerous.  Could you imagine Christ the night before he was to be crucified praying for direction and concluding that since this was going to be incredibly difficult for him, it must not be God’s will or desire for him?  Could you imagine the apostle Paul in the prison cell in Rome questioning whether or not it was God’s will for him to be there simply because it was tough?

The fun part is this pretty much takes away how college students view God’s voice speaking to them…leaving them to question how it is they hear God’s voice.  Man, I had some great discussion with people afterwards…a ton of fun.  Could be a good topic for you to teach on sometime.

I’ve been looking at some research on spirituality in higher education lately.  I’ve concentrated my time in research that is done by Universities themselves.  I’ve been doing this to stay away from any faith bias, seeking to see what measurements they are using for their research, what they are finding, and what they are saying about their findings.  

I’ve recently looked back over one study called, “A College Students Search for Meaning and Purpose.”  In my book, College Ministry 101, I have a chapter on the college-age pursuit of meaning.  I discuss what they deem as meaningful, how they pursue finding it, how their definitions and pursuits differ from their parents generation, and then how we can help guide them toward biblically mature conclusions in their pursuit of meaning.  But, this research is different – it’s just filled with stats.  

Here are some of the stats that stood out to me as I reviewed this study last night.  The last one I’d love to get some of your feedback on!

• (52%) of the college students sampled reported attending religious services frequently the year before they entered college, but less than one-third (29%) attend frequently by their junior year
• Two-thirds (65%) report that they question their religious/spiritual beliefs at least occasionally (18% frequently), and a similar number (68%) say that they are “feeling unsettled about spiritual and religious matters” at least “to some extent.”  I think this gives us some real focus in college ministry.  Helping college students “land” for themselves ought to be one of our top priorities.
• One-third (38%) of the students report feeling “disillusioned with my religious upbringing” at least “to some extent.”  That means 1 in every 3 people in your college ministry could fall under this category.  We should be digging deep into their lives, individually!
• This last one I’ll put as a point of conversation.  The stat is: students become less concerned with becoming well- off  financially after three years of college (71% to 63%).  Why do you think that is?  What might be contributing to this?