The Slow Fade Video
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.
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:
Moving forward it seems that this is going to force a few issues for us in college ministry.
Continue Reading “Stats That Might Shock You (and possibly change the way you do ministry)”
In leadership part of our job is casting vision. We paint a picture of where we’re heading, why we’re heading in that direction, and how we’re going to get there. This is a huge role for a leader. But easier for some than others. I’ve learned a few lessons the hard way about casting vision. I’ve found the following 4 things to greatly hinder our communication of vision:
This is a pretty cool depiction of where youth are today and what they want and what they don’t. I think, at least in ways, this applies to our ministry to college-age people as well. This is put together by Student Life and, in my opinion, it’s very well put together. Anyway, just some reminders of who we are reaching out to and what it is they are want/need from us…
I just read an article by Mike Yaconelli that was, well, cool. Inspiring in many different ways and yet dangerous in others. But good. He wrote an article called, “Letter To A Young Graduate” that would be a good, fairly brief, read for you. Here’s a brief blurb from the beginning…
“Dear David,
When I think of you getting out of high school I think of the Prodigal Son (see Luke 15). In this parable from Jesus, the younger son goes to his father and says, “Give me my inheritance.” In my perspective, the younger brother wants his inheritance not because he’s greedy or shallow or disrespectful but because he’s dying inside. He wants the inheritance because the light in his soul is going out, because life at home is dampening his spirit, because something in him tells him that there’s more. More!
So the younger son tells his Dad, “I’ve got to get out of here. I need to see if there’s more to life than being a good . . .” And the father (who is supposed to represent God) says, “Sounds like a great idea. You’re making a great move. Any time you want to go and seek life, I’m all for it. Here’s your money. Go with my blessing. Seek and you shall find.”
So off the young son goes with his dad’s blessing and for the first time in a long time he feels alive. He feels free and full of possibility. He’s finally following this burning in his chest. He’s following this desire…”
To read the full article, click here.
Today I decided to come down to Oregon State University to work. I’ve never been here before. Odd, I know, being that I live in Oregon. But, I live about 90 minutes away and there are over 100k students on campus within 20 minutes of where I live. In other words, I’ve had plenty of other campuses to visit. Anyway…
I came here today to just check it out and get some work done from a coffee shop around campus. I love hanging out around campuses, especially when I’m writing. But, as usual, I met some people. It’s amazing what can happen if you just hang out around campus. I wasn’t here for much more than an hour when I met Isaiah and Amy. They work at a coffee shop called, “The Beanery.” Conversation moved from coffee, to their lives, to Isaiah heading off on Friday to Thailand to work with children caught in slavery. Long story short, before I knew it I had met 6 different students and listened to their story of what God is doing through them here on this campus. They even took me upstairs to their “upper room” where they rent an apartment to set aside for prayer. The picture on the left is their prayer request and answer wall.
From what I understand the rent for this apartment is funded solely by student donations. So cool.
It was fun to meet them, hear their story, and to pray for them and be prayed for by them. Great, and encouraging time.
I guess my point is this: Not frequently hanging out around college campuses only causes you to miss out on so many things. Don’t miss it. Get out, frequently and consistently, to campus. Pray for God to bring up fruitful conversation. We don’t need to force it – I never do. But it’s amazing what happens when we pray……
In The Slow Fade we discuss something we call, “Non-mentor Mentorship.” I recently did a seminar in Atlanta on this concept. In that seminar I described 3 major shifts a Non-mentor Mentor makes from the traditional idea of “mentoring.” How do you compare?
In a book I co-authored called, The Slow Fade I wrote an appendix where I articulate 5 characteristics of churches that embrace college age people. I didn’t intend on this being an exhaustive list, but simply 5 things churches who are effective in reaching college age people are embracing. So, I thought I’d include a very brief outline here: