College Students and the Numbers

 The National Center for Education Statistics says in 2020 in the United States there were:

   19.4 million college students

    12 million full time students

In 2020 65% of Americans identified as Christians according to the Pew Research Center.  If 65% of college students were connected to and involved with a college ministry that would be:

    7.8 million college students involved in a college ministry

To my knowledge, no one has ever come up with a figure of how many college students are involved in a Christian campus based ministry or church college ministry.  In trying to come up with such a figure, I have talked with different College Ministers who work locally and nationally.  Out of these conversations, I have come to the figure of 5% of students involved.  On many deep south campuses, it is larger than this.  On campuses not in the Bible Belt, it would be significantly less.

If 5% of college students were in a Christian campus based ministry or a church college ministry, that would be:

 600,000 college students currently connected to a college ministry

Let's be super optimistic and say it is:

 600,000 to 1,000,000

That would leave 11,000,000 college students to reach for witness and ministry.  That is not counting those students who are part time. Think and pray about it.

Arliss Dickerson's book, A College Ministry Success Formula, is available at Amazon.com/dp/B091F5S1RF.

5 Predictions About College Ministry

 Steve Lutz in his book, College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture, published in September of 2011 made five predictions or what he called "5 Disruptions that Could Shake Up College Ministry".  As I reviewed them the other day, I thought 11 years later they are holding up pretty well.  Here they are in brief and sometimes more in my words. A few years back I was on a program with Steve and was impressed with his insights at that time. After looking back at these "Disruptions"......I would say, his crystal ball was pretty good.

1.  The Higher Education Bubble will burst.  With tuition costs rising, more students will go to community colleges and trade schools and enrollments will decline. Today we are seeing some campuses close and others struggle with enrollment numbers and being forced to cut budgets.

2.  Technology will Distance, Disperse and Depersonalize Connections to students.  Students will not spend as much time on campus.  It will be harder to connect to them as they will have more fractured schedules.  Read Covid and on line classes into this one.  Some students are now getting degrees without setting foot on campus or living in the dorm and taking most of their classes on line. They tend to isolate more.

3.  Non-Traditional Students will Become more Traditional.  Students will become older and more part time.  They will be more female and than male and will come from a wider variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds. The number of guys is definitely declining in college enrollments.

4.  College Ministers May face Diminished Access to Secular Campuses.  Some years ago we saw some ministries not allowed official RSO status due to their requiring certain beliefs by their officers, etc. There were some different legal challenges on different campuses.  Many campuses that formally got full  religious preference lists now are fortunate to get a few names. This varies greatly from campus to campus and state to state.

5.  Financial Sustainability will be Challenged.  Lutz said there likely will be a decrease in campus ministry funding.  We have seen this one play out in some different Southern Baptist State Conventions with the significant down sizing of College Ministers.

Thanks Steve for your prophetic voice.  Any more thoughts for the future, we need to think about?  If you want to check it out, it is at amazon.com/dp/0834127652.

What do YOU see as coming trends we need to be prepared to face?  Maybe we can do a better job of thinking ahead now as things continue to change.

Arliss Dickerson's book, A College Ministry Success Formula, is available at amazon.com/dp/B091F5S1RF.

Funny Things Happen in Church!

 I love funny stories of things that happened at church, weddings, and yes even funerals.

My dad was a photographer and photographed lots of weddings.  At one, the groom fainted as the ceremony started.  They sat him down on the front row and revived him.  He stood back up and they started again.  He fainted again.  They sat him down and revived him again.  Then, they started again.  He fainted the third time and they took him outside to revive him.  Brought him back in and pronounced them husband and wife.  I would have done the pronouncement after the first faint!

A friend of mine was doing a wedding and the bride began to spit up.  My friend said, "Let us pray."  He said he would pray a little and peek to see if she were done.  When she was finished, he said Amen and started again.  As he came to the conclusion, he was tempted to say, "Ok, it is time to prove your love and kiss her."

A friend attended a wedding where one of the Brides Maids was so nervous a muscle in her bottom began to twitch and captured everyone's attention.

A pastor friend was performing a baptism when the rather large lady panicked and began to struggle and flail her arms throwing water over the glass partition and drenched the members of the choir.

Another friend did a wedding where they had a dog come down the aisle with the rings attached to its collar.

I had just begun a ceremony when the groom and his guys had just come in and he leaned over to me and said, "Could you real quick say a little prayer?'  I asked why and he said, "I just realized my pants are unzipped."  I said, "Hold on and when I have everyone stand for the bride, they will look back up the aisle and you can zip them up."

At one church on Sunday night the youth all sat on the left side of the fan shaped auditorium.  They were doing baptisms.  One of the men being baptized had not worn any underwear under his baptismal gown and as he went up the steps out of the water, his bare backside was visible to the youth group.  They all collapsed with laughter.  No one else could see what they were laughing uncontrollably about and were furious at them for their mis-behavior during baptism.

Grady Nutt told of a friend of his who was doing a graveside service in Texas after a heavy rainstorm.  As he stood at the head of the casket and said, "Let us pray." he suddenly fell silent.  After a couple of moments of his silence, people began to look up and saw him climbing up out of the grave since the ground had collapsed where he was standing.

The pastor of the church where I grew up was baptizing a man when his toupee came off and floated to to the top. 

I hope you have had a smile today.  Have a great week and be aware of God's presence and work in and through your ministry!  And, I would love to hear your funniest church story.

Arliss Dickerson's book, A College Ministry Success Formula, is available at Amazon.com/dp/B091F5S1RF.

The First 5 to 10 Minutes at a Christian Event?

 Someone has said that "People determine within the first 5 to 10 minutes whether they will return to a new event."  

Wow!  If that is only partially true, it is a stunning statement.  So, how is the first 5 to 10 minutes at your collegiate event?  I am not talking about the first 5 to 10 of the actual worship event.  But, what about the 5 to 10 when they enter even before it starts.

Is it clear where to go and how to enter?

Are they greeted?

Is it obvious where to go and what to do?

Does someone walk with them or just send them?

Does someone invite them to sit with them, if they are alone?

Remember that music playing before the event starts helps with the "awkward silence" or feeling out of place.  I am a recent and strong convert to the idea of a playlist of some or all current popular music, (in good taste) not just Christian music playing.  

Remember the "Unforgiveable Sin of College Ministry"

That is NOT getting their name and contact info.  If we do not get their contact info, then we cannot follow-up in any way and it is strictly up to their impressions whether to return or not.

How does the first 5 to 10 minutes at your events stack up?

Arliss Dickerson's book, A College Ministry Success Formula, is available at amazon.com/dp/B091F5S1RF.