This past weekend I taught a 3.5 hour course on collegiate church planting to a mixture of college students, church planters, and campus ministry leaders from all over Illinois at the Axiom Conference. It was a great time and the interaction and discussion was passionate and fun. We had some healthy conversations about what it’d look like to plant churches on college campuses across the state as well as whether college students themselves could lead this movement. In my mind students themselves are the “missing link” when it comes to planting churches on or around campuses. We don’t have enough “adult leaders / planters” to cover all the campuses everywhere. For example, in Illinois there are 172 colleges / universities. How could we fund 172 church planters? Yikes, daunting task.
But why not? When we look at church planting movements globally we know that once things get up and going they’re led by “locals” … “indigenous people” … aka, college students in this setting. If we can trust 18-21 year olds to go overseas to war and drive million dollar vehicles, shoot high-tech weaponry and put their lives in harm’s way then the thought of church planting seems much less risky. For the most part students are relegated to menial tasks in churches but not only are they the future they’re the NOW when it comes to leadership potential and up-side.
So you tell me … why not?
September 30, 2008 at 8:42 pm |
This is crazy to think about for us Sean. Our leaders have been saying the same thing (in Crusade) about students planting movements themselves, and empowering them to do so.
I wonder if I am too “hands on” and don’t trust enough, but the hardest thing for us tends to be immaturity of the students we work with. We are constantly re-aligning our students, just trying to get them to be on-mission instead of a Christian club. Beyond that there is a serious lack of biblical literacy with even the students who have grown up in church, not knowing how to do the most basic of theology, or even what the gospel actually is! They are quickly tossed to and fro by the next cool book, which worries me.
But then I think of church planting for Paul in Asia, and was it any different? You had people there that didn’t know ANYTHING and they planted churches. Hmmm, this is tough.
September 30, 2008 at 10:04 pm |
You’re right because if we applied that logic of distrust to church planting movements whether that be contemporary or historical then they’d never happen. We’d be too caught up in issues like what you described as biblical illiteracy, or women in leadership, basic ecclesiology issues, enculturation, and so on. That doesn’t mean some of these aren’t important issues but I don’t think we can let them be show-stoppers either.
Chew on this fact … ALMOST ALL heresies throughout church history has come from WITHIN the institutional church. I know one of the biggest fears of students leading movements is their lack of biblical knowledge and that they’d go off in heretical directions. Again, I repeat that most heresies came from within the “established church” and not the fringe loosely-knit organic church.
I don’t know about you but I think it’s time to start taking some risks. This is where leaders like you are so vital because you’re working with these students providing mentoring and coaching all along the way …
Your thoughts?
October 1, 2008 at 8:04 am |
I would never trust a college student to help with a church plant! The young whooper snappers will try to change everything.
Seriously, I think that if we want to reach people that no one else is reaching then we must do things that no one else is doing–because if we do the things that everyone is doing it is insane to think there is even an inkling of a possibility to reach those that no one is reaching. (aka college students)
IMO, the job of a leader is to equip and RELEASE. We, leaders, are very good and equip equip equip but the RELEASE part is rather scary. Release doesn’t just mean you throw them to the wolves and tell them to sink or swim. It is more of a guiding process. We must actively seek those that are willing to jump in. Then we let them go—with the good bad and ugly. It may not look the same as we would do it—but then again, if it did it probably wouldn’t be as effective.
October 1, 2008 at 8:19 am |
I agree Billy. When we’re thinking of college campuses where they’re like 1-2% churched then we need to thinking in new creative ways. Currently there’s just too many campuses and not enough funds for conventional church plants. But if we can utilize students, equip them, and release them then we’re going to see some traction soon. It will take a while to create a new culture where this kind of thinking and activity is normative.
October 1, 2008 at 8:57 am |
Not to get too off topic, but I was surprised to learn college church planters (and maybe campus ministries) have not studied student development theory, or at least millennial research. To me (coming from the higher education field) it is like a motivational speaker preaching with studying any theology. There is a whole field of research that churches seem to ignore, or not know about.
Campuses are 1-2% churched, but the # of christian are greater. They just do not see a reason to attend church.
October 3, 2008 at 4:40 pm |
You’ve nailed it head on Jeff. That’s like church planters starting a church in South Tucson and not ever take the time to learn and understand Hispanic culture.
July 27, 2009 at 8:48 am |
Sean,
I’m TOTALLY late to the conversation, b/c I just found your post when googling “collegiate church planting.” I’m actually wanting to plug into collegiate church ministry when I finish seminary in December, and taking a hard look at c-church planting. After talking yesterday with my friend Jason, a pastor at New Life OSU (Ohio State), I’ve come to a few conclusions related to your thoughts above.
First, I think you’re dead on re: the necessity (and feasibility) of utilizing students themselves to lead the movement. It’s the only option, but it’s also enormously strategic. If we focused on discipleship (in a ‘discipling’ sense) and leadership development concurrently, on a 3-4 year track, we could be sending out church planters all over the country (even the world) every year… if we were intentional about it.
Re: the funding problem—b/c planters, regardless of their age, will need funding—I think we will be spinning our wheels until we convince those who are currently supporting typical para-church college ministries that collegiate church plants are more strategic and effective. This is a big and controversial topic in the SBC collegiate world right now, and they are still not ready to make the switch from BCMs/BSUs. However, the successes of churches like NL-OSU are making BCMs look ridiculous, so I’m not sure what the holdup is.
July 30, 2009 at 5:45 am |
Thanks Matt. When it comes to funding are you talking about college students / recent grades or the church planting catalyst overseeing and launching the movement? I like the feasibility of the catalyst (someone like you) being funded to launch a whole slew of collegiate simple churches led by college students and then your ministry is pouring into them (leaders). Then encourage the students upon graduation to keep going into whatever field they studied for an NOT to go to seminary. I think something like seminary can be alright for the catalyst but if we’re talking about planting hundreds upon hundreds of collegiate church plants then we’d had no time (or need) for seminary. This then solves the funding issue and gets passionate Christians into the mainstream of life.
July 30, 2009 at 12:05 pm |
Hey,
I’m actually thinking of the student planters also needing funding, though I agree about the importance of an apostolic catalyst helping the students get organized and launch, as well as coaching them on the ground.
I definitely like the simple/organic church concept in certain contexts, which is obviously more feasible if students are carrying ’secular’ jobs. When you think about deploying a whole team, the possibilities proliferate. I think the biggest thing we can do to catalyze a movement like this is to build confidence in potential leaders. Lower the bar of what leadership means, from complex organizational management (multi-staff, facilities, etc.) to more individual and team development. I think most students will need to create space for incremental, on-the-job training in biblical exegesis and theology vs. the traditional seminary route. I do still see this, along with spiritual and moral excellence, as the bedrock of genuinely pastoral leadership. At least that’s the lesson I learned after planting my first church and later realizing I needed a firmer biblical foundation out of which to lead.
Back to the funding issue, though. I think more seminary grads would consider church planting if funding wasn’t such a big deal. The problem is, with funding comes significant quantitative growth expectations, so funders aren’t often willing to invest in someone who has low entrepreneurial competency (meaning, experience). We need to develop platforms in which greater numbers of recent seminary grads can get on the field training with funding.
Anyhow, I’m still trying to figure out a way to generate a full-time income w/o putting in full-time hours, so that I can be a bivocational planter and have freedom to experiment.