Recently in Youth Ministry Category

It has been a while - but the Missional Campus Ministry series will continue on an occasional basis as resources or topics appear.  Today I would like to focus conversation around a recent blog post by John Stackhouse - Campus Ministry That's Not for Every One.  Here is a brief excerpt... speaking about a visit to the University of Ottawa:

But what I liked the most about working with him in producing several events on campus is that he is trying to reach the people most campus groups don't: the thoughtful, and perhaps even threatening, inquirer, the smart student or professor who has been asking hard questions of Christianity perhaps for years and hasn't found even a safe place in which to ask them, let alone a place to encounter satisfying answers to them.

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It's harder to reach these people on campus, not least because many of them have had previous experiences with religious types and have been disappointed and offended by the defensive, even anti-intellectual, attitude they encountered. So they're not likely now to show up at a "Free Pizza Night!" to "Hear local pastor Rev. Bill Jones speak on loving God better!" Rather than having their hard questions welcomed in the spirit of the university, they have been marginalized as troublesome party-poopers, spoiling a nice session of grooving on Jesus. Or perhaps they indeed have been engaged by Christians, but then their questions have exposed the Christians' intellectual shallowness, their inability to articulate good grounds for their beliefs that make sense beyond the circle of already-convinced faith.

I will like to elaborate on these ideas a bit - focused on discussion of the following question:

What can be done to make an impact on campus - today and in the future, to move beyond "intellectual shallowness" or the perception of such shallowness?

This post is from Jen Bradbury, and I read this on her blog through a "tweet". This is one of the very few posts or reviews that have talked at all about the outcome-based education I talked about in The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible , but more importantly, Jen takes it to the next level by asking what those outcomes might look like for her youth group.

Youth ministers: What are your outcomes? What are your top five? Do you have any assessment tools that measure whether or not you are meeting your outcomes?

During the past month, I've been inching my way through Scot McKnight's "The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible," a book which I definitely recommend.

One of the things that Scot talks about in this book is outcome based education, about which he says, "Outcome-based education means we ask this question as we prepare & teach: 'What do we want our students to be & to be able to do at the end of this course, this major, & this degree?'"

Though I certainly don't teach in an academic setting, I do have the privilege of teaching the youth in my ministry & so this week, I've been thinking about how this idea applies to my ministry setting. On any given week, as I prepare to teach - whether in a small group discussion setting, through a service event & the processing that follows, or through a talk I give or a teaching experience I design, I honestly spend a fair amount of time thinking about what I want my youth to gain from that experience, about what my desired outcome for them is. Sometimes it's as simple as wanting to expose my teens to Scripture. At other times, I want them to leave with a question about a specific story or idea that will cause them to continue wrestling with it throughout the week. At other times, I actually want them to leave knowing something concrete about Jesus, God's character, or theology.  

The church I attend has an outstanding youth ministry. No question. And intentionally inter-generational worship. The staff is intent on building relationships. The church is thriving, even growing. The number of families with young children is increasing. And yet ...

My daughter graduated from high school this year.  She has been in this church since we moved here just after her first birthday; she "belongs."  There was a big graduation luncheon - complete with video and moving remembrances (we had known roughly half the 15-20 seniors since they were in preschool); the whirlwind of graduation ceremonies, family visits, and open houses.  And the next Sunday as we prepared to leave for church she informed me that she was now supposed to attend one of the adult education communities ... and as she put it "No Way!" For a time perhaps she no longer belongs.

This leads to the question I would like to address today.

What does your church do to intentionally reach, walk along side, and disciple 18-25 year-olds?

Yet another academic year approaches - yet another set of fresh new faces on campus. As we approach a the start of term I would like to renew the conversation on campus ministry we began last spring (You can find my initial salvo here).

As many here know I am a professor, at a large secular University, not a Christian college, and have been involved in academia for some 28 years as a graduate student, post-doc and professor. There is no doubt that the modern University is a mission field in many different ways - and a challenging mission field at that. This year opens a new window on the situation however, as I am also a parent sending my eldest off to college with her friends dispersing to a wide range of campuses and contexts.

Over the course of several posts - one or two a week - we will consider several aspects of University ministry. I intend to look at Chuck Bomar's new book College Ministry 101: A Guide to Working with 18-25 Year Olds and Benson Hines's e-book (free on his site) Reaching the Campus Tribes.  I will also point to some useful on-line blogs and discussions beginning with Steve Lutz and The SENTinel (good thoughts and good discussion on this site).  I am open to suggestions for other good resources as well.

Before digging in however, I would like to open with some questions.

What are the biggest challenges in Campus Ministry today?

What should a missional campus ministry look like?

From The Wall Street Journal ...

The decline in Sunday schools appears to be gradual but steady. A study by the Barna Group indicated that in 2004 churches were 6% less likely to provide Sunday school for children ages 2 to 5 as in 1997. For middle-school kids, the decline was to 86% providing Sunday school in 2004 from 93% in 1997. Similarly, there was a six-percentage-point drop in Sunday schools offered for high school kids -- to 80% from 86%. All in all, about 20,000 fewer churches were maintaining Sunday-school classes. And the future does not look bright: Only 15% of ministers regarded Sunday school as a leading concern. The younger the pastor, the study showed, the less emphasis he placed on Sunday school.

What is going on at your church? Is Sunday School fading?

This post, by Chris Folmsbee about Youth Ministry and the Challenging Economy, is suggestive and we'd love to generate a conversation about his suggestions and questions. Chris sent me this post last week and, because of our travel to the...

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