college ministry

A youth pastor’s dream: To partner each student with a dedicated, Christ-following adult step-by-step through the teenage years into college.

Why is this a dream of mine? I believe a healthy ministry model will allow students to graduate high school but not graduate their faith and leave it behind with their alma mater or letterman jacket. I would hope my youth ministry isn’t known for a cool building, fun games, or even great teaching…although those things are important! I hope my ministry would someday be known by it’s leader to student depth of connection, a depth measured by years of intentional discipleship.

Just imagine, rewind the tape back to 13 years old…what if you had a mature, Christ-following adult who was pursuing you 6th grade through your college graduation? Someone other than your parents that you could count on- a mentor, a coach, a confidant. As a 6th grader you might seem shy to the idea of someone older wanting to meet over a slice of pizza or a milkshake, but think about the impact someone could have on a life if they are invested for over 10 years!

I think this is incredibly rare in youth ministry… If the average youth pastor stays at a church for 18 months, I’d like to know how long the average youth leader/volunteer sticks around? From what I have seen I’d estimate the average run for someone serving is 2.5 years. I come up with this number by looking realistically at those few veterans that have been around 10 years, the many that are established in relationships and pouring into students by their high school graduation – putting in 4 years, and those that “try it out” making that one year commitment, but then say, “Sorry, this isn’t for me.”

Building traction and trust with students is essential, and it takes time…a lot of time! If we think about how much time students spend with one another before they share a deep secret, struggle or start talking “life” we can begin to understand just how much intentional time an adult will need to spend in order to get to the core of a student’s spiritual life, life at home, or life at school.

Today I witnessed a 5th grade girl’s small group leader move up with the girls to 6th grade, from children’s ministry into middle school ministry. It was awesome! Despite both the girls and the leader being in a new room with loud music and all the distracting happenings a middle school ministry could bring, all of the girl’s eyes were fixed on their leader. They have a consistent and established Christ-following adult invested in their life. I’m not sure what this leader does in her free time (still getting to know my leaders) but I’m sure that if she is investing an hour at a school volleyball game, an hour at Starbucks, an hour on the phone here and there…she will almost guarantee a higher connection rate, a higher attendance at church rate, a higher vulnerability rate in helping make rational decisions, and most importantly a much more likely chance of her girl’s understanding the person of Jesus Christ.

Throughout my school years I had five different youth leaders. My parents were consistent, Christ-following, church-attending people who invested into me during my teenage years – and I thank God for that. Unfortunately, there are many broken homes, with many teenagers who have been abandoned and are desperately searching for love and attention in all the wrong places. They need that 10 year leader. That teenager needs someone to jump into their life beginning in the 6th grade, or earlier, and live life to the fullest with them through studying the Bible, asking hard questions, attending their high school games, maintaining contact through college and cheering for them at graduation!

The largest dropout rate in the church occurs during a students Freshmen year of college. Just because a student graduates from your church ministry does that mean they also graduate from your personal ministry to them? We live in an era of easy connectivity. Stay engaged. Pursue their life. Point them to the finish line of faith.

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It’s that time of year when the youth pastor gets invited to all those graduation parties! There is usually great food, music in the air, an embarrassing slide show that may involve naked baby photos, and of course the anxious graduate who is ready to rip through all the cards to see how much money they got…I was no different. Though each party may have its own flavor one thing stays the same, the sigh of relief on the parents face, the look that says, “I can’t believe they made it…I can’t believe I made it!”

I’m sure as a parent, a youth pastor or small group leader you have found those graduation parties quite the celebration and milestone in your students life. They did it! They completed their homework assignments (almost all of them), they made some good friends, they learned how to prepare for college by writing essays and learning word processing systems and now they are ready to be sent off into the world…or are they?

While reading a book about why young people leave the church (specifically those graduating seniors) I came across a staggering statement…

“Teenagers are some of the most religiously active Americans.

American twenty-somethings are the least religiously active.”

According to the polls and interviews we as the church can easily observe that this IS the reality of church attendance and participation. Birth through high school we see active participation and attendance…it actually increases as the student approaches high school. Suddenly as if overnight, there is a nose dive in church participation, we have lost those graduates…but WHY?!

I could write all day on this subject and even present many topics that we could dissect and explore WHY older teenagers and early twenty-somethings are leaving the church…getting a driver’s license, exploring job opportunities, going “off” to college, but aren’t there churches near the college too? It seems that many not only graduate from high school never looking back but also graduate their faith! What I’m getting at is this, we the church and parents hold their hand birth-12th…walking them to their age specific rooms, ensuring that they get on the right missions trip, help pay for the perfect Christian camp, and even recruit leaders to walk alongside them every year in a small group setting. What happens next after graduation is eye-opening…nothing. Nothing happens. Where did my small group leader go? What happened to my age specific class or community? Where do I sign up for a serving opportunity or even a small group now that I’m an adult?

We must combat the dropout rate by sending out missionaries…equipping our graduates for life on their mission field wherever God places them.

I’ll be the first to confess that my church doesn’t do the greatest job in transitioning our graduates into the greater body of the church. We are aware of this problem and are searching for ways to combat the nose dive. Here are a few ideas we have moving forward…I would love to hear what others are doing!

Provide a specific curriculum for all graduating seniors to go through their spring semester
Find ways for small group leaders stay connected to their students throughout the college years
Put “college ministry” under the student ministry umbrella to ensure responsibility is being taken on by a ministry within the church
Provide a one year stent program that would allow those graduates not going to college to participate in ministry both locally and globally

The book that dives more into this discussion can be found in my library, “You Lost Me.”

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Life of a youth pastor .

A youth pastor’s dream…

They are graduating from church…