As I discussed in my last post, I was recently hired as the “NexGen” Pastor at First Christian Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This is a church that has been blessed with decades of stability, built on a real collective passion for worshiping our creator. With three full services, First Christian Church (FCC) easily serves over 1200 people each week. However, there is a definitive and highly visible gap in participation from adults from the age of 18 to 30. There are a few high-school graduates who have continued to have a part in the student ministry, as well as a few couples in their late twenties that have begun to raise families, but this generation is largely absent on Sunday Morning.
This story isn’t exactly unique…
Whether you call us (I’m 30, so I guess I’m included) “Millennials”, “Mosaics”, “Generation Y”, or “Stalled Adolescents”, my generation is leaving the church in droves. What is unique, is that the leadership at FCC saw it as a big enough need to hire a full-time pastor, devoted entirely to bridging the gap between the Church, and this next generation of Christian leaders… hence “NexGen” pastor…
…no pressure…
Now, Omaha/Council Bluffs is blessed with having over 11 different post-secondary schools (universities, colleges, community colleges, tech schools, etc.), and one of the largest schools in the area (Iowa Western Community College) is just a few miles from our church. Therefore, I have decided that my first goal is to build a ministry that serves those college students in our neighborhood, and move from there.
I have begun a campaign to learn as much about the specifics of college ministry as I can. The time and effort I have decided to put into this research phase will easily eclipse even the most in-depth papers for my Old Testament professor (whose name, believe it or not was Dr. Sprinkle). However, I believe the benefit in learning from those who paved the trail vastly outweighs the headache I will get from reading too much.
I am about two weeks into this project, and wanted to share some of the highlights so far. If you are considering starting a college ministry in your church, these might work as good starting points. Note: I am not claiming to be an expert in this field. I am just a guy staring at the giant mountain, and I’m looking for good footholds for the climb. Some may help, some my end up not being able to bear your weight at all, but at least you’re not climbing blind.
You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving the Church, and Rethinking Faith by David Kinnaman
David Kinnaman is the current president of the Barna Group, a market analyst firm whose specialty is faith-based research. In You Lost Me, Kinnaman lays out the hard-to-dismiss disconnect between the Church, as it is currently perceived, and Millennials. With the full weight of Barna research at his back, Kinnaman shows us a Church in trouble, arguing that the data suggests that the current participation drop-off that seems to happen after age 18 is motivated by a full cultural shift and not merely teens asserting themselves. In other words, the reasons for the current gap in millennial participation will fundamentally change the North American Church. Either we will shrink in size and influence over the coming decades, or we will learn to frame Truth in a way that spans the generation gap, yet doesn’t diminish the message. You Lost Me is accompanied by a myriad of study guides, small group studies, and conference tours. So, access to the information, as well as churches who have used their materials, is wide.
In the book, however, not much is put into making the solutions to these problems practical. The solutions that Kinnaman offers are awesome, but theoretical in nature. But then again, Kinnaman is an analyst and author, and while he seems to have great pastoral instincts, he is not a pastor. That’s not a bad thing. Sometimes, we need the facts as they are, and not as we perceive. Kinnaman is great for that. I highly recommend using this book, or even the accompanied study materials, to introduce the problem to your church, or even yourself. We have to see the problem for what it is before we can make any real strides in tackling it.
Warning: if you don’t like numbers and statistics, move along. This is a book written by the president of an analyst firm. Its entire reason for being is to process the results of faith-based statistical analysis of 18-30 year olds. He does it in an interesting way, and it is certainly does not come off as cold and over-analytical, but you can only dress up a list of numbers so much, and lists of numbers don’t really hold my attention (I’m talking to you fantasy football coaches). That being said, I recommend starting your quest here, if only to understand just what you’re up against. Just, don’t stop there.
Gen Ex-Christian: Why Young People are Leaving the Church, and how to Bring Them Back by Drew Dyck
This was a paradigm shifting read for me. Dyck…
I can’t even type that with a straight face…
probably because I’m a 12 year-old boy…
My good buddy, Drew illustrates the need for some reform in how we approach ministry in ways that are similar to Kinnaman. However, Drew’s (yeah I’m sticking with that) solution resonated much more with me. He contends that the reason for the gap is really a result of post-modernism, while much of the more traditional church still operates under a modernist framework, a fact that I agree with almost completely.
Now I could write for years on the gap between post-modernism and modernism, and how it relates to the church, but I will spare you all that reading here. The bottom line is that the Christian worldview isn’t “Modern” or “Post-Modern”. It is something different, altogether. So, arguing about how post modernism is killing the church, or how modernism is keeping the church from being effective are completely fruit-less. The reality is that Christianity isn’t really a worldview, or a philosophy, or an ethic, or a building. To the follower of Christ it is simply reality, a reality based on love and grace.
This is why Drew’s solutions don’t address too many program/template issues with the church. His tactics are far more fundamental in that they are about cultivating relationships, and learning individual stories. It is about grace and love on a person by person basis, and not about marketing, gimmicks, or trends. Drew’s ideas require investment in the complete person, not simply the culture. However, the reality of church leadership is that we often have to work within organized structures that require our organization to be transparent. Drew offers little help here. His ideas are more about building bridges with individuals, one relationship at a time.
College Ministry From Scratch by Chuck Bomar
(OK, confession: I’m only about halfway through this book, but I’m loving it so much I decided to list it here.)
Bomer served as a College Minister under Francis Chan. This book is written from the perspective of someone with his feet on the ground, navigating both the realities of the culture as well as navigating the realities of church organization. There is very little talk about “post-modern shifts” or “market research”, however there are solid gold examples of bible study ideas, excuses for visiting campuses in the name of ministry, and how to focus on discipleship rather than numbers. I am not finished with this book yet, but I have already found it invaluable.
Bomer points out that the role of college ministry should reflect the role of college, itself: to transition individuals into full adulthood. The only difference is that college ministry should help individuals transition into adulthood in the Church. Therefore, tackling issues like vocation, identity, and independence are vital to the college minister.
However, it doesn’t have much to say about why the culture gap exists in the first place. Therefore, I recommend reading this after one (or both) of the previous two books I mentioned. This is tactics pure and simple. YOu already know what you have to do, and you already know why. Bomar works on giving us the “How” in that equation. I will update you when I finish reading it.
Get in Touch with a Local Para-Church Campus Ministry
I am writing this from the second row in a 15 passenger van, riding with a team of campus ministers from Christian Student Fellowship, a para-church organization that operates campus-based ministry all over the area. I bumped into their area coordinator a few days ago, started talking about what they are doing, and the next thing I know, I’m attending a week-long retreat with his team. This gives me the opportunity to make several connections and hear many different models for college ministry.
Too often, ministries “compete” for participants. I find this incredibly disturbing. The realty is we are all in this together, and we should not be competing with each other. the more teams that are united, the more people we can all reach. Organizations like Campus Crusade, Navigators, and Christian Student Fellowship are everywhere, and they are more than eager to make new connections with other ministries. Reach out, touch base, and share war-stories. These men and women can be your greatest ally in getting on local campuses.
Campus Ministers Retreat
As I said above, I’ve been given the chance to attend the Campus Ministers Retreat out in Indianapolis this week. This will be a chance to meet campus ministers from all over the country and hear what they have dealt with in their ministries. In fact, over the next few days, I will be posting updates from the retreat. Who knows, maybe I will make a connection that will ultimately shift how I will do College ministry at FCC.
Events like this are obviously amazing resources for information and fellowship. If you have a chance to go to a conference, convention, or retreat early in the ministry planning process, TAKE IT. There has never been a ministry that failed because the leaders had too much information, or too many connections with other pastors. It is our job to unite and come together for the sake of THE ministry, not just MY ministry. So, why not go to the biggest concentration of college ministry leaders that you can find?
My office/bedroom tonight. Then tomorrow, back on the road.
Well, I’m settling into my dorm room at University of Missouri: Columbia. Tomorrow, the eight of us (7 from CSF and myself) will drive through to Indianapolis, stopping in Quincy, IL to pick up one more, topping our group off at nine. We will be checking into the event tomorrow afternoon.
Well, off to bed…Stay tuned…
The Prototype Pulpit 