Bob's Blog

I just recently had a meeting with a college ministry pastor. A nice lunch at Carrows in Rancho Capistrano. I always enjoy these times of connecting with those who minister to the next generation. College-age ministries is a hard group for many churches to get a handle on and one that takes a lot of time of investment. Most college ministries are lead by volunteers. Their time is valuable to them and leading a ministry is not taken lightly. So, what do you do with this age group? What is the purpose of a college-age ministry. In one word, college-age ministry is about discipleship.

As the Church, we are commanded to make disciples. We seemed to have gotten away from that in our attempts at youth ministries. Ed Stetzer made the observation that after 30 years of modern youth ministries all we had to show for our work were,"...youth groups are holding tanks with pizza. There's no life transformation taking place" (USA Today: Young Adults Aren't Sticking with Church by Cathy Lynn Grossman). To be sure, there are many youth groups in America that are agents of change and teens are being transformed into followers of Jesus, but they seem to be the exception. In Josh McDowell's book, The Last Christian Generation, he shares that many of our churches have dropped the ball with our young people. He goes on to explain,"...the issue here is that the majority of our young people lack a relationship with spiritual mentors who are models of Christlikeness, and these youths are building their faith and lives on a false foundation-a distorted view of who Christ is, why He came to earth, and what the Bible and truth really are."

I hear a lot of people in churches blaming the problems with America's youth on liberal extremism in government, the decline of our moral social structures, drugs, consumerism, selfishness, depression, a lack of maturity, and the list goes on, but what would have happened if our churches 30 years ago would have focused on making disciples instead of good Christian kids? This generation of college-age people are looking for something that is real and beyond what this world has to offer. Christian young people are not leaving their faith, as one news magazine was suggesting, but are drifting without an anchor. Don't deceive yourself in thinking that this "time" in our history will pass and we'll come back to the "good ole days" when America was more acceptable of Christianity, those days might be gone and they most assuredly will be if our churches continue to go in this direction with our young.

So, what's the answer to the role of college-age ministry? Make disciples. The other stuff (some would call them programs or ministries) will come later...or maybe not at all. The key is to make followers of Jesus who reflect Him. That is the answer in its most simplest way.