In a follow up to my post on “Why I Do College Ministry“, I wanted to focus on why I don’t “do” youth ministry.
Let me preface, this is not a knock on youth ministry. It is not an attack on whether youth ministry is viable or important, I believe that it is. God impacted my life through youth ministry, and I am continually amazed and blessed by youth ministers I know who genuinely love youth and seek to help them in their walk with Jesus Christ. I am blessed beyond comparison to have a youth ministry at my church that is led by a Godly family who are more concerned about seeing their students walk with Jesus than being “cool” and tarnishing their own walk with Jesus, and I have watched as God has blessed and grown that ministry because it is built upon the right foundation.
The point of this article is to challenge the well-intentioned idea that college ministry fits within the category of “youth ministry”. Here are a couple of reasons why I disagree.
1. College Students are Young Adults, Not Youth.
No college student wants to be called a youth,and for good reason. Youth ministry has the connotation, and rightly so, of the ages 12-18 years old, where you are still going through puberty (yes I said it) and navigating all the changes that are beginning to happen that are leading to the next season of life. When a student graduates high school, they are ready to move on to the next stage of life, in their mind, they have moved on from the youth group and the title “youth ministry”. This is a good transition, and we need to honor that new season of life for them and model our ministry to that next season.
2. College Students Have To Make Adult Decisions
“Who will I marry? What major will I choose? How will I pay rent? When can I move out?”
These are questions that are asked by youth and adults alike, but it is only the latter that actually have to make the decision. In youth ministry, many of these are theoretical questions, in college ministry they are an ever-present reality. Youth ministry prepares the heart for these questions, college ministry walks through the decision making.
We seek to see students molded into followers of Christ. Training them on what it means to follow Jesus, be involved with a church, sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Gospel, and prioritize their lives in the right order.
3. College Students Are Responsible for Their Actions
I’ll never forget when my college pastor allowed my team to walk around Thailand by ourselves, at night. Of course, it wasn’t a dangerous area, but it was still a foreign land where we didn’t speak the language. His reasoning? You are adults, you can make your own decisions and bear the responsibility for them.
One key thing that I am obligated to teach my students is that they are responsible for their actions. I give them room to fail. I let them take initiative by themselves to try new things and deal with the consequences. Yes, there is guidance, regulation, and correction along the way that is fitting with any spiritual leader, but there has to be room to grow and own their own decisions. In youth ministry, there is so much more red tape and caution that must be taken.
I send college students by themselves, or in teams, to other countries (sometimes dangerous ones), to go and serve Jesus. They understand that their mommy and daddy are not responsible for that decision, they are. They recognize that they can give their lives to go and serve Jesus because they are adults.
4. College Students Are More Mature (mostly)
Yes, college students do stupid things. They stay out too late,skip class, make questionable decisions (and by questionable, I mean dumb). They are figuring out how to “adult” life, and they stumble along the way, but they are still adults.
If you compare a high schooler’s maturity level and a college student’s maturity level, you are going to find, by and large, a huge difference. College students have been hit in the face with the reality of the real world. Difficult roommates, paying bills (or not being able to pay bills), secular worldview being boldly proclaimed and enforced in the classroom, cooking for yourself, the need to discover your own faith, and other major life decisions force some sort of maturity that most high schoolers do not have to face.
It is amazing to me to watch a wide-eyed freshman come onto a college campus the first day of school, and then witness the same freshman at the end of that first semester. Often times, a complete shift in their mindset and attitude has begun to happen. College forces maturity into adulthood in most students, and we are there to walk with them along the way.
5. College Ministry Is A Lot More Fun
Ok, I admit, this is a biased one, and I am sure that other’s might disagree, but college ministry is a blast! Changed lives, collegiate worship nights, camps, deep conversations, late nights, engaging the culture with innovative strategies, weekend retreats, small groups, domestic and international mission trips, BBQ’s, weddings, football games, intramural sports, lifelong relationships, and more with young adults is a rewarding and fun experience.
I love the fact that I have students who I build friendships with, genuine friendships that last. I love that we are involved in their lives, and they are involved with ours. I love the fact that I have free babysitting pretty much guaranteed when we have children!
So with all that being said, please, don’t call what we do youth ministry. It is so much more than that. We are training young adults to shake the world with Christ in their adult lives, and we love what we are doing.
Fighting the noise,
Phillip
fightingthenoise 