By Jon Weatherly
Professor of New Testament and
Dean of the College of Bible and Theology,
Johnson University, Knoxville, Tennessee
Johnson University students relax in The Underground Coffee Shop on the Knoxville, Tennessee, campus.
Conventional wisdom about Christian colleges doesn”t strike me as all that wise. Let me explain why.
Having spent more than half my life as a student or teacher in Christian institutions of higher learning, I feel like an expert. That is, I feel like an expert not in the reality of Christian higher education, but in the opinions that other people have about Christian college students.Â
I have known many such students over the years, and some I have come to know very well. But I have also come to know well what people think about Christian college students. And as often as not, I question whether what people think matches the realities I observe. That is to say, I tend to question the conventional wisdom about who Christian college students are and what that means for Christian higher education and the churches that support it.
So here I want to challenge some of that conventional wisdom (“the CW”) with my contrarian perspective (“the CP”). The CW is probably in part realistic, but I hope that the CP can bring the reality into sharper focus.
The CW: Today”s Christian college students do not know the Bible as well as those in the past.
The CP:Â Many Christian colleges have administered standard tests to measure Bible knowledge for more than a generation. The average scores for entering students, year to year, have not budged. Christian colleges have always received new students who were just drying off from the baptistery and taking the wrappers off their first Bibles. Alumni who say that today”s students know less are exercising selective memory about themselves. Faculty who say this are indulging in wishful thinking.
The CW:Â Today”s Christian college students bear more emotional wounds.
The CP:Â Many in the past also bore emotional wounds, but perhaps lived in a culture where they could not be as honest about their experiences as today”s students can. But given the disturbing trends in family dissolution, sexual misbehavior, and drug use among the general population, more of today”s students may indeed be wounded.Â
We should celebrate that the gospel is reaching those who have experienced the worst of our world. And we should celebrate as these wounded students become wounded healers who share Christ credibly with people similarly wounded.
The CW:Â Today”s Christian college students lack direction and commitment for careers in ministry.
The CP:Â Indeed many do, but that is not all bad, or at least not surprising.Â
For one, few of us would trust most 18-year-olds to decide how their entire lives should be spent, especially when a bigger portion of their life expectancy lies before them at that age than it did generations ago.Â
For another, we all know people who were damaged by foolhardy pursuit of ill-formed, youthful ambition.Â
For yet another, we who believe in the priesthood of all believers contradict our belief when we speak and act as if “ministry” is a lifetime calling given only to an elite corps of Christian professionals.Â
And for yet another, when we have increasingly professionalized ministry, we should not be surprised that young people, excluded from prior hands-on experience, lack a context from which to decide if they want to pursue such a career. Giving students opportunity to explore seems the right response to all these observations.
The CW:Â Young people simply do not want to go to Christian colleges any more.
The CP:Â We should not talk simply about young people when the fastest-growing segment of higher education students is adults over 25 who study nontraditionally. Such older students comprise a considerable and notably dedicated segment of today”s Christian college student body. And certainly in every generation, students who attended Christian colleges did so against the pressures of culture that rewards other paths with prestige and power.
The CW:Â Christian college is not necessary for effective ministry.
The CP:Â A number of large churches, having put volunteers in paid staff positions, have reexamined that practice and are asking Christian colleges to help them fill the gaps in staff member”s knowledge and skill sets.
The CW:Â Christian college is still vital for effective ministry.
The CP:Â Many people who never attended Christian colleges thrive in ministry, having learned what they needed by other means.
So which way is it? It depends on the individual!
The CW:Â Christian colleges””with their high tuition, limited professional options, and low profiles with the public at large””do not provide value for money for most students.
The CP: Most graduates of all kinds of colleges find lasting employment in fields for which their education was merely indirect preparation. Christian college graduates, while often lacking credentials in technical fields, consistently excel at interpersonal skills and ethical behaviors that are always in demand from employers of all kinds.Â
While private-college tuition is usually higher than that at public universities, discipline, patience, hard work, planning, and help from the body of Christ at large can make Christian college affordable, sometime more affordable than those alternatives that appear to be better values.
Jon Weatherly serves as professor of New Testament and dean of the School of Bible and Theology at Johnson University, in Knoxville, Tennessee.Â
An interesting read, for sure. One thing I would offer, as a Christian College Student, is on this topic within CW of, “Today”™s Christian college students lack direction and commitment for careers in ministry.”
Firstly, I”™ve met MOSTLY people in my particular setting who are aware of what they want to do in a career specific to traditional Christian ministry. Pulpit preaching, after-school centers, youth ministers, worship ministers, and so forth, are all high on the commitment radar of most of the people I personally have known and are a vast majority over those who would say that they are, “waiting to hear God”™s calling,” or something of that nature.
Secondly is the idea that ministry is becoming a more production focused and/or entrepreneurial expedition than a set career to fall under. Every year I hear talk from newer students who say that they loth traditional pulpit preaching as a personal career, yet remain on a preaching/pastoral focused degree. Others, I”™ve noticed, find a lack of enthusiasm within young people for the church as fuel to burn for their passion of non-traditional, extra-congregational ministry such as setting up, “safe places,” around cities in order to begin conversation about faith; i.e. coffee shops, musical outlets, sports facilities, etc.
The idea of working for a church or even a traditional parachurch organization is a less attractive meal to the appetite of the generations who have been told in many ways that creation should not be held back by establishment and is quite often the superior path; whether or not that”™s an entirely good and proper mindset is yet to be seen. To that end, many younger Christian students simply want to live and be Christ in their everyday more than being the, “Jesus guy,” who people respond to only if they are seeking religion. As well, a large portion of talk I have heard in the simple three years that I’ve been at Johnson is of students who want to go be with people outside the church, outside the faith, and do the things they enjoy doing (to a point, obviously) and build relationship as a means to later minister before ministering as a means to a later relationship; and they”™re willing to use their careers in non-ministry positions to do such.
Overall, however, I”™d say that the lack of direction others would see is, in my opinion, a rise in the want to be a creator above a worker and one who relates before one who ministers, for better or worse. The lack of commitment is the longing for possession of ideas rather than the expanding of the old, yet again, for better or worse. The olden lines of, “ministry,” however well-defined previously, stand to develop into something a bit more blurred with the current and future Christian College Student it would seem.
I don’t know where this comment belongs, but there is another aspect of seeming indirection. That is the Bible College Student who is influenced to “enter the ministry” when he/she has never had any career counseling. I was such a student, first coerced by my mother when my interests from early childhood were technical. I struggled through ten semesters at three different institutions, where the leadership said I was perfect for the job. And when I expressed reservations half way through college, Mother gave me an emotional lecture about when I was struggling through the first six months of life, she “gave” me to the Lord for the ministry. Almost like a Catholic mother who wants at least one son to be a priest or a Jewish mother wanting a son to be a doctor.
I struggled through a frustrating one-year ministry in a small town, then finally took professional career counseling (twice). The recommendations were carpenter or engineer. I opted for the latter, but was in the late 20’s before I could start engineering education. I started the first engineering job as an Assistant Draftsman. After several promotions and professional tests (all the while supporting and attending to a marriage and three small children) I became a licensed Civil Engineer. It was a long and moderately satisfying career, but the lost time put me at a professional and financial disadvantage. Our children all graduated from college and are in comparable professional careers, so that result largely makes up for the emotional and difficult road to reach the end.
I recently found that a college acquaintance of my wife has much the same sentiments as I have. He even had a masters degree in religion, was a pastor for a while, but found his calling in graphics and happily ran a small print shop, from which he recently retired. He had always been pushed to the ministry by bible college staffs, but never was asked about what he was really good at.