Bob's Blog

A few years ago, I was looking at different college ministries in the Southern California area, in part for my research that I was doing for my seminars. Most of the churches I contacted had multiple staff, and they were the most likely to have college pastors. One of those churches, ROCKHARBOR, is planted in the south end of Orange County, just a short ride to the beach. That's where I met their college pastor, Brian Rottschafer. Since then, Brian and I have kept in contact, often dialoging about college-age students and the ministry at his church, which he has been overseeing for the past four years. Over three thousand young people call ROCKHARBOR their church, but many more come to at least one of their multiple services throughout the week.

College ministry is not new to churches. Most churches have had something for those who have graduated from high school, even if it's just a group that hangs out at the youth leaders' homes. But you do get the sense that college-age ministry is at its "beginnings." Some would even say that where college-age ministry is today is where youth ministry was at in the early 70's. So what makes an effective college ministry? Are their certain characteristics? Here are a few that I've seen.

• A college ministry needs more than a few willing people to head it up; it needs the right leaders to lead this group.
• A strong sense of community seems to be evident in most effective college ministries.
• This age group is at its peak in learning and discovery, so they need a ministry that will challenge them.
• An effective college ministry has a characteristic of serving. There's no doubt that this generation wants to make an impact for good in this world, and they're looking for a church that will teach them how.
• They are transitioning from being teens to young adults, and any church that can help them sort through life's questions will be a church they call "home."
• Churches that target for the future, whose leadership supports the ministry and connects this age group to the Body.
• Discipleship is key.

There are other characteristics, which I've seen throughout the ones I have just mentioned. Some of these other characteristics are a strong teaching ministry, a model of praying, and sharing their faith. These are just a few that I'll be teaching on at the DRINK Conference. If you have other characteristics and would like to share them, send them to me and I'll post those on a later blog.

The Next Baby Boom
There was an article written on July 17th for USA Today on the next "baby boom." I thought it was interesting and funny that the next baby boom is here. I'm just getting use to Millennials and now I have to start researching on the next group coming in. According to the federal data, a record number of births were recorded for 2007. The National Center for Health recorded that 4,315,000 births had taken place in the US of that year. I don't know about you but that's a lot of kids who will soon be crawling around in our nurseries across America. Here's the interesting part, at least for me, the last time these numbers were this high was back in 1957. That was right in the middle of the Boomers' birth explosion. Some experts believe that this increase in births is a glimpse of what will be coming for the future. The good news is that most of these experts believe that this will be a gradual increase and not as rapid as with the Baby Boomers of the post war era.

Some Good Books to Read Or Use For College-Age Curriculum
The A Book You'll Actually Read series has added its fourth to its collection focusing on Church Leadership. The author of this book is Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, one of the fastest growing churches in America. He is also the president of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network. What is so good about this book is that it is short (94 pages total), biblically true, and easy to use as a Sunday morning series or a home study. You should be able to get it in your local book store.
A couple of other books you should check out are Can You Keep Your Faith In College? and 33 Week Small Group Guide which helps students walk through its concepts. Abbie Smith is the author of both of these books as well as a speaker on college-age ministries. She will be speaking at the DRINK Conference being held in Southern California this coming September. Ask your local Christian bookstore for these two books.

DRINK is a conference that is focused on college-age ministries and is open to those who minister to this age group as well as to student leaders. The conference is being held at Thousand Pines Christian Camp in Southern California from September 4-7. Guest speakers will be Chuck Bomar, author and lead pastor of Colossae Church in Portland, Oregon, Dave Kinnaman, President and Strategic Leader of the Barna Group, and Abbie Smith, author of Can You Keep Your Faith in College?

The cost starts at $59 with registration taking place through www.collegeleader.org. There will be seminars, activities and events throughout the weekend. Lodging and meals are taking care of through the cost of the conference. If you want more information, you can contact us through the CollegeLeader website to answer all your questions. Hope to see you there.

Here are more pictures that captured the ministry and fun at Momentum.

It's been a while but I'm finally back home after being two weeks away. Just in time to be rattled from my desk with a "shaker." It's nice to be back home in California. Here are some pictures from last weeks Momentum conference in Cedarville, Ohio.