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 [...]

Continue Reading “God’s Voice, Or Mine?”

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?  

If you are thinking about upgrading your ministry website, I’d HIGHLY recommend checking out Clover.  You can view and demo all their sites live by clicking here.  I’ve been using one of their websites (but there are many more to choose from) for my church for the past year and a half and we’ve loved it.  

The websites are extremely clean, very easy to manage (the admin side of things is VERY simple and user friendly), you can upload all the video/documents/messages/etc. you want, and it’s very affordable.  Anyway, I’ve found it to be a great resource so thought I’d pass it along – that is if you haven’t already checked them out.

Just a quick reminder that the price of the conference increases $20 on Monday, so you may want to sign up before then – that’s the price of the shuttle from the airport!  To see more of the details, including some of the speakers, click here.

Sorry for the non-blogs this week.  I’ve been speaking at Hume Lake this week in the high school camp.  It’s been an extremely fun week, but also a very exhausting one.  Besides meeting with youth pastors and students, I’ve spoken 6 times so far since Monday.  But, the reason I haven’t been able to blog about my week is because my computer has had issues with connecting to the network here (for whatever reason).  

That said, I’m off to speak to the summer staff right now.  Not sure how many will come, but I know Hume hires about 400 summer staff – which by far the majority are college students.  So, I’m obviously very excited.  Anyway, I’ll most likely issue some more details and things I’ve learned this week on next weeks blogs…

Off to hang with college students!

There are a couple training opportunities coming up you may want to be keep in mind.

CollegeLeader Regional Training:  I will be doing a day of intensive seminars in Pittsburgh, PA at Robert Morris University on July 16.  For seminar descriptions, schedule, etc click here.

Drink Conference: our 2nd annual CollegeLeader Conference (Drink) is coming October 15-17.  Registration costs go up July 1, so you may want to check into that sooner than later.  Until then you can get all meals, lodging, conference, and everything else for just $149 (not a misprint!).  The speakers and seminars will be posted soon and you certainly won’t be disappointed.