Over the next few weeks, roughly 2 million 18-year-olds will step onto a university campus and begin a four(ish)-year journey to get a college degree.
For the last decade, my job and my privilege have been to help them—not just to get a degree but also to meet Jesus. It has been one of the great joys of my life to be a college pastor. I still love it, and I’m still learning.
Through the peaks and valleys of student ministry, I’ve noticed a few shifts over the years. Things aren’t the same as they were when I started out. Some of that is good. Some of that is challenging. All of it’s important to be aware of.
3 Changes
Here are three things that have changed about college ministry over the last decade, followed by three things that haven’t.
Apologetics Emphasis
Apologetics is a big word that simply means explaining and defending your faith. Knowing how to defend our faith against objections has been important ever since Jesus walked out of the grave. The value of apologetics hasn’t changed, but the content has shifted.
Ten years ago, the most common apologetics questions I received from students on campus and after sermons were theological in nature:
How did we get the Bible and why should I trust it?
How can Jesus claim to be the only way to God?
How can a kind God and a real hell coexist?
Today, it seems the average sticking point (or as Tim Keller calls it, “defeater belief”) for a college student is ethical in nature:
Is Christianity oppressive to women?
Does the Bible allow for racism and slavery?
How are we supposed to think about gender and sexuality?
Back then, eight out of 10 apologetic conversations were theologically focused, and now the same proportion is ethically focused.
If you’re interacting with college students, study accordingly! Research the questions your people are asking—there’s no need to spend a lot of time crafting great answers to questions people aren’t wondering about.
Digital Connectedness
This is the obvious one, but it deserves a mention. Ten years ago, your average college student visited social media. Today, most of them live there.
Ten years ago, your average college student visited social media. Today, most of them live there.
We’ve all heard about the negative effects of social media, so let me hit a couple of positives. First, college students are globally minded. Through technology, they’re exposed to what’s happening everywhere. At its best, this exposure breeds awareness and compassion. This is one of the reasons the next generation has a renewed passion for justice and compassion work.
Second, there’s a new front door. No longer does a person have to walk into a church or visit a small group to find Jesus and get answers. I happen to think those are still the best front doors; they just aren’t the only front doors. Have you ever heard of TikTok conversions? I hadn’t before people started showing up at our ministry who had found Jesus through that medium. Social media is providing new ways to reach and connect with people who don’t know God.
Mental and Emotional Health Awareness
Research shows that the next generation is facing unprecedented levels of mental health and emotional health struggles. Words like anxiety, abuse, triggers, gaslighting, and burnout are used a lot more today than they were 11 years ago.
This is a giant problem that requires our careful and patient attention. Yet I think the fluency of the next generation around issues of mental health reflects a level of self-awareness and self-care that previous generations may not have had. What we leave unnamed remains unfixed. Putting words to important matters of personal health and human flourishing is a step forward, not backward.
Consider whether your generation can learn from the next generation in this realm. And think about how you might be able to help. Here are a few ideas:
Listen carefully to those who struggle
Learn through trusted articles, books, and podcasts
Destigmatize therapy and counseling
3 Constants
Hunger for Biblical Truth
It may surprise you to hear that expository preaching is still in style. It was 100 years ago and it still is today. I’ve found that believing and unbelieving students alike want to interact with source documents, not just personal opinions, fanciful interpretations, and hot takes.
At the Salt Company where I serve, we teach and learn with our Bibles open. Every time. This not only teaches students how to read the Bible for themselves (Acts 17:11) but also pushes us as a community to interact with names, places, and cultures far removed from our own.
Desire for Authentic Community
I don’t have to know you to know that you want a place to belong. A desire for acceptance and approval can become toxic, but each of us wants (and needs) a place and people to belong to—a space to share and carry burdens (Gal. 6:2), to love and be loved (John 13:34), and to build and be built up in Christ (1 Thess. 5:11).
When students arrive on campus, one of the greatest gifts we can offer them is a committed community of people who love them as they are and want them to become more like Christ during their years there.
Search for Identity and Purpose
If you’re in college ministry (or any kind of ministry), you should work hard to help people navigate these two questions:
1. Who am I?
2. What am I supposed to do with my life?
They’re great questions and they’re here to stay. The Bible has a lot to say about identity and purpose, and so should you!
At the Salt Company, we use a back-pocket resource called the ABCs to help people answer the first question. The second question takes more time and investment in the relationship, but it’s worth spending all four years of college to answer it!
Whether you’re a college student, the parent of a college student, or the pastor of college students, it’s a blessing to remember that we serve an unchanging God who is constant and faithful throughout all time. We may face new challenges, but nothing surprises or confuses God. We can entrust our lives—and the lives of the next generation—to him.
The Gospel Coalition