1. Reaching the Millennial Generation
Faith Spelbring, DCE Manager, Regional Outreach Conferences Lutheran Hour Ministries
Presenter: Faith Spelbring, Director of Christian Education
Position: Manager, Research and Development
Employer: Lutheran Hour Ministries

2. Reaching the Millennial Generation
Know Your Audience Serve Your Audience
Today’s presentation will challenge you to know about the millennial generation, encourage you to go and meet these young adults, and equip you to serve – and serve alongside – these amazing people!

3. Know Your Audience
Pew Forum Millennial Generation Study UCLA Higher Education Research Institute Study
The following information is derived from two research studies; one conducted by the Pew Forum, a trusted source of religious research; and one from UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute. Links to the websites for each research project are included in this presentation on the first slide for each study.

4. Pew Forum Study The Millennial Generation
Highest % of college students compared to other generations at this age
Very sheltered
Very structured time
The Millennial Generation has the highest percentage of college students compared to the generations that preceded it. Why? In a down economy, less experienced workers have a more difficult time finding work. So, Millennials continue their education in hopes of being more desirable to employers in the future. Millennials are also very optimistic and would rather hold out for their dream job than settle for something that will not fulfill them.
Millennials lived a very sheltered childhood. Playgrounds are padded to keep kids from sever injuries, fathers are more often in the room for and involved in the deliveries of their children, signs hang on cars warning other drivers of the child’s presence in an attempt to influence others to be more careful around children, attachment parenting methods have increased prominence, and child safety laws are in place and even named after Millennial children (i.e. Amber Alerts)!
Gen X’s response to being sheltered was, “What, you don’t think I can take care of myself?” The Millennial response, however, was very different. Millennials embrace their shelteredness, as if to say, “Well, of course you want to shelter me, I am very special!” Millennials think that everyone wants to know everything about them. They love to tell all their friends every detail of their life, mostly by “microblogging”, a social networking phrase for sharing short updates through such tools as twitter posts and facebook status updates. Millennials assume everyone wants to know who they saw at the movie theater and what they almost – but didn’t – wear today. They have been told all their lives that they are special, and they believe it to be true.
Millennials grew up with very structured time, as another means to protect them. Their parents’ mentality was that if they kept their children busy, the kids wouldn’t have time to get into trouble. Their very busy schedules, combined with the fact that parents often select the school their child will go to rather than enrolling them in the closest school, meant that, as children, Millennials couldn’t just hang out at the street corner with their friends. So, after a long, scheduled day, Millennials went home and “hung out” with their friends the only way than could, on the internet.
*** Note: Blogs are not used by Millennials to the extent that prior generations use them. Millennials use their time microblogging (twitter/facebook), posting things image sharing sites (instagram, etc.) and gaming (playing video games, often online).

5. Pew Forum Study The Millennial Generation
38% of Millennials are tattooed:
Millennials want everyone to fit in
They identify themselves as “liberal” and are more sympathetic to immigrants, homosexuals, etc.
WITH ONE EXCEPTION!!!
The Millennial Generation is a tattooed generation with nearly 40% of the population sporting at least one tattoo. As these statistics suggest, it’s a tattooed world and we’re just living in it! The Millennial Generation is all about expressing themselves, be it through microblogging their every action or literally wearing their heart on their sleeve via a tatoo, they are creative and unique self-expressive.
***Note: During our presentation we speculated as to why tattoos have become so popular. The presenter suggested that, knowing what she knows about this generation and college ministry in particular, Millennial body art is more likely to stem from a desire to share who they are than an act of defiance (as it may have been with previous generations).
Millennials, being very idealistic, want to get along and fit in. In general, they classify themselves as liberal on most issues, especially when it comes to minorities. Millennials tend to be sympathetic to immigrants and homosexuals when it comes to political matters. They don’t want anyone to be picked on or to suffer from unequal rights. Even though they self-identify as liberal, there is one area in which they are more conservative than prior generations.

6. Pew Forum Study
Millennials are more pro-life than the previous 2 generations. This is not ONLY to say that the percentage of Millennials who are pro-life is greater than the percentage of Gen Xers or the percentage of Boomers who are pro-life. But, Carol Tobias, President of the National Right to Life group and an LCMS pastor’s wife, even adds that there are more pro-life Millennial than there are pro-choice Millennials. This has caused a stir in the media in the past few year. Just Google “pro-life Millennials” and you can read all about it!
Some credit is due to technology for this shift in the pro-life movement. With the advancement of technology, Millennials – from early on – have been able to see into and hear the sounds of the womb. Couple that with their feelings of wanting everyone to belong, and you can see where the pro-life movement would have a sympathetic audience.

7. Pew Forum Study The Millennial Generation
Millennials, though “liberal,”
are conventional:
Want to spend time with their
parents
1 in 8 Millennials have moved
back home with their parents after college
Even with their self-professed “liberal” slant, Millennials still have conventional dreams. They want the house with the white picket fence, as has been the American Dream for decades. They go farther than just wanting their dream. They want to improve the world, too! Service to their community and/or the world is very important to Millennials! It is a given for them to be involved in service and they expect others to do the same!
One in eight Millennials moved back home with their parents after college. This could be due to the down economy, as a money saving measure. This also allows them to afford the idealism they enjoy (holding out for the dream job rather than settling for whatever they can get).
***Note: Sound like a Millennial you know? One fifth of the Millennials who attended this college ministry session at the International LLL Convention said that they either lived at home again after college or passed on an “okay” job to hold out for their dream job.

8. Pew Forum Study The Millennial Generation Result:
Confidence in self, confident in economic future...
Ethic of team work
They respect previous generations
Hang out the only way they can… online!
With their idealism comes a lot of trust. Millennials are very confident in themselves, the economy, and the government. They value teamwork and their parents and grandparents. They also value their relationships with their friends, attempting to connect anyway they can, mostly online (note: they would rather hang out with their friends in person, but with their packed schedules and distance between home and school, they will do this virtually using social networking tools as we mentioned earlier in this presentation).

9. Pew Forum Study The Millennial Generation
Less religious in terms of affiliation and attendance
They are not “secular”
With respect to their spiritual practices, Millennials are less committed to attending church or even affiliating themselves with a denomination than previous generations. They do not consider themselves to be “secular.” On the contrary, they are very “spiritual,” but in an unorthodox way. Millennials don’t feel a connection with denominations for a number of reasons. First, Millennials tend to see denominational divisions as if the grew were being exclusive, whereas Millennials want everyone to belong. Millennials are very used to being catered to, personalizing their orders (e.g. car specs, hamburger orders, Lattes at Starbucks, etc.). They’d like to personalize their faith, too. They are more likely to adopt a few beliefs or characteristics from many different religions until their religious view suits their life, an attitude that bleeds over into other generations, too. They do, however, consider themselves as “spiritual,” with prayer high on their rather short list of spiritual activities.
The video links here are two different – and opposite – ways that younger people are trying to combat some of the culture’s anti-orthodox Christian views. They both address culture’s fascination with being “spiritual but not religious,” but in very different ways. The first embrases the idea, identifies with what they, too, dislike from “religion,” then talk about how following Jesus is what it’s really about. The second video – while providing a strong critique of the first video – attempts, rather, to redeem the proper understanding of religion. Both are done by young adults, both address the problem and promote Christ. I find them both helpful in getting a handle on the spiritual/religious views of young people today.

10. Pew Forum Study The Millennial Generation
Biggest predictor of leaving the faith is interreligious mix of parents
Raised by boomers (seekers)
If a Millennial leaves the faith in which they were raised or exposed to as a youth, it is less often the case that that they convert to another faith. It is more likely the case that they just stop doing anything with an organized religious group. The most common factor in the lives of those who leave any childhood faith is have parents who do not share a common religion. There is something about the parental unit not being united in religious beliefs that translates into the child’s lack of placing importance on religious commitment.
Millennials were often raised by Boomer parents who were seeking spiritual answers along life’s road, but were willing to look anywhere and everywhere to find answers unlike their parents who were much more committed to one denomination or church throughout most of their lives. Boomers bounced from place to place, trying to find theirs. Some would say, however, that the effect this had on their children was costly. Millennials bounced around from place to place as children and found themselves not connected with anything at all. Nothing religious, no church or denomination, was sacred to them. It is no wonder that as adults, they simply stop attending organized religious events.

11. Pew Forum Study The Millennial Generation
Until 20 years ago, “young” meant that you were attracted to evangelical churches
Not anymore!
Millennials are not “seeking” in the same way their parents were. Therefore the seeker-sensitive style of the evangelical church does not draw them in as much as it did their seeking Boomer parents.
We speculate that Seekers in the Boomer Generation often had a basic understanding of many Bible stories because a greater percentage of Boomers had parents who took them to church. They had a foundation, so when life threw them curve balls, it was easier for them to return to their roots, easier for them to be drawn into a church since many things were familiar.
Millennials, having bounced around with their seeker, Boomer parents, didn’t get that foundation. Many Evangelical churches, with a larger Boomer population, aren’t attracting the Millennials. It is quite possible that not much of anything is attracting the Millennial generation at this point. Nothing, that is, earthly (style of worship, creativity of events, etc.).
***Note: Millennials, do, however have very real questions about life and want to express themselves. If you genuinely listen to them, they will give you the same courtesy. Millennials aren’t comfortable with organized religion, but they are very open to hearing what you have to say.
Between leaving parent’s home and being married with kids is the most Areligious time in life. Now, more than ever before, less and less people are actually coming back to church after having kids, too.
These “Areligious” years happen to be the COLLEGE YEARS for most people. So what does spirituality during these college years look like?

12. UCLA Study Higher Education Research Institute
The Spiritual Life of College Students
A National Study of College Students’ Search for Meaning and Purpose
112,232 incoming freshmen students
236 colleges and universities
Six-page survey
UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute conducted a study on the spiritual life of college students. The study began polling incoming freshmen in 2007 with the commitment to follow up with these students in their junior year.
More than one hundred thousand students from more than 200 colleges and universities completed the research center’s six-page survey.

13. UCLA Study High levels of spiritual interest and involvement:
3/4 searching for meaning/purpose in life
>3/4 believe in god
>2/3 agree religious/spiritual beliefs provide them with strength, support, and guidance
4/5 have attended religious services in past year
4/10 say it is essential or very important to follow religious teaching in everyday life
What they found was that, contrary to popular belief, college students actually have high levels of spiritual interest.
The majority of students are searching for purpose in life, believe in some sort of god, and feel supported by their faith.
The majority of students have actually attended some sort of religious service in the past year. This could be as simple as attending church with their grandmother on Christmas, but 4 in 5 have actually gone to a religious ceremony in the past year.
40% of students surveyed say it is “essential” or “very important” to follow some sort of religious teaching.

14. UCLA Study High levels of spiritual interest and involvement:
>2/3 pray
61% weekly
28% daily
68% for loved ones
59% gratitude
58% forgiveness
58% solve problems
¾ feel a sense of connection with God/Higher Power that transcends personal self
56% perceive God as love or creator
49% experience God as protector
44% have felt loved by God in the past year
Whereas they may not be showing up to organized religious events at all, or at least not at all frequently, they do have spiritual practices and beliefs with which the greater religious community can connect.
2/3 of college students pray. Of those that do, more than 60% do so weekly and almost 30% do so daily! They pray for loved ones, they express gratitude, ask for forgiveness, and ask for answers to problems they face.
About half of the college students expressed a belief in god as creator and/or protector. 44% say they have felt loved by God in the past year!
We quickly see that UCLA’s study supports the Pew Forums’ research on the Millennial Generation, these individuals are not “secular.” They make a distinction between religious (more of an organized religion’s worldview) and spiritual (more individualistic), placing themselves with the latter group.

15. UCLA Study
“Despite their strong religious commitment, students also demonstrate a high level of religious tolerance and acceptance.”
64% agree most people can grow spiritually without being religious
63% disagree that people who don’t believe in God will be punished
The Pew study highlighted the Millennial Generation’s desire that everyone is treated equally – immigrants, homosexual people, etc. UCLA’s study picks up on this theme in regard to religious views, saying, “Despite their strong religious commitment, students also demonstrate a high level of religious tolerance and acceptance.”
64% of students believe that people can grow spiritually without being religious. We have seen this theme running through the results from both research studies. These young people make a distinction between being religious and spiritual. The word “religion” comes with a lot of baggage in the mind of college students. As they learn about holy wars and expanding empires, they see a lot of evil done in the name of organized religion.
Even though they, themselves, more often than not do believe in a god, the majority of college students do not believe that there is a connection between disbelief and punishment. They are willing to believe in god, but do not want to believe that other views will bring harm. They want everyone to get along.

16. UCLA Study Student idealism:
63% say helping others who are in difficulty is essential or very important
55% say reducing pain and suffering in the world is essential or very important
Act on ideas:
82% performed volunteer work in high school
70% say they are trying to change things that are unfair in the world
Yet another correlation between the Pew Forum study and the UCLA study is idealism of this age. 63% of students consider it “essential” or “very important” to help others who are going through difficulty. 55% say same about reducing pain and suffering in the world.
There is a beauty in the way college students hold their idealistic views. Their ideals don’t stop at beliefs, they prove how deep their convictions are by their actions. The vast majority, 82%, of college students performed volunteer work in high school. Surely, there is an undercurrent of self-elevation in their service due to how competitive it is to get into good universities, etc. However, by and large, this generation’s service goes beyond personal gain. 70% of this group say that they are trying to change unfair things in the world. They care and they want to do something about it! We’ve seen this play out as many volunteered to help their candidate during the past election, they are concerned about the environment and active in trying to reduce waste and recycle, etc.

17. UCLA Study Student Doubts 65% occasionally felt distant from god
57% question their beliefs
48% have felt angry with god
52% disagree with families about religious matters
Their faith, however, is not all idealist perfection. College students are aware of their struggles. 65% admit that at times they feel distant from god. 57% question their beliefs. Almost half acknowledge that they have felt angry with god. More than half admit to disagreeing with their families on religious matters.
Often times individuals and churches struggle to connect with college aged members and, to a greater extent, people of this generation who find themselves outside of the Church. But we have a common struggle! At times, we all feel distant from God. Even religious leaders can find themselves questioning their beliefs or angry with God. Even within the kingdom of God, people disagree about religious matters. Struggle is something common to every person. What a great opportunity we have to share Christ’s hope and love!
Before we talk about some practical elements of sharing Christ with college students, let’s look at UCLA’s study, narrowing in on Lutheran students (note that we are looking at all types of Lutheran students as the UCLA study did not delve deeper into divisions within broader denominations).

18. Meet Your Audience
You step on campus and immediately notices that there are a plethora of registered religious groups on campus. If you can dream it up, it probably exists! Islamic student groups, Associated Secular Students, the Vedanta Society, Bahai groups, Hillel and other Jewish groups, and yes, somewhere along the way you will run into the abundance of Christian groups, too. You might even come across a sign for University Lutheran Chapel.
Your classmates, roommates, and friends could very well hold views that are in strict opposition of what you believe. Though you come from different places, you come to know and care for these people. You discuss philosophical and religious ideas with them until all hours of the night and sometimes, you’re stumped as to how to respond to their probing questions.
At times, Professors with PhDs contradict the Bible and call Christianity “yet another religion” and dismiss it as unintellectual and impossible. Assignments might even make you feel uncomfortable, like you have to set your convictions aside to pass a class.
You begin to question what you believe, what you are doing at this school, why you can’t say what you mean, why you don’t know what you mean, etc.
Maybe you just stop talking about religious things, as if it were easier to cope with it all if you just shut that part of you off. Or maybe you decide to find the answers to the questions. Do you go to the religious leaders, science books, professors?
You feel alone, even with students swarming all over campus, you feel alone – alone in your beliefs, alone in your questions, alone! You are away from home – your parents, siblings and friends – for the first time. You are thrown in the deep end and told to swim, responsible for getting your self up and out in the morning, finding your own food, cleaning your own clothes, getting to class on time, choosing the right friends, deciding how/who/when to date with little input from others, etc. No one is looking over your shoulder to tell you to study, help you solve problems, help you balance your schedule, put limits on your play time, take you to church. It’s all up to you.
End scene.

19. Now, you can’t tell me that the church can’t do something to help these students in life. “Grace, mercy and peace to you,” that how St. Paul began many of his letters. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve, God’s love and pardon – “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense!” Mercy is not getting what you do deserve, namely punishment for your sins. Peace really stems from knowing God’s grace and mercy in your life. This is what we have to proclaim to every generation, and this is what college students need more than anything else!
Let’s deliver Christ’s message of hope to these beautiful souls! Let’s be of service to them!

20. Serve Your Audience Get to know the Millennials in your life
Learn about them
Learn what they are being taught
Learn what they think of the church
Meaningful involvement
Build around their passions
Build them into leadership
Challenge them
Serious study of God’s Word
Sharing their faith
The best way to serve these students is by given them the courtesy of getting to know them! Learn about them. Find out what they are being taught in school. Ask them what they think about God, your church, and their futures.
To best serve younger adults, the church can give them meaningful ways to get involved. Once you find out what they are passionate about, build on that so they can express their faith through what they love! And, help them grow as leaders in the church.
Finally, challenge them! Invite college students to study God’s Word with you! Delve into Scripture with them and let God work through His Word! Teach college students to be bold witnesses for Christ on their campus, giving them the training and tools necessary to combat what Satan will try to throw at them.
Let’s see how these suggestions could play out in your church or on a campus near you!

21. Serve Your Audience Getting to know Millennials
Take them out for coffee
Group dinners
Adopt a student program
Take a class on campus
Evaluate ministry and act on
what they say
Getting to know students is more simple than it sounds!
Think of the college aged people you already know. Consider taking them out for a cup of coffee to hear more about what it’s like to be a college student on their campus in today world.
It is easy to get tired of dorm food and long for a home cooked meal! Dorms often lack kitchens so it is a novelty for students to actually practice their culinary skills. Why not offer the church’s kitchen to trusted college students! Let them know that the church would be happy to purchase some food and prepare a meal with them. Encourage students to bring their friends and offer the table blessing and include prayers for visiting students. This works especially well if you have a few college students already engaged who would like more opportunities to have their friends mix with Christians in a causal setting.
Go one step farther by creating an adopt-a-student program! Connect college students you meet with families in your congregation who can invite their student over for dinner once a week. This gives students a way to get off campus and be around a family, even an adopted one. Students spent a lot of time with other people their age and often find it refreshing to be around older adults and children again. Because students are often pressed for time, why not invite them to bring a load of laundry so they can really get mileage out of the evening! Host families can invite their students to bring a friend and get to know even more students. Free food, productive laundering, Christian fellowship, etc. what a loving outreach to a campus community!
*** A twist on this idea would be to host students who can’t make it home for the holidays to celebrate with you! This is very appealing to international students who can’t afford to travel home, have nothing else to do, are really desire to learn American culture! Offer to pick students up at their dorms and bring them to the Christmas service, then have them stay for lunch and gift opening. Put some gifts under the tree for them (laundry soap, roll of quarters, gift cards for food/fun, computer paper, pens, etc. are sure winners!) and include a Bible or devotional book. Remember, also, other times of the year when school usually breaks and students might use some support; Thanksgiving, Easter, New Year, etc.!
If you really want to know what is being taught on campus, why not take a class? Many universities allow members of the community to audit a course. This would be a great way to continue your life-long education, really experience campus life, and meet more college students!
If your church is serious about ministering to college-aged people, consider asking them to evaluate your church’s worship services, facilities, Bible studies, programs, etc. Ask them what they would like to see in the church. BUT!!! Before you do this, make sure that your church leadership, pastor and lay leaders, are willing to hear and act on this information.
For example, at University Lutheran Chapel serving the UCLA campus, we constantly evaluated the ministry to ensure that students knew that the ministry was there to serve them! We asked them for their feedback on worship and learned that learned that many of their friends or student visitors who came were confused by our use of multiple hymnals (we had printed readings in the bulletin, a handout that held the liturgy for that Sunday, and used one or two hymnals for the hymns). There was too much bouncing around for people to feel comfortable in an already foreign experience so students suggested we print the whole order of service in a bulletin so that we only ever needed to use one hand out. It took some effort to accomplish it, but we made it and it made a difference.
As another example, we asked some of our students what it was like to come to church for the first time at the chapel. We had them walk around the church and point out anything they think would give a negative impression. Based on their feedback, we ended up improving many things. To help students said that the building wasn’t very welcoming as it looked like a frat house and it was hard to find the front door. So, we improved our signage – adding a welcome sign as well as directions to the front door, cleared away overgrown brush, pressure washed and repainted the deck, and got volunteers to be Sunday morning greeters. Some students said they saw wasted electricity around the building, which is a turn off to this environmentally friendly generation and a waste of God’s resources. So, we hung “turn off the light” reminders by light switches, turned off ¾ of the pilot lights on the huge gas stove so they would not burn unless lit with a match, put floor lamps in huge meeting halls so students could choose to light only their study area rather than the entire assembly hall. Most of the improvements they recommended were simple and even saved money, AND students offered to help with many of their recommended items!
***Note: There were some suggestions that we simply could not due because of circumstance or theological implication. But acting on many of their requests spoke very loudly, “We value your input and want you to be proud of your church!”

22. Serve Your Audience Meaningful involvement Service opportunities
Community Service – in areas of interest for them
Park/beach clean up
Plant trees
Mission trip – in areas of interest for them
Mexico
New Orleans
Haiti
Leadership roles
Lead mission project – for the whole church!
Church council?
Shepherd the next generation
College students need to be given meaningful ways to get involved! Encourage your congregation not to see them as youth or the “church of tomorrow.” They are the church, TODAY! As such, they need to be given meaningful roles.
If you want to engage college students, consider their passions when you plan various service project. If students enjoy the outdoors or are environmentally conscious, why not have a church group participate in a community clean up day in the local park or plant trees. This could also be a way to meet people from the community and be a light as concerned Christians caring for God’s creation!
When planning mission trips, ask yourself what students in and outside of your community might be interested in doing. If students are studying Spanish, consider a Spanish speaking country as the site for your church’s mission trip. Use these students as translators. Encourage students to invite friends from their Spanish class and have them ask the professor if they can make an announcement in class. After a natural disaster like hurricanes in the Gulf Coast, students awareness is often peaked. If they have a burden on their heart for a devastated area, let’s encourage their passions and help them plan a trip to help restore the devastation.
And I challenge you to not stop at planning events, etc. for college students, but actively involve them in leadership in the congregation. Many churches will have college students lead a college Bible study, and that is a wonderful step. But our challenge goes farther than that. I challenge you to be a congregation that raises up college-aged leaders who lead the whole church body!
Maybe a college student could be elected to the church council. This has a question mark next to it because it is under the heading of “meaningful involvement!” If you congregation’s council meets to meet, meets to pass resolutions, or has two hour meetings in which all the information shared could have been sent in a 2 page … then don’t consider this bullet point a viable option for your students. If you church council studies God’s Word together, focusing on how Scripture guides church leadership, if you council is involved in setting and implementing the vision for the ministry, if your council is active in fulfilling the purpose of your churches existence in your community… THAT’S where college students should be active in leadership! ***Note: College students need to be given change to lead and chances to grow into their leadership role. They might let you down along the way, but that is how they learn to become responsible adults. Start them young, partner and guide them along the way, and they will soon surprise you!
Encourage and provide opportunities for college students to shepherd the next generation. Involve students in high school and Jr. high ministries, as small group leaders, volunteers, VBS teachers, confirmation helpers, etc.! This will be a meaningful experience for students and a huge benefit to the youth who want, desperately, to be just like the college students!

23. Serve Your Audience What services can you offer
Marriage
Parenting
Finances
Saving for Retirement
How can we use technology to reach them?
Twitter/Facebook
Images/Video
Text
Finally, challenge your college students to become a light in a very dark place. Challenge them to learn about other religions so they know how to interact with fellow students on campus. Here’s what worked for us at UCLA. We identified the major religious groups on campus and set up a weekly lecture series in which each religion’s leader would come and present a half our “basics of the faith” for our students. Our students could then ask questions and hear from a professional what each religion taught. After the leader left, we would eat dinner together and discuss the students’ impressions of what they heard. Then we would have brief presentation on whys we could communicate the Gospel to people who held those religious beliefs. Students said that this was one of the most beneficial programs our church offered in their 4 years at UCLA.
Continually encourage students to grow in their ability to be a witness of Jesus Christ! LHM’s Mission U was created specifically to equip people to share their faith and the information would translate to the college campus perfectly. Apologetic resources are good to have on hand for students to look through and borrow.
Students also need someone to help them with accountability. Mom and Dad aren’t around anymore, so there’s no one to give them the gentle riding they might need to stay on track. Ask students what their goals are for their life, their faith, etc. Ask them if they have someone who is helping them stay on track, a friend they go to church with, a small group Bible study, etc. Follow up with them from time to time and ask them how their faith life is going. Ask them if they think they are on track to reaching their goals. Offer support – and a lot of grace – along the way.
Students are bombarded with things on campus that offer ways to dealing with the craziness of life that are alternative to the message of the Savior. Be prepared to address the things listed here and teach students how to discuss the issues with friends and offer help where they are able (“help” may be a referral to a counselor in many situations). At UCLA, we invited a wonderful woman, Karen Kropf, from Positively Waiting to come and share her story with our students. She has a powerful message for people of all ages and a dose of reality for people engaging in or contemplating premarital sex. One of our students brought a non-Christian friend who actually said that Karen should speak to his entire fraternity.
Self-harm (eating disorders, cutting, etc.) is also a very prevalent issue on college campuses. Share a discussion with your students about their role in God’s family, as His creation. Make sure they know how precious they are and are prepared to share that message with their non-Christian friends! Avoid the mistake of thinking your Christian students are exempt from these issues! Satan is crafty. Continually pour God’s Word into the lives of His children and pray for them constantly!

24. Serve Your Audience Challenge them Learn about other religions
Evangelism training
Finally, challenge your college students to become a light in a very dark place. Challenge them to learn about other religions so they know how to interact with fellow students on campus. Here’s what worked for us at UCLA. We identified the major religious groups on campus and set up a weekly lecture series in which each religion’s leader would come and present a half our “basics of the faith” for our students. Our students could then ask questions and hear from a professional what each religion taught. After the leader left, we would eat dinner together and discuss the students’ impressions of what they heard. Then we would have brief presentation on whys we could communicate the Gospel to people who held those religious beliefs. Students said that this was one of the most beneficial programs our church offered in their 4 years at UCLA.
Continually encourage students to grow in their ability to be a witness of Jesus Christ! LHM’s Mission U was created specifically to equip people to share their faith and the information would translate to the college campus perfectly. Apologetic resources are good to have on hand for students to look through and borrow.
Students also need someone to help them with accountability. Mom and Dad aren’t around anymore, so there’s no one to give them the gentle riding they might need to stay on track. Ask students what their goals are for their life, their faith, etc. Ask them if they have someone who is helping them stay on track, a friend they go to church with, a small group Bible study, etc. Follow up with them from time to time and ask them how their faith life is going. Ask them if they think they are on track to reaching their goals. Offer support – and a lot of grace – along the way.
Students are bombarded with things on campus that offer ways to dealing with the craziness of life that are alternative to the message of the Savior. Be prepared to address the things listed here and teach students how to discuss the issues with friends and offer help where they are able (“help” may be a referral to a counselor in many situations). At UCLA, we invited a wonderful woman, Karen Kropf, from Positively Waiting to come and share her story with our students. She has a powerful message for people of all ages and a dose of reality for people engaging in or contemplating premarital sex. One of our students brought a non-Christian friend who actually said that Karen should speak to his entire fraternity.
Self-harm (eating disorders, cutting, etc.) is also a very prevalent issue on college campuses. Share a discussion with your students about their role in God’s family, as His creation. Make sure they know how precious they are and are prepared to share that message with their non-Christian friends! Avoid the mistake of thinking your Christian students are exempt from these issues! Satan is crafty. Continually pour God’s Word into the lives of His children and pray for them constantly!

25. Serve Your Audience Love the Millennials in your life!
Offer them what no one else will…Jesus!
Love the college student in your life, unconditionally! And, make sure they know it! To best show that love, give them something that the world can’t, give them Jesus… with no strings attached, no grade they have to make, no test they have to pass… just Jesus’ free and all-sufficient sacrifice for them!

26. Reaching the Millennial Generation
Thank you!