Does what we’re doing really matter once youth ministry students walk out of our doors and head for college?

The College Transition Project at Fuller Seminary’s Center for Youth and Family Ministry collected information from 2006 high school graduates that helps answer this question. In their own words, last year’s seniors share some sur­prising views about their youth groups, adult leaders, friends and families, all of which raise strategic questions for our youth ministries.

CONNECTIONS WITH YOUTH PASTORS MATTER MOST
We asked high school seniors to tell us why they had chosen to be a part of a youth group. The survey question had 22 options to choose from. The top reason cited by seniors was their connection with their youth pastors.

Across the survey, seniors reported feeling supported, valued and appreciated by youth ministry adults. This support was linked to higher scores on a series of three indices of faith (“intrinsic religiosi­ty,” or the degree to which they internal­ized their faith; “religious behaviors,” such as prayer, service, Bible study, sharing the gospel; and “narrative faith relevance,” or the degree to which they integrate faith with other areas of life into a larger narra­tive, or worldview). Students who report­ed higher support seem less inclined to participate in some risk behaviors, specifi­cally drinking alcohol.

Given this, we youth workers need to ask ourselves, Should we feel good about students’ connections with us, or uncom­fortable that we have made ourselves more important than the One we’re attempting to lead them toward?

On one hand, we can think of 1 Thessalonians 2:8 (“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”). It seems obvious that we need to devote as much energy as possible into recruiting and training adults who will share both the gospel and their lives with kids. On the other hand, we need to consider whether we are creating a youth ministry culture of dependence, only to abandon kids once they graduate from high school.

The study revealed other important reasons for students’ attendance: they want to learn about God; it’s a tradition for them; it’s fun; and they feel comfort­able. Interestingly, seniors’ connections with their friends at youth group didn’t rank as highly as many would have guessed, with the importance of commu­nity and a sense of belonging coming in seventh and tenth place, respectively.

STUDENTS SEEK DEEPER INTERACTION

We also asked seniors to rate what they want more and less of in their youth ministry. The major theme of the responses was a desire for deeper respon­sibility and interaction.

The seniors said they wanted to express themselves and their faith through service and mission trips (ranked first and third, respectively), and they wanted deeper interaction through con­versation, accountability and alone time with leaders. “Time for deep conversation” was the second-highest ranked item, with 70 percent of students expressing a desire for more of this element. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of seniors do not want to play more games in youth group.

YOUTH LEADERS NEED TO INTEGRATE SCRIPTURE WITH SERVICE

While the type of depth the students said they desired seems both relational and ser­vice-oriented, fewer students (56%) seemed to want more or deeper Bible study. Perhaps this is because students already feel like solid engagement with the Bible is taking place in their youth ministry.

But even if that’s true, in a separate part of the questionnaire surveying faith prac­tices, seniors indicated that they read the Bible by themselves an average of two to three times per month. That raises an important question. In the midst of offering students deeper relationships and more opportunities to impact the world around them, how can we better integrate Scripture into those experiences so that they fall in love not just with service, but with the very Scriptures that invite us to serve?

FRIENDSHIPS NEED TO BE STRENGTHENED
When we asked seniors to rank five sources of support, friendships with the other students in their youth group came in fourth. Perhaps encouragingly, parents emerged as the primary source of support. Second were youth group leaders, fol­lowed by peers outside their youth group. Fifth were other adults in their church.

We had already seen, from our first survey question, that friendship was not the top reason seniors came to youth group, despite the nationwide trend in ministry philosophies and strategies that emphasize the importance of “communi­ty” in youth groups. Yet it’s difficult to know whether students ranked other stu­dents in their youth group fourth because they didn’t share deep relationships, or because they experienced such great sup­port from parents, adult leaders and other kids that the relationships in their youth ministry pale in comparison.

Either way, as we look at the range of post high-school experiences, these find­ings should cause us to ask some tough questions. What hinders our students from building authentic, supportive rela­tionships with each other? What can we do to remove these obstacles and help our students share themselves and their lives with each other?

KNOWING GOD CARES MAKES A DIFFERENCE
We found that students who felt that God cares about their life, who felt close to God, and who felt valued by God were signifi­cantly more likely to have higher scores on the three faith scales used in our study. They were also less likely to engage in risk behaviors related to sex and alcohol.

Based on these findings, we need to ask, What do our students think about God? If they were to describe Him, what words would they use? What words would we like them to use? How can we create envi­ronments and experiences in our youth ministry that reinforce that God values, appreciates, and cares about them?

PRACTICING FAITH NEEDS TO BE PRACTICAL

To better understand how their faith makes a difference in their lives, we asked seniors a series of questions about both spiritual disciplines and how they integrate their beliefs into the rest of life.

By far the most common spiritual discipline among these seniors was prayer. On average, students reported praying alone two or three times per week. As already mentioned, they read their Bible by themselves far less than that, at an average of two or three times per month.

When it comes to the impact that stu­dents’ faith has on their life choices, there was good news and bad news. The good news was that faith made a difference in their perspectives on dating, crises, col­lege selection and future career. The bad news was that students’ faith had far less impact on their views and choices related to money and time. Yet our informal interviews with college students indicated that handling money and time are two of their major struggles. Youth workers who want to prepare seniors for the daily choices they’ll face in college and life beyond would be wise to ask, How do stu­dents view their time and money—as tools to be used for God’s glory, or as “their own” to do with as they please? How can spiritual disciplines be an integral part of students’ lives in an authentic way, such that going to God in prayer and engaging the scriptures are natural practices?

PARENTS ARE STILL KEY AND NEED SUPPORT
This study confirmed that most students still saw their parents as their primary sources of support. According to our data, one of the most significant differences par­ents can make in the faith of their kids is through the discussions they have with them about faith. Students who report talk­ing to parents both about their own faith and their parents’ faith felt more supported by God. As we’ve already mentioned, kids who perceive a closer relationship with God are likely to have a more mature faith and to avoid risk behaviors.

Given these findings, we need to ask, What types of tools and resources are we giving families to talk about their faith? What can we do to foster parent-youth connections so they successfully build long-term relationships for post-high school when they may need them most?

THE GOAL: “GOOD” KIDS OR COMMITTED DISCIPLES?
Even after all the questions we’ve raised, we feel compelled to close with a few more: Is our primary goal to produce life­long disciples of Jesus Christ, or “good Christian” high school students? How would we minister differently if we gauged our effectiveness not by how stu­dents are doing when they are 18 years old, but when they are 20 or 28 or 48?

Our hope is that as the College Transition Project follows these group of graduates—as well as a new, larger set of seniors we’ll be adding this spring— through their college years, we will arrive at research and resources that help youth workers help students and families navigate the potholes that threaten to trip up their faith.