When I graduated from high school back in the late 1980s, my classmates and I were excited about attending a four-year college and then going on to build a career and prove we could do great things. It was our turn to say, “We got next!”
“We got next” is a phrase that originated with women’s professional basketball. It was about women saying, It’s our turn to show what we can do on the basketball court. Back then, we wanted to show what we could do at the next level, out in the world. Some of my friends were headed to Stanford, Morehouse, Florida A&M, and the Air Force Academy. The first in my family to attenda four-year college, I was going to Saint John’s University in small-town Collegeville, Minnesota. Though I was on my way to a strange land, I was looking forward to it. I believed on the other side of college was a career: my own money, a car, and a house. But it was more than that.
Encouraged by the Church
My friends and I were fortunate to have parents and grandparents who talked to us about the importance of going to college even though they didn’t have the opportunity to go themselves. They had struggled through the Civil Rights Movement to assure our access to higher education. (Lest we forget, African-Americans and others died in the struggle for that opportunity.)
We had also been influenced by the church, which stressed the importance of fulfilling our destiny and utilizing our gifts to the fullest. The church was the rallying point for those involved in the struggle. During my childhood many pastors spoke to me directly about the importance of going to college as well as preaching about it from the pulpit. My youth group went on college bus tours. When I later decided to go to seminary, in many ways the decision was connected to the encouragement I received from pastors.
All of that is why today I’m mad at my nephew.
Equipped for Life
Not just him, really. I am encountering many urban youth who don’t understand the importance of college, or some other post-secondary educational option. Somehow they are not being influenced by family or the church in the same way I was. My nephew received a scholarship for four years of college tuition, but he isn’t using it. He wants to be a video game developer and thinks he doesn’t need to spend four years in college. So now he’s driving a school bus and hanging out in the neighborhood he grew up in.
One of the greatest challenges in urban areas is the issue of class and racial disparities in education, employment, and housing. These disparities tend to impact male, urban African-Americans more than any other group, and can be connected to other issues such as incarceration rates.
I believe that one of the solutions for turning this around is the urban church encouraging and preparing young people for college and career. This is why, in my preaching and writing, I present ministry models that include such things as computer learning centers and tutoring programs. While I realize college may not be for everyone, I believe the church should get as many urban youth into some form of higher education so they can be equipped to live life successfully over the long haul.
Actually, I may be madder at myself than my nephew. I should have been encouraging him to dream about leaving the ’hood and using his God-given gifts back when he was in elementary school. So should other family members and the church. I hope it’s not too late for him and his generation to get next. Higher education is the key.
Efrem Smith is the senior pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church (sanctuarycovenant.org) and the founder of Unity Storehouse Ministries (unitystorehouse.com). He is the author of Raising Up Young Heroes and The Hip Hop Church (with Phil Jackson). He also hosts the radio show “Time for Reconciliation.”
