As I had lunch with one young freshman girl and her parents, I was reminded of all the little questions and concerns that parents have in the process. And for many parents who have raised their children in a particular faith environment, one of their greatest concerns is whether their student’s faith will grow or be dismantled during these all-important course-setting years of campus life.

I often try to encourage parents. There’s a healthy and natural process that most college students go through which usually involves deconstructing the faith & value system they were raised with in order to reconstruct the faith and worldview which they can own from this point forward.

That’s why I believe my calling is so significant…to come alongside of college students and walk with them through this process. It’s not my intention to prevent students from asking the tough questions or even laying down their faith for a time. I’m sure it can unnerve parents a little to hear me say that (which is why I usually don’t say it quite like that), but in the long run, the journey towards a fully integrated life and faith is just as important as the destination.

That’s what I’m doing whether I disciple students one-one-one or facilitate a similar experience in community (Journey 2.8). If I can help a student engage that process and plug into a healthy faith community (church) during their years at UC, I believe they will actually be transformed by Christ and prepared to transform the world.

After serving on staff at a few churches during my first 15 years of my youth/staff ministry career, I have seen the best and worst of church publicity and marketing. Everything from cut ‘n paste clip art to horrendous church websites caused me to engage Kem’s writing quite enthusiastically. You can find out more about Kem Meyer, the author, here by the way. 

I don’t have a copy of the book in front of me now, but these are the two biggest “take-aways” from the book for me.

1. Website Design–your site ought to be a place for people to gather, not just a vehicle for information transportation.
2. Focused Communication–I’m sure that’s not the actual title of a chapter in the book or anything, but it’s the basic idea that we often try to communicate too many things at once. I don’t know how many churches I’ve been to that, at some point in the service (usually not the appropriate point) someone blathers on and on with so many announcements that I couldn’t remember them if I tried. Another application for this which hits me is when communicating through a newsletter or even a single blog post. Make one main point and weave that single thread through the stories, images, illustrations, etc.

I certainly haven’t done a great service to Kem in this little post, so I encourage you to check out her book and website if communications, clarity, publicity, marketing, etc are things you’re passionate about.

We arrived at the venue early Thursday morning and so the Catalyst expeience began. It was a pretty dense schedule of one keynote speaker after another with occasional doses of high-quality worship/music and some seemingly random entertainment (which actually always supported the main theme of the conference). The conference tag line this year was “The Tension Is Good.”

I am still processing this theme from the perspective of campus ministry, but Andy Stanley did a great job of kicking the conference off Thursday morning with a talk regarding appetites. The things he shared were certainly applicable to anyone in a leadership position, especially when such a role is within the church or a ministry of some kind. Some of the main points I gleaned from Andy’s talks (which book-ended the conference) were:

1. Appetites (for food, sex, power, authority, achievement, growth, respect, etc) are never fully and finally satisfied. They always want more and whisper “now” rather than “later.” Our ability to manage appetites (tension of always wanting more) is crucial to ending well in our personal & public lives.
   
2. 10 years from now, what do I want to see God do in my family, ministry, professional development, etc? Continually reframe your appetites in view of this overarching context of your life story and calling.
3. The role of leadership is to leverage the tension to the benefit of the organization.

As it would be for anyone in a ministry leadership role, one of the main applications of this theme is to keep appetites in check. Andy effectively shared the story of Esau in Genesis 25 and eventually posed the question “What is your bowl of stew?” What is the temporary appetite/pleasure which most tempts you to trade God’s long-term unimaginably good plan for your life?

In regards to a more specific campus ministry issue, a tension I seem to be continually managing and evaluating is the need for programming and my desire to prioritize people and relationships. It is so easy to slip into a mode of planning events, filling the calendar, and saying yes to opportunities which ultimately rob me of time to be with students. I know that I need to engage ministry to college students with both of these issues pressing in on me. I’m not exactly sure how to “leverage the tension” to the benefit of the ministry except to utilize just enough programming in order to optimize a relationally intense approach to transforming college students.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay the extra day in Atlanta to debrief with the 30 or so campus ministers who took part in the cohort that third day. The lunch gatherings on Thursday and Friday which Benson Hines organized were a real treat. It was great to meet a few campus ministers from Missouri, Georgia, Indiana, etc and I look forward to hearing more about the debrief via Benson’s blog in the days ahead.

“Frankly, twentysomethings are perceived by most leaders in churches as a transient demographic, people who don’t tithe and who need to solidify their faith on their own.”

Reading this statement was not as shocking as it was disheartening. From my conversations with pastors over this past year of ministering specifically to college students and various twenty-somethings I would completely agree that most have this hands-off approach to this demographic.

I swiped this little sound bite from Chuck Bomar’s blog as he was bringing attention to a new book on the subject which he co-authored. The book is called Slow Fade and you can find some more information about it here.

The positive side of this observation, however, is that the churches and pastors who I see really connecting and discipling college-age folk are doing some pretty simple things.

• They’re loving college students and young adults
• They’re giving them a sense of belonging and significance within the Body
• They’re sharing life beyond casual conversation and helping these young adults see what faith looks like in real life…and in a variety of vocational settings.