Updated 2/15/12
If you work with college students than you likely have spent some time thinking about how we help them “claim ownership” of their faith.
Most students come to campus with a faith that is not truly their own. It’s a faith that has been passed on to them, or cultivated in them, by their parents or pastors over the course of the first 18 years of their life.
For many of these students, that inherited faith was never tested or questioned. These young people simply believed what they were told by the adults who had influence in their life.
And that’s really how it works. Right?!
Much like learning how to walk or talk, or tie one’s shoes, or brush one’s teeth – people who are older and wiser trained us up to be able to do certain things… and they likely did more than just show us how to do these things… they likely — or hopefully — told us why we should do such things.
Knowing how to do these things is important to functioning properly in life.
And that’s important.
And for most families of faith, instructing their children on how to live a life of faith, and what to believe, and even why to believe it, falls smack into the middle of this category of things that need to be learned in order to “function” in the “right way” in the world.
And that works… for a season.
“Because my parents (or pastors) told me so,” can be a perfectly acceptable explanation for why we do this – or believe that – or think a certain way… up to a point…
But at some point individuals needs to transition from an ‘inherited’ set of practices and beliefs, to one that is ‘owned.’
If this transition hasn’t happened by the time students arrive on campus, a transition in this area must be a part of their collegiate experience.
But how does that happen?
How do we facilitate, or assist, in this important transitional process?
Can we program for it?
- Design a teaching series around it
- Create a bible study that walks students through it
- Facilitate certain experiences that set students up to step into it
Or do we attempt to force the transition?
- Calling into question their beliefs
- Critiquing their values
- Pointing out the holes in their logic? The inadequacies in their parents, or pastors, logic?
- Exposing the inconsistencies in their belief (orthodoxy) and they way they live it out (orthopraxy)
OR, do we have to wait for those Divine moments when God makes it clear that NOW is the time to raise the question?
- The teachable moment in a one-on-one counseling session
- The natural (and not forced) part of the lunch conversation
- The intentional instruction in a class, training, debrief, etc.
I suppose one could find a part of the answer in each of the categories mentioned above.
And my guess is that we will all take a slightly different approach to this in our particular ministry contexts… but the key will likely be the same: challenging students – really challenging them – without turning them off to God, while helping them to see the need to take “ownership” of their faith.
So what does it look like for you?
- How do you help your students to transition from an inherited faith to one that is owned?
Please take a moment to share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below.
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