Planning for the future is a bit like planning for springtime weather in Colorado. Growing up in Denver, I quickly learned that a warm sunny day could turn into a wintery mess in a matter of minutes. As a result, we all learned to plan for the unexpected. We learned that ‘normal’ meant sudden unpredictable shifts in temperature, humidity and wind speed. If you lived in denial of the weather patterns in the Mile High City you often paid the price and mourned the loss of your plans for the day. One word came to characterize those who lived and enjoyed Colorado residency long term: adaptability.
The future of college ministry will belong to two types of leaders: new younger leaders who emerge from within the shifts of our culture, and the older, more seasoned leaders that have found a way to acclimate. One needs only to look at the business world to realize that a lack of adaptation means death. Record stores, newspapers, and wired telecommunication companies are just a few areas of industry in our country on life support. For college ministries to survive, they must continually adjust methodology while staying true to their core theology.
Many have laid out their convincing picture of tomorrow’s new realities. But at the end of the day we just don’t know what changes and shifts are headed our way. Who could have predicted the global social giant that exploded overnight in Facebook? The real issue isn’t about us anticipating what’s coming, but rather being ready and willing to adapt to whatever the next big unpredictable shifts bring our way. Don’t get me wrong—thinking about the future is an exciting exercise with some benefit. However, it all comes back to how we as leaders deal with change.
Some deal with change in culture by adapting the Gospel to “better” suit it for the prominent values and ideologies. In doing so, the Gospel gets morphed into something utterly opposed to itself on many levels. Others confront change with an isolationist mentality. These are the leaders that believe it’s their job to rescue their students from the cultural environment by creating a sub-culture that greatly limits interaction between the two. The danger here is creating students who know the New Testament inside and out but have no clue how to talk to their Muslim and Agnostic classmates. A third reaction to change is to attack it. An example would be a leader who asks their students not to be on Facebook because they knew someone who used it to pull off a one-night stand with a former crush from high school. In this person’s mind, Facebook itself is evil because it enabled sinful activity and should therefore be avoided at all cost. Inevitably this kind of leader becomes known for what they are against. In contrast we should be leaders who look at cultural changes and ask, “What’s God up to here?” How could God’s heart and kingdom be magnified through this cultural shift? How could his spiritual family be strengthened? How could this change stir questions in the hearts of non-believers? How could we ride the wave of this change in such a way that others are compelled to question themselves and the worldview they’ve built their life upon?
I’ll leave the projections about the future to those much wiser than I am, and focus my time and energy on taking the things I know will never change and making them sing in any cultural environment. People will always be searching for truth. People will always be longing for relationships. People will always feel the drive to be a part of something bigger than themselves. People will always take note of love expressed in sacrificial service. People will always be ultimately longing for God even if on the surface you’d never guess it. Even the most sadistic and egocentric of pursuits is nothing more than a broken and lonely soul searching for God and his unfailing love. So our methods change but our core theology doesn’t because the human heart is still searching for the same things it was in the garden.
Utilizing the changes that will inevitably come is vital to the health and sustainability of any ministry. Knowing the ‘what’ and ‘when’ of change isn’t nearly as important as knowing how to maximize whatever happens whenever it happens. College ministries that adopt a fast, fluid and flexible mentality are positioned to maximize the unpredictable changes of tomorrow. Those who expect the unexpected have a completely different view on change. What some call a wind storm others call a perfect day to fly a kite. Let’s find ourselves among the latter.
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