Some Good and Bad News

I came across an article on Friday from the January edition of Relevant magazine. The subtitle of the article is "Why are so many twenty somethings leaving their faith?" With student ministry being the vocation that pays my bills, whenever I see articles that may reflect on the way I did my job, I tend to pay attention.

I will assume that if you are in ministry you have been inundated with the stats of how many students are "divorcing" their faith while away at college. This article uses a stat from some recent Barna research. I've seen numbers listed as high as in the 80%'s, but I tend agree more with Barna's research. I hate stats because they can be manipulated so easily, however Barna usually does a fair job of quantifying his results. For example, he agrees that 80% of students have not maintained the same spiritual fervor while in college that they had in high school, however, his research shows that 61% have completely disengaged with no hope for return.
Before I go any further, let me say that I applaud this magazine's efforts for trying to make people aware of this dangerous trend. As I said earlier, I believe it reflects very poorly on student ministry that upon graduation we lose 60% of our students. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how that isn't good. However, this article still fails to realize where the real problems lie.

#1 This article suggests that student ministry and the church have forsaken relational ministry in favor of a get butts in the seat mentality. Boy do I agree with that, and man have we ever bought into that faulty logic. They suggest that the church return to the model of making disciples and not boosting our numbers. Once again right on. However, they still feel it is solely the church's responsibility to do so.

#2 This article seems to suggest that because the church is so messed up, these 20-somethings need to have a place of refuge apart from the large community of believers. I applaud the intent, but isolation is never a good remedy for what ails us.

My response to these two issues is simple; we must return to the two institutions. It is not solely the church's responsibility to make disciples in regards to students, it is to be a partnership between the church and the family, with the parents being the primary disciplers. Now when the parents aren't available or they abdicate their God given responsibility, the church needs to step in and be primary. However, the reason most parents aren't doing this isn't because they don't want to, it is because they've never been told that it is their job. The reason these kids leave their faith in college is because they have been taught for seven years of student ministry that someone else should be their spiritual hero. We must realize who has the greatest opportunity, both from a time perspective and an interest perspective, to impact these students with the Gospel. Who are these students carving the turkey with on Thanksgiving Day and opening their presents with on Christmas Day? Student ministers must do a better job of equipping parents to train and develop their kids faith.

Second, isolation from the church will not change the church. Is the modern church broken? Yes. However the way to change it is not to divorce yourself from it. If the intent is to help these students see the value of the church, you don't need to separate from it. What happens when these 20-somethings become 30-somethings? Are they going to start another sub-church model to meet their needs?

While I am happy that more and more people are being made aware of the dangers of a faulty student ministry model, I am becoming more aware of the need for encouraging our leaders to think Biblically in their efforts to encourage students to stay true to their faith.