Subscribe to the NetworkFrustrating thought…for me.
I was talking to a friend today who leads a college-age ministry. He has a very large and growing ministry, less than two years old. If you were to attend their service you would think they have everything figured out. Over a thousand college-age people talking, worshiping, listening to the message, eating and hanging out. You name it, they got it.
They have it all except for one thing: connection with the rest of the church body.
In my opinion this is the most important thing!
We have to understand that having hundreds, or even thousands, of college-age people come to our gatherings is NOT an appropriate definition of success.
What good is it if we get them to come after high school – only to detach after college?
Without connection beyond a service, we still lose. But most importantly (or worse), college-age people end up losing.
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Isn’t this really why youth ministries have to work harder to integrate into whole? The better youth ministries get at this it will only become natural for college age individuals to connect to the broader church instead of the niche of college age ministry right?
The challenge though is this, how do we program to be both integrated and meeting the specific age related needs?