Bob's Blog

The other Sunday night, I taught at a church in the uptown area of where I live. We met at the home of the pastor, a historic 1912 California bungalow, which sits across the street from a small tree lined park. The evening was a typical summer night. A cool breeze cut across the lawn as the church gathered in the shadows of the backyard. A meal was provided of hot dogs and favorite side dishes. I knew most of the people so the conversation was easy and relaxing. I enjoyed the evening catching up with friends.

During the summer the church comes together for an informal time of fellowship, a meal, and teaching from Scripture. They usually have a theme for the summer. It's a good idea, plus it keeps those who are teaching to stay on track. This year the chose as their theme "Moving Forward." It's an appropriate theme considering that they are in transition. They recently have sold their property and are meeting a few miles to the east from their old campus. New beginnings are a time of mixed emotions. There is an excitement and anticipation in seeing what will come each and every day. It can also be a time of uncertainty as to what the future holds. Change can bring us into unfamiliar surroundings that we may not want to enter. For these believers, they represent the thousands of churches across our country that are in the same situation. They are trying to take the Gospel of Jesus to a younger generation without losing their church.

Older, established churches who have been ministering for fifteen, twenty, or thirty plus years still desire in continuing doing the work of the Lord. They seek God's direction in how to reach the next generation for Jesus. That's why I write these blogs about college-age ministries. I'm an advocate for the local church and especially those that have been around for a while. I love helping churches connect with younger people. It's not easy making the transition from generation to generation, but we do have a Blueprint that has helped the Church through many centuries of transitions. I want to take us through a few of those "helps" in the next few weeks.

CollegeLeader
Momentum is coming up and if you have college-age people or are looking to reach this age group then sign up for CollegeLeader seminar at Momentum. Chuck Bomar will be presenting a seminar that covers a wide range of issues with college-age people. The ministry is geared towards helping the local church serve this age group. For more information, you can go to CE's web site under Momentum.

Looking for great resources for college-age? Go to www.Collegeleader.org for free downloads and helpful articles in aiding you with your ministry. You can also find out where a local regional seminar is taking place. Don't forget that the Drink Conference is coming up in October in beautiful Southern California, and look for Chuck's new book College Ministry 101: a guide to working with 18-25 year olds.

College Ministry Lunch
If you live in the Southern California area, then you are invited to meet with us for a time of discussion about college ministry. Topics will include; how to have a balance and healthy college ministry, keeping things "simple," and helping our group move forward in their devotion to God. The event will take place at Saddleback Church on Tuesday, August 11th from 11:30am to 2:00pm. Lunch will be provided for you...that's means it's FREE.

I just recently had a meeting with a college ministry pastor. A nice lunch at Carrows in Rancho Capistrano. I always enjoy these times of connecting with those who minister to the next generation. College-age ministries is a hard group for many churches to get a handle on and one that takes a lot of time of investment. Most college ministries are lead by volunteers. Their time is valuable to them and leading a ministry is not taken lightly. So, what do you do with this age group? What is the purpose of a college-age ministry. In one word, college-age ministry is about discipleship.

As the Church, we are commanded to make disciples. We seemed to have gotten away from that in our attempts at youth ministries. Ed Stetzer made the observation that after 30 years of modern youth ministries all we had to show for our work were,"...youth groups are holding tanks with pizza. There's no life transformation taking place" (USA Today: Young Adults Aren't Sticking with Church by Cathy Lynn Grossman). To be sure, there are many youth groups in America that are agents of change and teens are being transformed into followers of Jesus, but they seem to be the exception. In Josh McDowell's book, The Last Christian Generation, he shares that many of our churches have dropped the ball with our young people. He goes on to explain,"...the issue here is that the majority of our young people lack a relationship with spiritual mentors who are models of Christlikeness, and these youths are building their faith and lives on a false foundation-a distorted view of who Christ is, why He came to earth, and what the Bible and truth really are."

I hear a lot of people in churches blaming the problems with America's youth on liberal extremism in government, the decline of our moral social structures, drugs, consumerism, selfishness, depression, a lack of maturity, and the list goes on, but what would have happened if our churches 30 years ago would have focused on making disciples instead of good Christian kids? This generation of college-age people are looking for something that is real and beyond what this world has to offer. Christian young people are not leaving their faith, as one news magazine was suggesting, but are drifting without an anchor. Don't deceive yourself in thinking that this "time" in our history will pass and we'll come back to the "good ole days" when America was more acceptable of Christianity, those days might be gone and they most assuredly will be if our churches continue to go in this direction with our young.

So, what's the answer to the role of college-age ministry? Make disciples. The other stuff (some would call them programs or ministries) will come later...or maybe not at all. The key is to make followers of Jesus who reflect Him. That is the answer in its most simplest way.

I'm in Indiana today and working from the CE National office in Winona Lake. One of the ministries that we're working through is the Fusion program at Momentum. We've been evaluating the ministry and role of Fusion as it relates to college-age people. Everything from programming to cost has been "kicked" around as we look to see where the Lord is taking this ministry.

I'm excited to see in what could be a new direction in discipleship and equipping young people to serve Christ and others. College-age want to be a force that is helping to change the world for the good. Christian young people desire this as well but they want to see more than just a physical change. They look to see change that have eternal value. Any ministry that works with college-age should be striving to produce qualities that bear fruit for Jesus.

We hope that if you are sending college-age to Momentum, whether as a staff person in your youth group or Fusion participant, that you'll encourage them to see where the Lord wants to stretch them in their faith. Look for more information in the Fusion section on Momentum's web site.

What a great turnout we had for our first Collegeleader regional seminar. Chuck Bomar, founder of Collegeleader, shared his experience of over 10 years working with college-age people to around 40 participants at the one day event. The seminar was held at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California and was hosted by Brad Baker, pastor to college-age young people at the church.

The one day event is geared towards helping the local church to minister to college-age people within and outside the Church walls. These are crucial years for late adolescence and a significant gap within many church ministries are during these years. Collegeleader looks to aid churches in how to assimilate young people into the Body through discipleship. If you are looking for help with this age group or have questions concerning college-age, you can contact us at http://www.collegeleader.org/.

I've been in Winona Lake for the past week and getting back into the swing of things is taking me longer than I thought. We had a great time of sharing and learning as we heard from Tim Eldred, Jim Swanson, and Pastor Jim Brown. I was challenged to take a new perspective with youth ministries and refreshed spiritually by the fellowship of those who have a similar heart for young people. I like to share more in the next few weeks in what was presented at the Summit, as well as with the up coming CollegeLeader seminar that takes place at Saddleback. Until then...here are some pictures of CE Leadership Summit.


Connecting was part of the atmosphere at Summit. Tim Eldred challenging us to think beyond typical youth minstries.

This is an article that pastor Roy Halberg from Alta Loma, California sent to me. It was written by Ed Stetzer and Jason Hayes for SermonCentral on preaching to a younger unchurched generation. You can find the full article on SermonCentrel.com from their March 2nd issue. It's part of a broader look from their book entitled Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them. The article deals with helpful advice on how a younger generation communicates and what practical ways a pastor can direct his teaching towards a younger unchurch people.