Everybody knows that the college campus is a dangerous place for your faith. Everyone has heard the grim faith dropout statistics. The need for campus ministry has never been clearer than it is right now. The question is: how do we reverse this spiritual drop out rate? How do we save this next generation of believers from checking out before they graduate? New evidence suggests that the best answer to this how question is really nothing new. In fact, the answer seems to be a very old one: Discipleship.
New evidence about the Millennial (or Mosaic) generation provided by The Barna Group points to some common myths regarding church dropouts. (Five Myths about Young Adult Church Dropouts) One of these myths relates to the college campus. The prevailing thought has been that the college experience itself is one of the key factors influencing dropout. However, evidence shows that many are disconnected from church before they ever reach college. And for those that aren’t disconnected already, they are not well prepared for the challenges of college. David Kinnaman reports, “The problem arises from the inadequacy of preparing young Christians for life beyond youth group.” He goes on to say, “only a small minority of young Christians has been taught to think about matters of faith, calling and culture. Fewer than one out of five have any idea how the Bible ought to inform their scholastic and professional interests.”
I do not believe that this evidence is simply pushing the blame back to the youth groups all across America. (However, I do believe there is a challenge to youth groups here.) Rather, I see this as a challenge to rethink how we disciple young adults while they are in college. It isn’t that the college campus is a kind of spiritual kryptonite. The problem is that young adults need help adjusting to life beyond their youth groups. Kinnaman suggests this very thing. He says, “most (young adults) lack adult mentors or meaningful friendships with older Christians who can guide them through the inevitable questions that arise during the course of their studies. In other words, the university setting does not usually cause the disconnect; it exposes the shallow-faith problem of many young disciples.”
The answer is discipleship. Older Christians meeting with younger Christians: studying scripture together, praying together and helping them to grow to meet the challenges of their environment. Sound familiar. It should. This is exactly how Jesus passed on the faith and raised up leaders. Jesus invested his best time and teaching into 12 disciples. He gave even more to Peter, James and John. Paul followed Jesus model in his ministry as well (most notably with Timothy). Discipleship is what the next generation needs. They don’t need Sunday school programs or sermons or choirs or church buildings. First and foremost, they need someone to walk with them and help them grow into their faith, modeling for them what it looks like to be a Christian in an unstable, constantly changing world. All the church marketing in the world cannot replace discipleship. No matter how great and hip your worship music is it cannot build faith like discipleship. The message here is clear. We need to stop trying to “reach” young adults with what we do at church and start sitting down with them at the local coffee shop to study the Bible.
Turns out Jesus’ way of raising up faith is best after all. I knew there was a reason why I love discipleship so much!
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