I saw this post last week floating around the internet on various social media sites. Because of how it relates to my role of working with young people in the church I was intrigued. I think it’s fair to say the scope of this piece is wildly pejorative.
One of the main issues people in my field cannot stop talking about is why young adults are leaving the church. I am not really interested in answering that question formally here. In fact, I wish more people would stop as well - but that’s another thought. But, if I were a college student and I heard someone speaking about me like this, I would probably never come back either. We need to do better. My suggestion is that we start by avoiding reducing such complex ministry with simplistic steps or keys.
Below I briefly responded to the first 5 of the 9 keys. I know I come across cynical in places and hope my hyperbolic statements are taken into consideration. I have close friends in colleges across the US and believe God is using and will continue to use them. My prayer is that God will open up the space within the church for them to translate the gospel for their generation.
9 Keys to College Reaching Students
1. Whatever you do, don’t shy away from depth.
So take them deep, and do it often. In almost every sermon we try to have an “apologetic moment,” where the preacher explains how this or that biblical truth counters the cultural norms they absorb in their college. The most popular series we have done have related to straight, deep answers to challenging questions.
I’ve always found the argument that the church and the university are antithetical to one another extremely boring. The deep suspicion embedded into American Evangelicalism concerning the life of the mind desperately needs to evaporate. Combating science or “cultural norms” through attempting to prove them false will most likely result with more straw men than presently exist. Along with this, the idea that college students are simply “absorbing” the things taught them in their colleges automatically assumes they are not doing any critical thinking. I think this is simply not true. I had conversations with half a dozen college freshmen when they were home on Christmas break and every single student was thinking critically about the character of God and the nature of the Christian life. Instead of seeking to undermine their deep existential questions with our answers what if we dwelled with them in their doubt? Instead of wielding an epistemological gavel and condemning their education what if we preached the gospel of Jesus Christ in compelling and imaginative ways so that they would find the church interesting and meaningful?
2. Preach the gospel.
The beauty of the gospel, as well as its outrageous claims, intrigues most students. It engages both believer and unbeliever. It exposes the root idolatry that drives our behavior and reveals God’s radical agenda for the world that calls for a dramatic response. The gospel “secret” is that everything we want to see in students, things like “radical generosity” and “audacious faith,” are produced not by telling them what they must do for God, but by exalting in what God has done for us.
I think this is well put. The gospel uproots our idols and empowers us to live in shalom without the stress of behavior modification. I do fear, and I have written about this elsewhere, that some of the language here is somewhat expressive. What if we taught college students that the gospel is really slow sometimes - that God moves really slow sometimes? What if college students didn’t feel the need to change the entire world in four years?
3. Love on display is often the most effective apologetic.
We often think we can convince unbelievers by showing that our smart guys are smarter than their smart guys. True cynics are more often convinced, however, by the beauty of Christ’s character in us than by meticulous logic.
This is true. However, above the authors made the case that to have an apologetic meant doing precisely this. Which is it? Outsmarting the other guys, or realizing the Christian life is something to be embodied rather than argued?
4.Remember that we live in the Bono generation.
Serving the community and the poor around the world is now, for lack of a better term, “cool.” And while TOMS Shoes certainly has a different agenda than does the church, this generation’s awareness of global suffering ensures that any message that fails to address global and societal needs will fall on deaf ears. The awareness of global suffering actually provides a wonderful opportunity for the gospel. We can show the gospel provides a better, more holistic answer to the problems of the world.
Did Newt Gingrich write this? This subtle compliment contains a very overt insult, namely, that the younger generation only cares for serving the poor and disadvantaged because a rock star says it is cool. Of course young people couldn’t actually have a sincere desire to love the world around them. The very idea that amping up church awareness to global suffering so that college students will be more interested is the very idea that keeps college students from the church! Also, unless the author’s idea of a gospel that provides a better, more holistic answer includes at the very least the type of things TOMS shoes is doing then it still incomplete. Perhaps we could begin not by insulting them but by inspiring and releasing them to live missionally in the world.
5. Lift their eyes to the nations
God’s agenda for the world is nothing short of people from every people group worshiping Jesus (Rev. 5:9-11). We should teach students to choose their life’s path based on this ultimate goal. Even those students who do not go into full-time paid ministry can choose their career path in light of the Great Commission. They have to get a job upon graduation somewhere, so why not do it in a place where they can be a part of church planting? We teach our students that unless God has put a better plan before them, they should spend two years in one of the places we have a church plant (both domestic and abroad).
The younger generation has the most globalized perspective of any generation before them. With respect, their eyes are already on the nations. I’m not sure what the authors mean by encouraging students to get jobs in places where they can be a part of church planting. It seems like they could do that virtually anywhere. My guess is that they want to see students involved in missional living in whatever vocation they find themselves in - and I agree.
You can read the rest of the article with its final points here. My contention with this piece lies primarily with how we talk about young people in our churches. The tone of this article comes across condescending, smug, and overly certain. College students, in my estimation, desire to be taken seriously as thinking people capable of participating in the mission of the gospel in profound ways. My suggestion is that we take them seriously and pay attention to the ways God is shaping them to use for God’s purposes in the world.
