By Mark A. Taylor
Any college teacher, particularly one who is a Christian, will tell you this: Many, maybe a majority, of college students today come from troubled families.
Chris DeWelt, an Ozark Christian College professor, described the students he knows: “Most . . . bring with them much more than just computers, clothes, and small fridges. They often bring baggage that is not so easily identified or addressed.”
It”s true on secular campuses too. In his interview this month, longtime campus minister Gary Hawes says, “The largest percentage of students we are involved with today come from either dysfunctional or divorced families. They are broken.”
Many Christian leaders worry about the large number of 18-year-olds who walk away from the faith after they”ve left home for college. No doubt part of the reason this happens is ineffective biblical grounding. (Hawes speaks to that too. “Our biggest obstacle is biblical ignorance.”)
It”s certain that many congregations can do a better job giving young people a scriptural worldview with legs to stand against the relativism and humanism of our day.
But something more basic can”t be missed. How much more likely would our young people be to keep the faith if they had seen the faith lived out at home? Here’s a plan for keeping graduating seniors in the church after they go to college: Let”s build families.
In the church today, let”s lift up teaching about marital faithfulness and spotlight examples of marriage successes. Let”s be honest about the burdens as well as the beauty of long-term commitments that hold on through disappointments or disillusionment or disease. Let”s give families resources for coping with crisis and answers for questions their kids are asking about sex and marriage.
Let”s create communities where parents can learn from the successes of other parents and offer support when their fellow parents feel they”ve failed.
Let”s engage families in service and worship and learning. Let”s create intergenerational experiences allowing whole families to teach, visit, build, serve Communion, lead worship, and study the Bible together.
Let”s consider if our buildings, worship services, and small groups are men-friendly and create experiences to attract and develop men.
Let”s make family-building a priority, not because we worship family but because we know family is the perfect crucible for creating lifelong worshippers of Jesus.
Church should be the place families can come for godly examples, biblical principles, Christian nurture, and the mysterious combination of grace and truth unavailable anywhere else in the world.
We need not cower in the face of anti-Christian cultural trends. Calmly, yet resolutely, we can stand for what Christ commands. Let”s show families how to do that.
Let”s build families.
Good stuff!