Adult Mentors

I've appreciated Chuck Bomar's continuing emphasis on having adult mentors as a basic component of a congregation's college ministry.

The recent Princeton Seminary's Emerging Adult Conference returned to similar themes of adult involvement again and again. Kara Powell, from the Fuller Youth Institute's College Transition Initiative reported that from their "Sticky Faith"(how can a young person's faith stick through the emerging adult transitions) research a necessary component of congregational life should be intergenerational experiences. Christian Smith, in Souls in Transition, listed the teenage years factors which correlated most strongly with stronger emerging adult religious practices. The top three: (1)the teen's personal faith commitment, devotion, and experience. (2) the religious commitment and practice of their parents, and (3) other supportive religious adults in the congregation.


Adult relationships and presence is important as young people try to discern how they are to navigate adulthood. I've always appreciated the faculty or staff member who "adopted" students and invited them into their homes, lives, and families. Their impact is significant, and many graduates still stay in contact with them.

Congregations near campus often try the "adopt a student" / "adopt a family" / "adopt a grandparent" of matching students and interested adults, often with mixed results. The thought of a long-term commitment (by both parties!) seems intimidating, and having more than one student with each family might reduce the anxiety of thee unknown.

Perhaps more modest opportunities for the generations to connect might work. A morning together building a Habitat House followed by lunch, a combined work project with the campus ministry group and one of the congregation's groups. A few families might be flexible enough to informally invite a couple of students to lunch after the Sunday worship.Pairing students and adults as church school teachers might provide some opportunities for intergenerational relations. (This means not seeing college students as bodies to help out in the church school, but mentoring as an outreach ministry in itself.) The congregation could invite the campus ministry group to join them on a mission project during Spring Break and provide some scholarship assistance to the students.


What other ways are there to give students the contact in faith with adults?

A Collegiate Ministry Conference

During the Montreat College Conference, Adrian McMullen, the PC(USA)'s Associate for Collegiate and Young Adult Ministries, hosted a reception for collegiate ministers. Over 35 attended. As part of the event, Adrian asked folks what resources they would like. Most of the ensuing conversation centered around a professional conference, and fleshing out what a helpful conference would be like.

It should be held during the summer, and should contain times for inspiration, relaxation, and skills development. A recognized name should be a keynoter, but most of the education should be led from within the body of practioners. Some identified topics for workshops included board development, financial management, drawing local churches into supporting the ministries, and best practices. There was also a desire to ensure time enough to hear each other's stories.

The result looked amazingly identical to the conference the PACHEM Leadership Board had planned for July 2010 at their last board meeting! Only two members of the board were present at the Montreat reception, and neither of them contributed to this part of the discussions. I think this exercise was a validation of the of the Summit '10 Collegiate Ministry Conference. It has the flow and content desired by collegiate ministry folks, and I'm excited that the PC(USA) collegiate ministry community will be doing this.

In a perfect world, I don't think I would want to schedule a conference on the July 4th weekend. (Summit '10 is scheduled 1-4 July) There must be SOMEONE in Louisville who thought that having General Assembly run July 3-10 was normal (I wonder when the last time a GA met over July 4th?), so that for PACHEM to hope to have some presence at GA, the Summit conference would have to overlap at the beginning. But I hope the need and desire for such a gathering will outweigh the timing, and if it is important that an attendee be home on the 4th, that travelling that day will be acceptable.