The Best Books for Reading Over Christmas Break

Christmas Break is a good time to do some reading for nurture and stimulation. A few good books have been published this fall which would be particularly useful. Perhaps one of these would be a good way to spend some of your book allowance*.

You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving the Church...and Rethinking Faith. David Kinnaman, The Barna Group, Baker Books.  Emerging adults who are not involved in church, but who were active when they were 15, were surveyed. This should be required reading for every pastor, youth group leader, or college minister.

Worlds Apart: Understanding the Mindset and Values of 18-25 Year Olds. Chuck Bomar. Youth Specialties. Written to help parents, grandparents, and church leaders understand this generation.

Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood. Christian Smith, Kari Christoffersen, Hilary Davidson and Patricia Snell Herzog. Oxford University Press. Smith and company look at the data which Souls in Transition pulled out for religion, and find that the culture of consumerism Emerging Adults have grown up in has repercussions in college behaviors.

College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture. Stephen Lutz. The House Studio. Challenges evangelical campus ministries to be more missional, and along the way provides an introductory workbook for college ministers.


* Every collegiate ministry board or supervisory committee needs to be reminded that those doing ministry in an academic environment need to have continuing education, including some funds for professional books. (Even if those funds are meager and symbolic.)

Worlds Apart

Worlds Apart: Understanding the Mindset and Values of 18-25 Year Olds is the latest book from college ministry leader and thinker Chuck Bomar . It is an easy read. Bomar is able to clearly synthesize data and combine it with an obvious passion and love for emerging adults to make a handbook for parents, grandparents, ministry leaders, and others who want to better understand 18-25 year olds.

He provides insights into some characteristics of this generation while highlighting some generational differences as well as common ground. He calls the 18-25 year olds the “Generation Higher Ed.” This new stage of life, which has never existed before, developed as the percentage of Americans having some college education exploded (from 9% in 1950 to 76% in 2209) and the length of time to complete a bachelor’s degree lengthened to six years for approximately 57% of them.

Bomar builds on the identity stage development of James Marcia and forms his own five stage search for identity stage. This is perhaps the weakest part of the book. For his stages, Bomar says that Generation Higher Ed is always in multiple stages, shifting within each day. These are perhaps more illustrative of different ways emerging adults make meaning, rather than a stage.

There are appendices with practical notes for church leaders and for parents. These are broad brush thoughts, short on specifics. A better source for specifics might be in his College Ministry from Scratch.

The necessity for intergenerational relationships is a foundational concept for Bomar’s vision of ministry. In this volume he uses healthy relations to build bridges between the generations, and says that these relationships must be done with humility. For the older participant That includes listening, suspending judgment, and developing a reciprocal relationship. This means that the older adult also needs to ask of the younger, “How am I doing?”, “Where, in my life, do you see areas for growth?”, etc. Bomar acknowledges that this could be scary, but it takes the notion of relationships seriously.Such “learning with humility” may even strengthen your faith.

This is a good book to share with someone who needs to better understand college age people, but who would not be ready for the study required to read Jeffrey Arnett or Christian Smith. It is orientated toward the parent or ministry leader wanting to better understand the 18-25 year-olds in their life.

Worlds Apart: Understanding the Mindset and Values of 18-25 Year Olds. Church Bomar. Zondervan (Youth Specialties). Grand Rapids, MI. 2011

You Lost Me

David Kinnaman is President of the Barna Group research company . His 2007 book, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity ... And Why It Matters, was written to describe how emerging adults who are outside the church, think about Christians and Christianity. That was a useful book in thinking about how others on campus view campus ministry groups.

Now Kinnamen has followed that up with You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church...and Rethinking Faith, a book which describes what Christian emerging adults think about the church and Christianity. The book is a result of a five-year project incorporating eight national studies, and was recently published by Baker Books.

It is a sobering, but helpful assessment. Sobering because he makes his case from data, and the results are not good. Helpful because not only are the areas which cause Christians to drop out or wander away are described, but also because some over-arching ideas about how the current church needs to change in order to respond to this generation are given.

The last section of the book puts this into practice by giving 50 ideas to connect written by 50 different responders, including well-known evangelical Francis Chan, Collegiate Ministry author and blogger Chuck Bomar, Kenda Creasy Dean from Princeton Seminary, and recent college grads.

The book’s website includes two study guides; one for leaders/ pastors and one for parents/ grandparents.

Kinnaman sees the current generation attitudes heavily influenced by their elder’s attitudes and Christian education hits and misses. In many ways, this means that college ministry to these Mosiacs starts with a disadvantage. (The Barna Group has been referring to Millennials /emerging adults  as “Mosaics”, because of their mosaic approach to life, and the spectrum of attitudes and characteristics they exhibit.) It does, however, point to some areas which would be helpful for campus ministry programming: Creating a safe space for doubting and challenging their faith; clearly addressing scientific culture and methodology; honestly addressing sexuality and sexual issues (and not just GLBTQ issues); and addressing the exclusiveness and openness of Christianity.

Read this book. Encourage any youth minister or Christian Educator you know who is good to read it. It’s that important.


RESOURCES

You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church...and Rethinking Faith. David Kinnaman . Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 201.1

“The Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church” is a short article giving the highlights of the project’s findings.

The book’s website has a downloadable chapter and additional articles, as well as the study guides mentioned above.

unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity ... And Why It Matters, by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007

The Sixth Week Sabbatical

The beginning of the school year has a couple of collegiate ministry markers.
Three Days - First year students will have initially sorted the cohort they will associate with. (Will it be campus ministry -orientated?)
Two Weeks - the rhythm of the semester for most students has been settled. (If Tuesday night hasn't been set aside for your campus fellowship meeting, chances are they won't be coming.)
Six Weeks - Student and faculty have been going full speed and need a (fall or spring) break. The trajectory of student academic involvement has been set, and unless there is significant impetus to change, will continue as currently developed.


College ministers have been going full speed probably since two weeks before the First Years arrived. So the sixth week mark is time for a Sabbath, and not just a  day off. (Many college ministers don't take a day off for the first six weeks!)


It's time for collegiate ministers to take two days off as a mini-sabbatical. Planning or conducting a fall break retreat or service project does not count!!! A two day get-a-way for rest and replenishment.

Your students will thank you for it!

A Validated Ministry?

I know a Teaching Elder who pastors a worshiping community of 50. This community has an outreach which connects with another 100. Some of these participate in the community's worship, education, or service each week. The community routinely witnesses to the world and shares the Gospel with an intensity which is the envy of the Presbytery's Evangelism Committee. Or would be the envy if the Evangelism Committee recognized their existence.

But this worshiping community is not recognized by their presbytery. Their Teaching Elder is not recognized as a Pastor by the Presbytery. In fact, she has to fill out forms so that the Presbytery can VALIDATE her ministrations for the next year. The Presbytery annually reviews the administration of the worshiping communities they call "local congregations", while they ignore the active, faithful, worshiping community on campus.

This current generation of college students is much more interested in koinonia and experiencing the grandeur and Grace of God than in denominational posturing. This generation is more interested in doing than joining, so traditional notions of church membership don't seem appealing.


Is it too much to hope that the Presbyteries will see that they have some responsibility as well as investment in students within the bounds of the Presbytery as adult members who no longer worship with their congregations of origin?

The recent idea of the denomination starting "1001 new worshiping communities in the next ten years" is a start, because it recognizes that "church" (white clapboard, steeple, and well-scrubbed Waltons) is not reflective of this century, and "worshiping communities" are really what the denomination wants to encourage and grow.

So how about encouraging the formation of new and the supporting of existing worshiping communities on our campuses?

The Locus of College Chaplaincy

In my last entry, I wrote about Chaplains being in a unique position because their ministry had two foci. They don't belong solely to either The Church or The Academy, but occupy an overlapping area, as this Venn diagram illustrates.

Besides CHURCH and ACADEMY, this area could also illustrate the Chaplain's area between  SPECIFIC DENOMINATION and MULTIFAITH, PASTOR and MISSIONARY, FACULTY and ADMINISTRATION.

Fish or fowl, Athens or Jerusalem, this area is inhabited by few on campus. No wonder that chaplains feel lonely and need communities of chaplains for koinonia and support!

How Chaplains and Campus Ministers Differ from Congregational Pastors

Much of the difference in ministry between chaplains and campus ministers and the ministry of congregations  can be explained by the locus of their ministries.

Let us label the focus or ground of congregations as "The Church." I am using The Church as a descriptive axis mundi, and that it is comprised of the faith community, the Gospel message, the Christian faith and tradition, denominations, as well as specific worshiping communities.The Church sends members out into the culture with the expectation that they will bring new people into the Christian faith or The Church. The Church encounters The Culture, and changes its vocabulary and approach in order that as the Gospel message is sent out, it might connect with the Culture and help new people to come into The Church. The those persons reach out to The Culture in service and in hopes of bringing new people into The Church.

"The Academy" is the descriptive axis mundi of higher education institutions, the academic life, and the intellectual life of the liberal arts.  The Academy encounters the Culture, and changes its vocabulary and approach in order that new persons may be brought into the Academy, and then sent out to transform The Culture and to bring new persons into the The Academy.

So there are two different institutional areas which have similarities in their life-cycle. I recognize that this sounds a little theoretical and convoluted, but it will help in understanding chaplains and campus ministers.

The Church sees The Academy as just one part of The Culture. It has no privileged position.  Churches may see college campuses as specific places where potential converts / new members/ attendees reside. Their outreach to them is similar to outreach to a nearby housing project or retirement community. What goes on inside The Academy is not of particular interest, except as it impacts the evangelism/ mission / outreach of The Church. For example, a congregation with a college ministry is not interested in residence hall regulations or college class policies, but only in the students. As the students' lives are impacted, or as the lives of congregants who are college employes are impacted, the congregation is interested. But otherwise, The Academy is just a segment of The Culture.

In a like way, The Academy sees The Church as just one part of the culture. Church-related colleges may see The Church as a source of students and development funds, but church politics and pronouncements have little impact within The Academy.  The Academy is interested in retaining its students, so it may make some accommodation for limited student involvement with The Church.

Chaplains live and work out of both The Church and The Academy. Life within The Academy is not part of The Culture, it is one of the two centers out of which ministry occurs. The chaplain is interested and involved in campus politics and policies. They don't come on campus to do ministry, they are on campus doing ministry. The image of church ministers is off campus, coming onto the campus to encounter students to lead them off campus. The image of chaplains is on campus, moving through the campus, to lead students both more deeply into The Academy as well as more deeply into The Church.

Para-church organizations illustrate this distinction. For example, I have attended many CRU meetings, a few staff meetings, and have known a number of staff members over the years. ( Since July 22, Campus Crusade of Christ is now CRU, having taken just ten years to be forced to realize that their vocabulary -  "crusade" -  needed to be changed.) In all of those meetings, the focus was on personal commitment to Jesus Christ. I never heard one talk on why commitment to Jesus would mean being a better student, or why education could make one a better Christian, or that loving commuter students might translate into supporting their request for adequate on-campus storage and study space. I did hear encouragement to embrace the behavior of The Church - no drinking, swearing, or sex- but never to embrace the behavior of The Academy. The para-church lives and works out of The Church.

Chaplains have difficulty in talking with The Church about their work. That they have relationships with non-Christians in which they are encouraging, for example, Hindus to be better Hindus and not encouraging them to become Christians, the Chaplains are speaking out of their position within The Academy. When they encourage students to go to seminary or to connect with a local worshiping community whose worship style and hospitableness might seem more appealing, the chaplains are speaking out of their position within The Church.


Depending on the campus ministries and the campus ministers, they may be located primarily within The Church, and spend varying time within The Academy. Congregationally based college ministries almost always operate with The Church.

How does this resonate with your experience?

The Role of Collegiate Ministers

A colleague and I were discussing roles of collegiate ministers in the lives of students. One metaphor meaningful to her was the African tribal elder who can point out to younger travelers the signs, footprints, and stories of the animals and plants that have left their mark in the veld around them. These signs point to a larger, richer world.

That reminded me of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and two places which correspond to collegiate ministry; the House of The Interpreter and the shepherds of the Delectable Mountains. During his journey, Christian comes to the House of The Interpreter. There he sees images with the Interpreter which help him understand his journey. Christian then leaves the Interpreter's House and continues on his way. Eventually he comes to the Delectable Mountains. There they meet the shepherds Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere, and are given a "perspective glass" so that they can see the Celestial City from the top of Mount Clear.

In both of these encounters, Christian is shown images and helped to understand how they make sense and direction for his journey of faith. During the college years, when most students encounter critical thinking along with the greater diversity of of the world, collegiate ministers help them interpret the images and experiences they are encountering through the lens of Christ. The students are assisted in their meaning-making and reframing of their personal stories in light of their educational banquet at college. In college they are shown the signs which point to a larger, richer world. Collegiate ministry helps interpret them.

This is evangelism, the sharing of the Good News of God in Christ Jesus. It is not quite the same sharing that Evangelist does during Pilgrim's Progress. Evangelist directs Christian to the "Wicket Gate," where the straight and narrow highway begins.

There are some college ministries which have as their primary goal the making of Christian converts, getting students on the King's Highway. For Presbyterian ministers in Validated Ministries (such as campus ministers and chaplains) the encouragement and discipleship of students is possible, but their baptism and profession of faith must occur within a congregation. Because of our Presbyterian emphasis on "loving God with our minds,"  the primary service we do for the Church is in interpretation and encouraging students while we encounter them on their journey.

The Leading Edge

At the recent Big Tent event, I realized the next step in Collegiate Ministry as R&D. We are also the leading edge. The leading edge is that part of a wing or sail which first comes in contact with the wind. By extension, it is used to describe the vanguard of an organization.

The P.C. (U.S.A.) is just beginning to realize that the emerging adult generation differs from their predecessors in that their disassociation from the church is more significant and lasting. There is currently a little hand wringing and little action.  If only the denomination could think to use the experience and expertise of the Academy and its ministers.

In the late 1990s, colleges realized that different strategies were necessary to recruit, teach, and retain the Millennial Generation. That generation expected more choices and individual accommodation (think self-designed majors, learning centers, residences instead of dorms). They valued authenticity over dogma. They were also more team orientated. They liked to explore choices, but were reluctant to make commitments.

Colleges and college ministries revised their methods of contacting, welcoming, and encouraging students. Would it dawn on the church's leadership to ask for help from those who have been living in this new, millennial, reality for over a decade and have had some success?  (Frequent feedback, voice, and input are also characteristics of these emerging adults.)



A Few Resources from the Academy
Emerging Adults: Learning and Development
Millennials Go To College, an executive summary
A Resource on Emerging Adults from Minnesota State University's Counseling Center

The Church's R and D

Collegiate Ministry often acts as the Research and Development Department of the Church. Before an issue blossoms into denominational awareness – and usually a concern because it is newness and change – it took root on campuses and college ministries addressed it. So there is a history of ways to address issues which denominations have available to them. Unfortunately, because collegiate ministry usually doesn’t get much attention, this history is ignored.

A recent Christian Century article discuss a recent trend of church membership. It seems that a growing number of folks don’t want to “join” a congregation, or to have “membership” in it.  Campus ministries have seen this for fifteen years. Students would come to events, participate, and even have leadership, but wouldn’t be “members” of the group. Sometimes you’d ask someone to step up to some leadership position and they would be reluctant to do that. Then they would reveal for the first time that they were Roman Catholic or Jewish or agnostic and assume that would somehow make them unfit. Or some student would say that they were a member of your fellowship group when they had only attended a time or two. Many campus ministries know their impact is wider and deeper than the numbers which denominations and governing boards seem to love.

How can we in collegiate ministry help the church see that our emphasis on hospitality, mirroring God's gracious hospitality, welcomes and allows seekers to find their home in Jesus?