The following is Appendix C: “All My Students Go Away to College” in the book, College Ministry 101: a guide to working with 18-25 year olds.
I know a number of youth pastors who are interested in college-age ministry, but have no college-age people to whom they can minister. They tell me all of their high school students leave town after graduation, leaving these pastors unsure of how to stay connected. Here are 10 strategies I have found to be effective in continuing a ministry to out-of-town students:
1. Go on a campus visit with your high school students. You can go with them on a scouting trip or even when they actually move. Either way, it shows them you’re not dropping them. Instead, you’re excited about their next stage of life, want to be a part of it, and will be there to support them. Trust me, this involvement will keep the door open for a relationship. It could even be worth assigning part of your budget (if you have one) to the cost of traveling. While you’re on campus, meet with some local pastors to find out what kind of support they offer college students. Then let your student know what options are available for church participation.
2. Pick up the phone. If you’re not able to go to the campus, set up phone appointments with the student or with college-ministry pastors at churches in the area. Talk to them about their philosophy of ministry, how they see incoming freshmen fitting into their church, and so on. Building this type of relationship lays the groundwork for your student. After getting to know the pastor and possibly listening to some podcasts, you may be able to recommend a church to your student. Then follow up to see how things are going and whether or not a connection is happening. Having you help and walk alongside them in this process will mean more to them than you realize.
3. Develop a Facebook group strictly for graduates from your church. Make this group invite-only. This way you can post blogs, send messages, and keep up on what’s going on in the lives of your graduates. This social-networking group can also be a way for your students to stay in contact with each other. You can even schedule casual events for the holidays when they’re back in town and use the Facebook group to get everyone involved.
4. Pay attention to important times in their school year—particularly finals week. Make sure you call your students during this time to let them know you’re praying for them. If you can, send care packages with movie coupons or gift certificates to a local coffee shop. It’s a small gesture that will mean a lot.
5. Send care packages from the whole church. It’s one thing for you to mail a package, but it’s something else for students to get a care package from their church family. Sending rolls of quarters for laundry, laundry soap, or gift certificates to fast-food restaurants can go a long way toward making sure these students know they’re still loved and remembered.
6. Host a blog for graduates. You can write up posts on what you’ve been thinking about, recap the messages from the services in your church, update them on what’s happening back at home, or even have a few students rotate the blogging responsibilities. One of the most effective blog elements we’ve come up with is to have older believers from the church post messages from time to time. They write about the ways they’ve been praying for our college students and might even share a few stories about their own college days. Regardless of how you use the blog, it’s a great interactive point of connection.
7. Host an informal gathering during the holidays. Just having a barbecue or ice-skating party at someone’s house is enough. Don’t make up invitations or plan a big event. Keep it low-key so people get the chance to reconnect.
8. Point them to www.liveabove.com. This ministry deals with more than 4,000 campuses and more than 1,000 military bases. They’ve compiled a database of high school grads from all over the world who are attending a college and want to connect with a local church. College ministries (or churches in general) can register as well and get the contact info of freshmen coming to their area. Once your students find a church, do a little homework so you know what kind of church it is. If you have concerns, share them, but I’ve found this site to be a great tool for students who want to find a church while they’re at college.
9. Help them get involved with a campus ministry. Christian groups on campus are a good way to make sure they have an immediate avenue for connecting with others. If they don’t connect soon after getting to school, they may never do so. Call the person who heads up the ministry and make a point to let that person know you’ve got students coming to the school. Let your students know you care enough about them to make sure they get involved. If you can, get the ministry leader and your students connected through e-mail, phone, an online network, or in person.
10. Call, text, or e-mail often and randomly. Better yet, ask other people to do the same. Invite a few people who know the student to check in and ask how they can pray for your student in a particular week. Just knowing someone is thinking about them can really be an encouragement to college students away from home.
It’s important to remember that most of this stuff doesn’t take a lot of our time, but it does go a long way in our relationships with the students who move away. Nearly every college student deals with a sense of loneliness and detachment. Your occasional call, text, or package—not to mention your efforts to help them get connected with ministries on campus—will let them know they’re not alone and there’s someone out there who loves them.
This is Appendix C: “All My Students Go Away to College” in the book, College Ministry 101: a guide to working with 18-25 year olds.
