Check out how much joy this guy has in seeing the rainbow….no, it’s a double rainbow!

I’m speaking at Point Loma University this week.  Last night I was given the topic of sin to speak on.  The theme for this camp is confronting the “me-centered” culture we live in today.  So, I decided to talk about the sin of pride.  I did explain what sin is, the fact that it separates us from God (Romans 6:23), and we all have the same issue (Romans 3:23).  But here’s a couple of the thoughts I included in my message regarding pride:

• Pride is a focus, defense of and exaltation of self.
• Pride denies it’s own existence.
• Pride kills.  I’ve never heard of a marriage breaking up because both people were too humble.  I’ve never heard of a church splitting because it was filled with too many humble people.  Pride kills.
• The first sin was pride.  Satan sinned in this way.  And in 1 Peter 5:8-9 we see him “prawling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.”  So, my point was that if this is what  drew him away it’s possible that this is one of the biggest ways he seeks to draw us away as well.  And I happen to think it’s worked really well in our culture.  At the very core of our cultural beliefs is “the personal right” to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  That last part, pursuit to happiness, has crept into the church far too much.  We often make life all about us (pride) and our personal happiness.  People in the church even rationalize away sound biblical teaching by stating, “God wants me to be happy, right?”  I see that rationale all the time, especially in marriages heading toward divorce.
• Since pride is a focus on self it is in direct opposition to what Jesus says in Luke 9:23-25.  And it seems as though it’s in direct opposition to the reason for Christ dying as stated in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15.  In other words, our focus on ourselves (pride) is contradictory to the gospel message.

I made it clear that we all struggle with this, but we have to be honest about it.  Again, pride denies it’s own existence, so I wanted all to realize that it does in fact exist and to understand the ramifications of it in our lives.  Anyway, just some thoughts that I thought could speak to you today on a personal level.  If we’re not careful pride can also kill our ministry.  Be watchful (1 Peter 5:8).

Let’s take a little poll.  Sometimes it’s just good to see what other college ministers are doing around the country.

I tried to embed the poll here on the blog, but for some reason WordPress is being lame.  Anyway, take the poll here.

In today’s economy it can be tough to get people to attend a retreat or camp.  And despite the economy college-age people aren’t exactly known to have a ton of extra money laying around. Everything has a cost, but there are some things that can help. For instance, for the Utah winter trip we used to do we would offer different packages. We had a base package that included transportation, lodging, meals and some activities. We offered a separate package that included a one-day lift ticket, another for two days, and a third package for a three-day lift ticket. The base amount was pretty low which allowed people that couldn’t afford much to still be a part of the trip. There are all kinds of things you can do to try to keep the cost down, but offering different packages is a great and simple way to do that – and this can be with any type of trip. You can also:

•  Plan your trip during weekdays if at all possible. If you are staying overnight, and especially in a hotel, weekday rates are often less money.

•  Ask the hotel about complimentary rooms for leaders. Most of the time they will give you free rooms and usually suites – where multiple leaders can stay.

•  Shop around. If you are checking out places to stay, make sure those places know you’re also seeking pricing from others as well. If you find a better deal at one place go back to the other and let them know what they offered you. You might be surprised at how flexible they become.

•  Offer payment plans. As soon as we started promoting a trip we let people know that we could place them on a payment plan. Of course this takes some administrative work, but working out a monthly payment plan with people can be a great help. Some people, unfortunately, don’t end up paying their full amount. But this allows for a lot of teachable moments too—that are priceless. Here are a few recommendations for this approach: (1) only offer them for the base amount, not things like lift tickets or other extra’s, (2) have a minimum amount they have to pay before they go on the trip—at least the cost of the deposit, (3) develop a very short contract detailing the payment due dates and amounts between the church and the student.

•  Do fundraisers. If your church allows this, these can of course help.

•  Seek sponsors. If there are older adults in your church that are already involved with college-age people consider personally asking them to sponsor a student or three. You can divide these amounts any way you want, but having people donate toward this cause can really help.

•  Be wise. Some things aren’t necessary to spend money on—like fliers. With all the technology you can invite people, even have sign ups, in ways that don’t cost money. Fliers aren’t the issue, the issue is just thinking through ways you can do things that don’t cost money. These small costs add up over time and many of them aren’t necessary.

A few posts ago I wrote about some stats that might surprise some of us.  It was about “non-traditional” college age people (to read that click here).  I’ve recently found a couple other interesting things that might continue to change the way you think about the college campus.

First, this episode of Frontline had some very interesting findings and insights.  You can watch that here:

Second, an article titled, “For-Profit Colleges Change Higher Educations Landscape” goes along with the above video.  This article highlights the growth of these college’s and addresses the affects they are having.  You might find it interesting to see how they have developed over the years.

Now, I’m not writing about this to get people up in arms about this.  I don’t think this is changing the daily ministries of what most of us do today.  These college’s are largely attended by people who are already in the workforce and past what I refer to as the “college-age years” (for me that is 18-25).  However, it is interesting to me the affect it might have on the future direction of all college’s….which could drastically affect what we do.  Our University educational philosophy hasn’t changed in centuries….but that’s not to say it won’t soon either.

I don’t really know what to say.  Just watch.

David C. Cook, the publisher for my latest book I co-authored with Reggie Joiner and Abbie Smith called, The Slow Fade just posted this little video about the book.

One of the things I’ve been hearing around campuses more and more from both students as well as faculty is phrases like, “I’m spiritual, but not religious.”  Here phrases like this often?

I’m not entirely sure what it means.  It seems like a sort of in-between, socially acceptable way of saying, “I have my own deal going on so don’t try to influence me with your ideas.”  I don’t know if that’s accurate, but this statement certainly says something while at the same time shuts down conversation from going further.

Accept if you ask more questions about their beliefs.  And I love to do that.

What I’ve found through asking students more about their ideas (and even one of my neighbors who is a professor at a nearby college) is many of them actually have decent theology.  Not entirely biblical, but there are some people that shock me (in good ways) with what they deem as “spiritual.”  Having said that, I’ve heard very ambiguous things from believing in some sort of “higher power” to someone claiming to be Jesus Christ himself – I live in Portland so that can happen more frequently than I’d like to admit.

The phraseology of “spiritual but not religious” could also just be a negative response to organized religion in general.  But, in my experience, I’ve seen that be used more as a surface, regurgitated and generic response more than a real heart-felt conviction.  More often than not I’ve actually found college-age people to not be against structure and organizations as much as people often suggest.

CNN recently put out an article about this idea of spiritual but not religious that you might be interested in as well.  For that, click here.

I spent just under 9 years at a church in southern California.  That church was Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California.  I left in April of 2008 and came to Portland, Oregon as a church plant of Cornerstone.  Francis Chan, the founding pastor of Cornerstone, is a great friend.  He in many ways is like a big brother to me.  God has used him in my life and continues to do so.  Anyway, here is a video they showed in this weekends services.  It was his last week there.  It’s a cool video (despite the quality of my portion of video) of what God has done through the ministry of Cornerstone Church and Francis there. Enjoy….

USA Today put out an article called, “Degrees of Difficulty.”  The article highlighted 5 different “non-traditional” students.  There is a video series coming out that you might be interested in watching as well (click here if so).  Now, these are clearly part of the campus sub-culture referred to as the “vocational” students.  I wrote an article about them here as part of a series of articles on the major campus sub-cultures.

Anyway, the article begins with this statement, “What comes to mind when you hear “college student”? To many Americans, it’s someone who goes to college straight from high school, lives in a dorm, and gets a degree four years later. But things have changed.”

What might be the most surprising to some are the stats the National Center for Education is putting out now.  Check these out:

• Three-fourths of today’s students no longer fit that traditional model. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, about half of today’s students are financially independent; 49% are enrolled part-time; 38% work full time; 27% have dependents of their own. Almost half — 12 million — attend two-year community colleges rather than four-year schools.
• And most students who start college don’t finish. Only 56% of students at four-year colleges complete a degree within six years, and just 20% of first-time students at public community colleges get a degree or certificate within three years.

Moving forward it seems that this is going to force a few issues for us in college ministry.

1. Age-range of people we focus on is going to be rethought.  Many are wondering if their ministry should be specific to 18-22, 18-25, 18-28, etc.  Conclusions on this issue ought to be drawn depending on the context of your ministry, but with ministries designed to reach a broad demographic that’s worded something like “students on a campus” will have to rethink their current approach.
2. How we reference our ministries will need to become even more precise.  I prefer the term “college-age people.”  And by that I mean people between 18-25.  I choose that wording because of my time with people in this age group.  My terminology is driven by the people themselves, not a sociological theory.  Having said that the national average to complete a 4 year degree is 5-7 years, which does affect my range.  I have 4-5 other reasons, but for this post I’ll simply say that the ever-changing scope of people attending degree granting institutions will force us to continue thinking about how we reference our ministries.
3. Churches that are not located next to a major University no longer have an excuse to not engage in ministry to college-age people.  Over the years I’ve literally heard hundreds of people talk about how there’s just a “community college” nearby.  They speak of it as if it’s a lesser ministry or campus.  But the truth is these campuses are exploding!  More freshman students start here than every before.  And if we have a heart for this age of people community colleges must be focused on.  I have 4 community colleges, totaling over 75k students, within a 20 mile radius of my house.  That is fun.