{"id":32247,"date":"2022-09-10T16:02:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/engaging-the-next-generation-the-future-of-college-ministry\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:02:06","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:02:06","slug":"engaging-the-next-generation-the-future-of-college-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/engaging-the-next-generation-the-future-of-college-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"Engaging the Next Generation: The Future of College Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Keith Wieser is part of a movement of evangelical leaders planting churches on college campuses. In 2006, he and a small group of believers began Resonate Church at Washington State University.<\/div>\n

By Helen Gibson<\/em><\/p>\n

Keith Wieser was sitting in the stands at a Washington State University football game in 2005 when he had a \u201cGod moment\u201d\u2014an experience he says changed the trajectory of his life.<\/p>\n

From where he sat, he remembers seeing almost the entire student body gathered in the stadium that day, cheering and shouting, supporting their team.<\/p>\n

In the midst of it all, Wieser says he began to feel God whispering to his soul, asking him a simple yet incredibly powerful question.<\/p>\n

What are you going to do to make a significant impact on the lostness of this campus? <\/em><\/p>\n

At the time, Wieser and his wife were working in a campus ministry at Washington State, but they felt God calling them to do more.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe began to dream about what it could look like to release the power of the church in the center of campus,\u201d Wieser says.<\/p>\n

They went on to plant Resonate Church\u2014a church based on a college campus that has grown significantly since it began with a small group meeting in a local coffee shop in December 2006. Since then, Resonate Church has seen floods of students come to Christ, celebrating 854 baptisms, Wieser says.<\/p>\n

Today, Resonate has expanded to 11 sites in eight towns throughout Washington, Idaho, and Oregon, and they\u2019re planning to launch another site in Montana.<\/p>\n

The story of their explosive growth on college campuses is just one example of a larger movement\u2014church plants and campus ministries across the nation working to engage college students and young adults with the gospel at a critical moment for the church in North America.<\/p>\n

In the Future of the Church study by Lifeway Research, 68 percent of Protestant pastors say the attendance of young people\u2014those 18 to 29 years old\u2014has decreased or stayed the same over the past five years.<\/p>\n

And 4 in 10 pastors say reaching this generation with the gospel is the issue they\u2019re most concerned about when thinking about the future of their churches.<\/p>\n

When it comes to making an impact on the next generation, Wieser and other evangelical leaders say college campuses are one of the best places to start.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe the university campus is the key to transforming culture as we look toward the future,\u201d Wieser says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the college campus, there are leaders who are going to shape business and politics and social structures and, really, the thoughts for the next generation. The great reality is we can take and have an intersection of the future leaders in a place where they\u2019re most moldable, reachable, and sendable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why college students? <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Brian Frye, who serves as the national collegiate strategist for the North American Mission Board, says focusing on college students in these kinds of ways can be incredibly impactful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can engage college freshmen with the gospel, that tends to be the time in life when people are experiencing the highest level of receptivity to the gospel,\u201d Frye says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that place and space where everybody\u2019s new, all at the same time. College is the time between families, before you have a manager, before you have money coming in significant ways, before you have a mortgage, your marriage, all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frye doesn\u2019t deny the fact that college ministry could be difficult or time-consuming, and he admits that some might see college students as being \u201cflaky\u201d and \u201cmessy,\u201d but he says ministry to people in this age group has the potential to be incredibly impactful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like that\u2019s the quickest way to accelerate the gospel,\u201d Frye says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then of course, if you\u2019re sharing the gospel in a university environment, that\u2019s the quickest way to the nations, right? That\u2019s the quickest way to the 10\/40 window. That\u2019s the quickest way to leadership in business, the quickest way to academic leadership, governmental leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recognition of this has led to an emerging trend of \u201ccollegiate church plants,\u201d or churches planted on or near college campuses. Frye says there were only a handful of collegiate church plants in 1999.<\/p>\n

Today, however, there are about 100 collegiate church plants across the nation, Frye says. That includes 19 launched last fall.<\/p>\n

Frye says this trend is encouraging\u2014but if Christians really want to reach college students, they\u2019re going to have to take this goal seriously and make some changes at large.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery little of their time, very little of our church budgets, are geared toward reaching those who don\u2019t have a relationship with Christ and who are in that age bracket, so we have to change that,\u201d Frye says. \u201cThere is a tremendous amount of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engaging and equipping a unique, emerging generation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As a student at Iowa State University, Kendra Gustafson was heavily involved with the Salt Company, a ministry to college students. When she graduated in 2010, she joined the Salt Company\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

Though she\u2019s only eight years removed from her college years, Gustafson says she\u2019s realized the students she works with today are living in a very different world with its own unique challenges.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBecause the world is changing fast, some of the unique struggles they face, it\u2019s hard for me to relate to,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

One difference she\u2019s noticed is the impact of social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir whole worldview and the way they view relationships is really mixed and mangled into online, indirect forms of communication,\u201d Gustafson says. This leaves many students craving real, authentic community, even if they don\u2019t necessarily know how to express that desire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey long for an authentic relationship,\u201d she says, \u201cand they don\u2019t even know they\u2019re missing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social media has also left students with shorter attention spans, Wieser notes, which means they\u2019re not as easily entertained as they once were.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is we just can\u2019t do enough to entertain them anymore,\u201d Wieser says. \u201cThe entertainment value they experience in their lives is so high that if we try to create more worship services that try to match that, at some point you\u2019re just chasing after your tail, and you\u2019re expending a lot of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what college students and young adults aren\u2019t looking for in terms of entertainment, they are looking for in terms of clarity, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a hunger for clarity,\u201d Wieser says. \u201cThere are so many competing ideas that, whether they agree or not, if there\u2019s a clear worldview, that instantly becomes a magnetic draw to their hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, Gustafson says she sees a desire for authenticity among many college students and young adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell me the truth,\u201d she says, describing what she feels many students are longing for. \u201cDon\u2019t glitz it up and make it look pretty. I just want to know what\u2019s true. I don\u2019t need to be entertained. I just want truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

These college students and young adults don\u2019t want to be merely passive participants in church or a campus ministry. They want to be involved, Wieser says.<\/p>\n

For that reason, he says they should be able to clearly understand\u2014and engage in\u2014the mission of the church or ministry from the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cArticulate a vision that\u2019s worth their time; articulate a vision that points them to something significant,\u201d Wieser says. \u201cI think the entire generation is looking to be an activist for something\u2014that activism can be pointed to the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frye says college students and young adults should be introduced to the importance of church planting and spreading the gospel as soon as they become believers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, they are inculcated from day one with the idea that when you follow Jesus, part of that is you listen and obey, and then part of that is you are giving your life to becoming a disciple-maker,\u201d Frye says. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re a disciple-maker, you\u2019re willing to leverage your life to see the Kingdom expanded.\u201d<\/p>\n

This idea of encouraging students to be proactive in reaching their peers with the gospel is a key part of the Salt Company\u2019s mission, Gustafson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our driving principles is that students reach students, so we do our best to get the students to train and equip the students themselves to be evangelists and friends on campus to people,\u201d Gustafson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will have access, just through friendship, that a staff person in a full-time role outside of college won\u2019t have access to, especially to non-believers.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, doing this will help college students and young adults see the purpose and mission from the beginning, which Wieser says is incredibly important.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust have high ownership and engagement with that group of people and empower them, release them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Going forward<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Over 10 years after Resonate Church held its first public services, the church is still working to be innovative, current, and relevant to the lives of the college students it serves.<\/p>\n

Wieser says this is something collegiate church plants and ministries must continue to do if they want to reach college students.<\/p>\n

Gustafson agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that when we as a church don\u2019t adapt to the actual needs of the people, but we just ride the wave of what we think is cool or what used to work\u2014what used to be the most appealing thing for the past generation\u2014we\u2019ll lose touch with what\u2019s most important with this generation,\u201d Gustafson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur method of ministry should always adapt although our message should never change.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Lifeway Research found a significant portion of Protestant pastors were concerned about reaching the next generation, there are also many who are hopeful about the future. Overall, 72 percent said the church attendance of those 18 to 29 years old will increase over the next five years.<\/p>\n

Leaders like Wieser are hopeful, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that we see college students mobilized to take the gospel into every part of society.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n
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College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture<\/h3>\n

Stephen Lutz<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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3 Crises Churches Must Address to Reach the Next Generation How Can Your Church Reach the Next Generation? Unleash Previous Generations 10 Characteristics of Churches That Keep Young Adults 2 Traits the Next Generation Needs Before Leaving Student Ministry <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keith Wieser is part of a movement of evangelical leaders planting churches on college campuses. In 2006, he and a small group of believers began Resonate Church at Washington State University. By Helen Gibson Keith Wieser was sitting in the stands at a Washington State University football game in 2005 when he had a \u201cGod … Continue reading “Engaging the Next Generation: The Future of College Ministry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}