Monday, June 16, 2008
God at College
USAToday took a brief look at religion on university campuses. They claim the idea of the secularist liberal bastion is a bit over stated.
For one, the college ministries of my genernation, and high school for that matter, were intended to bring students back into the church. These efforts seem to be an end unto themselves. The church is largely to blame for this "stand-alone" phenomena amongst the para-church. When I was doing para-church I wanted nothing more than to form alliances with local congregations, but was repeatedly rebuffed.
There is much discussion about business models in the church. I don't necessarily think it is a good thing. But there is one thing I do know. New enterprises innovate much better than established ones. Smart established business allow smaller companies to flourish, because they know it is the source of their innovation. Later , when the innovation has become mature, they buy those smaller companies. Bad big business kills the goose that laid the golden egg. But smart big business takes the mature innovation and makes it its own. The church should have done that with my generation of para-church a decade or more ago. Instead those operations are now institutions and the new para-church is really para-para-church. Is it any wonder the church is dying?
Second comment. In my day, though students were often outside of religion, they were steeped in religious tradition from the home. Now, many students come to high school and college without religious experience. This does make them much more susceptible to rantings of the undeniably secularly liberal on the faculty and staff of the educational institution. I had a lot of secular liberal professors, even in the '70's, but I also knew the limits of their authority because of my upbringing.
Ministry to this generation is unique in the lack of religious understanding that we can call upon in them. We are truly starting from scratch (no news here to any one paying attention).
To me, this says college is way too late for this kind of outreach ministry. If parents are not doing the job we have to find a way to reach kids at younger ages. College ministries need to be more about preserving faith in the midst of the onslaught - a special concern for kids of faith without family support in that faith.
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From the Ivy League to the brainiac liberal arts colleges to the major public universities, God has been silenced — or so conventional wisdom tells us.They then go on to describe the faith that is evident, and from my perspective it appears to be a faith quite different from traditional, and certainly unmoored from the traditional church structures.
The conventional wisdom, as it turns out, is not quite right.
From the pollsters come recent data showing that religion and spirituality are alive and well at colleges and universities. A recent study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA finds that more than half of college juniors say "integrating spirituality" into their lives is very important. Today's juniors also tend to pray (67%, according to the UCLA study) and 41% believe it's important, even essential, to "follow religious teachings" in everyday life.
For some older, more traditional believers, it could be jarring to see their treasured faith finding its expression in shaggy students toting courier bags, wearing ragged jeans and invoking Jesus as a friend to the marginalized. Perhaps they will feel some relief if they consider the alternative. If faith weren't changing on college campuses, it might well be dying.Now, that sounds familiar to me. Some of the same things were said about my generation. But there are two key differences that I think should be brought out.
For one, the college ministries of my genernation, and high school for that matter, were intended to bring students back into the church. These efforts seem to be an end unto themselves. The church is largely to blame for this "stand-alone" phenomena amongst the para-church. When I was doing para-church I wanted nothing more than to form alliances with local congregations, but was repeatedly rebuffed.
There is much discussion about business models in the church. I don't necessarily think it is a good thing. But there is one thing I do know. New enterprises innovate much better than established ones. Smart established business allow smaller companies to flourish, because they know it is the source of their innovation. Later , when the innovation has become mature, they buy those smaller companies. Bad big business kills the goose that laid the golden egg. But smart big business takes the mature innovation and makes it its own. The church should have done that with my generation of para-church a decade or more ago. Instead those operations are now institutions and the new para-church is really para-para-church. Is it any wonder the church is dying?
Second comment. In my day, though students were often outside of religion, they were steeped in religious tradition from the home. Now, many students come to high school and college without religious experience. This does make them much more susceptible to rantings of the undeniably secularly liberal on the faculty and staff of the educational institution. I had a lot of secular liberal professors, even in the '70's, but I also knew the limits of their authority because of my upbringing.
Ministry to this generation is unique in the lack of religious understanding that we can call upon in them. We are truly starting from scratch (no news here to any one paying attention).
To me, this says college is way too late for this kind of outreach ministry. If parents are not doing the job we have to find a way to reach kids at younger ages. College ministries need to be more about preserving faith in the midst of the onslaught - a special concern for kids of faith without family support in that faith.
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