Off the Agenda: Conversations for Building Church Leaders

Meanwhile, the concern about wasting effort on strategy-building misses the fact that we are reaching not only individuals but entire tribes. While it is true that students themselves turn over rapidly, the context and culture of a campus are much slower to change. An effective, developed strategy doesn't have to be recreated for each new freshman class. Instead, the mission is carried out with new students, who both fill the shoes of those who have gone before them and connect to the mission in their own unique ways.

What if we have tried college ministry and failed?

It isn't surprising that Christian colleges, campus-based groups, or church-based groups may consider college ministry a "lost cause"—or at least only worthy of limited investment—because of past struggles. For similar reasons, denominations and other networks may also shy away from collegiate efforts.

While history should be taken into account, the reasons for our failures must be properly assessed. Many turbulent college ministry histories come from a lack of good missiological practices—allowing time for growth, emphasizing strategy, investing properly, continually progressing, and so on. Realizing that college ministry is best understood as missions is a key to changing our results in the future.

Yet past difficulties should also open us to the possibility of using nontraditional college ministry models. In fact, it's my suspicion that many of us will find greater success only through partnership, niche ministry, or other forms not yet prevalent.

Why should we invest in people who will bear fruit for somebody else?

A common concern about college ministry is that we are preparing people for lives of impact and service…somewhere else. While we may sow and sow into college students' lives, the "harvest" will regularly be gained by others. The response to this concern has three parts.

First, the assumption that college students will disconnect with our ministry after their time in college is not necessarily true. Students regularly stay for years or even decades in the city in which they attend school, and they're often able to connect with the ministries that formerly nurtured them. And national groups—denominations or parachurch ministries—can see long-lasting, far-reaching connections with former students, even as those individuals move from place to place.

Second, we should remember the unselfishness with which we view other ministry efforts—including both youth ministry and missions. Ministry to youth is very much concerned with preparing kids to bear fruit in the years to come, though that often takes place beyond their present churches and communities. And our work in missions—whether across the state or across the world—continues with gusto, even when churches and parachurch ministries may see absolutely no tangible "return" on that investment. (Is anyone expecting their mission to a tribe in Africa to produce deacons for their own church?) In these areas, our desire to fulfill God's kingdom purposes has overruled any need to see local fruit from our ministry efforts. The same standard should be applied to college ministry.

But third, we must recognize that college students can in fact dramatically impact us right now. Numerous churches, campus-based ministries, Christian colleges, and other organizations already reap great benefits from the students presently involved—particularly if those students are shepherded and trained well. College ministries that have impacted students during the early years of college see those same students begin to serve and lead skillfully as they continue to progress through school.

Will college students really respond to us?

There are many reasons we may be intimidated by college students and the environment they inhabit. It's easy, for instance, to feel our efforts are only wasted by trying to reach students in the middle of what can be a hedonistic and sinful culture. It may even seem dangerous to our own spirits to immerse ourselves in these college campuses.

Even when students aren't drawn to the "darker" side of college life, they can seem distracted, uncommitted, and engrossed in a campus culture busy with activity. They often appear uninterested in spiritual matters as they instead develop and enjoy other parts of their life. We may also wonder if they will really respond to older people, whether those are college ministry leaders, church pastors, church members, or others.

College students can also be intimidating to us because they are college students. They represent a large percentage of America's smartest individuals, and they are presently in the learning process, meaning their minds are active, sharp, and questioning. It may seem difficult for a common college ministry, church, or any other group of well-meaning Christians to reach this distinct audience.

Yet I would argue that the intimidating nature of the campus and its students calls for using even greater means for missions to these tribes. William Carey rightly noted in his missions guidebook An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (published in 1792) that "the uncivilized state of the heathen, instead of affording an objection against preaching the gospel to them, ought to furnish an argument for it."

The busy, distracted nature of students simply argues for greater strategy and better, more effective means. Christians often fail in these environments not because students don't want our service but because we don't realize how to serve them best. We should also recognize that college students, who may live as "practical orphans" in their new campus home, are quite interested in connecting with older, wiser adults. This Millennial Generation is particularly inclined to desire those relationships.

And yes, many of these students are both intelligent and inquisitive. But that, too, should be an incentive to reach them, while it also requires us to work hard to strengthen our college ministry abilities. Why would we not seek to introduce Christ and his kingdom by every possible means into these unique college environments? Wouldn't we want the centers of our nation's education—and in many ways the whole world's education—to have unceasing contact with skilled Christian ministry? Don't we want to reach the "brilliant and barbaric" collegiate tribes? If we're willing, there is great potential for Christendom in the very qualities that now intimidate us.

Adapted from the free e-book Reaching the Campus Tribes.