I remember teaching my older son to ride a two-wheeled bike for the first time. Appropriately enough, it was on a college campus where I was serving as an intern. He had gotten fairly good at riding with training wheels, but he was ready for the next step. He was ready to expand his boundaries and his world. He was nervous but mostly excited; I was excited but mostly nervous. I ran alongside him as he pedaled and gained speed. Then, with a gentle push, he was off.
The progression from training wheels to two wheels is a big moment in life, and it provides a good metaphor for the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Moving from high school to college and then into the “real world” can be an unsettling experience. It is like a four-year process of taking off the training wheels. As college ministers, we get the distinct privilege of walking with students as they navigate this process and launch into adulthood.
Our goal is to make disciples, and our measure of success is not just that they are following Jesus when they walk across a stage and receive a diploma. Rather, we want to provide the foundation for a lifetime of following and serving Jesus. As I watch students graduate each year, I find myself asking the same questions: “Are they ready? Did we teach them everything they need to know?” I am sure they have received the academic and professional preparation, but what about their spiritual life? Will they thrive in their walk with Christ?
Like parenthood, there is no definitive list of skills or knowledge to teach, but there are a few foundational qualities that will help them continue to grow as Jesus followers, serve well in the church, and impact the world for the Gospel. We teach them to be in Scripture, in community, and in the world.
In Scripture
As young adults move into deeper and more challenging academic waters, they are also able to move into a deeper understanding and application of God’s Word. Just like their professors give them tools and skills to better understand biology, chemistry, accounting, and history, it is important for us to also give them tools, skills, and guidance in reading and understanding Scripture.
College ministry is about more than just praise music, retreats, and middle-of-the-night Cookout runs—as great as those things are. We also need to be reading, studying, memorizing, and obeying God’s Word. This is done through the proclamation of the Word in weekly meetings, the study of the Word in small group gatherings, and also through helping them establish habits of personal Bible reading and study. We want to plant a love for and obedience to God’s Word in these young men and women.
In Community
Many people see the process of becoming an adult as one in which a person passes from dependence to independence. A better and more biblical view, I think, is that we should be moving from dependence to interdependence. No man is an island, and nowhere is that truer than in the family of Christ.
Our students learn to speak truth in love, to weep with those who weep, to pray together, eat together, live together, and serve together. I often hear from students that they had never experienced the depth of vulnerability and community that they found in their campus ministry small group. I remember performing a wedding ceremony for two of my former students. As I looked at the wedding party, I realized I was looking at several “generations” of discipleship: a senior who had discipled a junior, who had discipled a sophomore, who had discipled a freshman. The community they experience in college is what they will continue to seek out and facilitate in their churches post-college.
In The World
From John 17:14-18, we get the oft-used saying that Christians are to be “in the world, not of the world.” This is a difficult balancing act for many young adults. We encourage our students to live set-apart lives (holiness) but also to engage others with the truth of the Gospel (evangelism).
It is often during the college years that students first begin to understand the responsibility and privilege implicit in the Great Commission. Through campus evangelism, spring break mission trips, or just conversations in a dorm room, students are learning to give the reason for the hope they have within them (1 Peter 3:15). I have watched students having Gospel conversations in college cafeterias, on shuttle rides, and on streets in England. Far from being “holy huddles,” campus ministries are a launching pad for local, national, and global impact.
A Lasting Foundation
College is a relatively short period in life. In those four years, though, we hope to prepare young men and women to spiritually thrive for the rest of their lives. Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) is not simply a ministry that serves alongside the church (parachurch). Instead, to borrow the phrasing of Abraham Lincoln, it is a ministry of the church, by the church, and for the church. As our students leave college, we want them to continue in Scripture, in community, and in the world through the local church.
Incidentally, my son did great without his training wheels. There was some initial unsteadiness and a few falls, but it didn’t take long before he was zooming around with confidence. In a few short years, he will be giving his own son a push on a two-wheeled bike and watching him race off into new adventures. One generation passing it along to the next.
— James Hanson (MDiv, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as Assistant Vice President for Christian Life and Director of Campus Ministries at Anderson University. He and his wife, Hannah, have 5 grown kids.
