Making Space for Students to Grow

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I’m a big believer in Christian higher education. Young adults raised in Christian homes often reach a period of deep struggle in adolescence, and Christian higher education professionals can be of great help in navigating those struggles faithfully and honestly.

For many students, the faith of their families and home church worked wonderfully for their childhood. They arrive in college satisfied with their faith. But young adults face new challenges to which their faith must accommodate:

  • They face a whole range of scientific information – from geology to evolution to psychology to sociology – that may not square with the version of faith they were taught as children.
  • They meet people from a variety of Christian denominations, who share a wide range of practices and beliefs which similarly challenge the clear, simple, black-and-white vision of the faith they may have had growing up.
  • They learn, in history and sociology classes among others, the negative role the church has played at several points in history.
  • They face increased freedom – to drink, experiment with drugs and sex, and so on. For many, that freedom and experimentation create crises of faith.

A simple four-stage framework has helped me to be of help to many young adults (and the older adults who work with them). I’ll be expanding on this framework in my upcoming book, Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in Twelve Simple Words.

Stage 1: Simplicity: This is a dualistic stage where young adults learn and practice either/or thinking. They learn to distinguish between good and evil, better and worse, choice and refusal. They want to know the rules and follow (or break) them. As a result, people in this stage are often quite exclusive, seeing the world in us/them terms, with a passionate loyalty to us and deep suspicion of them. Many people never leave this stage, and some churches punish people who move towards its frontier with Stage 2.

Stage 2: Complexity: When experiences complexifies simple, familiar dualisms, people often take a turn toward the pragmatic. It’s not enough to judge right-versus wrong: exploring young adults want and need to know how to navigate a world which is turning out to be more complex than they anticipated. They seek leaders not just who make clear and authoritative pronouncements, but who serve as coaches – helping them get A’s and make friends and become self-learners and experience happiness and success. Many churches serve people in this stage, and many people never leave it.

Stage 3: Perplexity: At some point, disillusionment often sets in for young adults. Their simple dualism and their complex pragmatism eventually start to break down, thrusting them into an uncomfortable period of doubt and relativism. They feel suspicion towards the authority figures they once were drawn to, and they seek people with whom they can be honest. Relatively few churches make space for people in stage 3, even though books like Ecclesiastes and Job and Jonah in the Bible make sure that the doubter and struggler are given a voice among God’s people. Many people leave the faith during Stage 3, never to return.

Stage 4: Harmony: Beyond perplexity, a rebirth of faith is possible – characterized by a non-dual way of seeing, an appreciation of paradox and mystery, and a recommitment to essential practices of the faith. From Stage 1, a new confidence resurrects, from Stage 2, a desire to make a practical difference, and from Stage 3, a commitment to honesty and tolerance for multiple perspectives.

Too few communities exist to help young adults successfully navigate these stages and the stressful transitions between them. Many churches specialize in Stage 1 or 2, but are inhospitable to Stage 3 and suspicious of Stage 4 (because Stage 4 seems “liberal” to them). Someday, perhaps more of our churches will provide space and positive models for people at all stages too, but until then, Christian faculty and staff, if they are sensitive to stages of faith development, have a crucial role to play.

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Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net) is an author, speaker, and activist. His most recent book is A New Kind of Christianity and his next book, Naked Spirituality.

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  • Bob Henry

    As one who works in Christian Higher Education in the area of Spiritual Formation and Campus Ministries, your four-stage framework opens a door for discussion among my colleagues and administration. You have captured the heartbeat of Christian Liberal Arts higher education. More and more, I find students in stage 3 &4 completely isolated, alone, wandering aimlessly wishing that their questions and doubts would just go away. And many well meaning Christian Liberal Arts institutions masquerade as “Bible Colleges” focusing on answers, doctrines and whether one is “in or out.” I have found that real spiritual formation can and does happen when we engage stage 3 & 4. For myself this was the case and for my students it is the same. And those of us who push for deeper reflection, honesty, and tolerance get persecuted by those at the “masquerade ball.” I am tired of seeing college students attend to their parents beliefs for four years or put their spiritual formation on “pause” – only to press “play” after four or so years and ending up “burning up” on re-entry. Statistics show a postpartum-like depression among college students after graduation. One of the leading causes is they doubt their education, their beliefs, the abilities. And I bet if we looked at Christian college students they may just be higher on the statistics than the average student. Thanks for all your work Brian – I look forward to your new book – this was a great teaser! Grace and peace.

  • http://www.jeremydscott.com Jeremy D. Scott

    I agree with much of what you’re saying. I’m a product of Christian higher ed and am fourth generational in a family who has served as professors, administration, presidents, and commissioners of education (Nazarene). More than 50% of the congregation I get to pastor is employed by a Christian college.

    Yet…the cost of “keeping up with the Joneses” of higher education is quickly becoming a justice issue. When the mission becomes so costly to the point that it makes it impossible for a great number of people to be involved, we would do well to consider if it’s really part of the missio Dei.

    I don’t have easy answers, but it’s a concern nonetheless.

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  • http://bengriffith.tumblr.com/ Ben Griffith

    Having gone to a very conservative Evangelical undergraduate school and a less conservative (professors are far, far from fundamentalist) graduate school, I think that it just depends from school to school. The small Christian school I went to undergrad had absolutely no nurturing for faith crisis because they were very close-minded and when a student began asking out-of-bounds questions the only two responses were: fix the student or write them off.

    I was written off, so I had to lean hard on other friends going through the same types of questions (questions like those in ANKoC) who had similar experiences.

    The seminary I’m at now (Abilene Christian University) is doing a lot of what you talk about here. They see it as a stated and purposeful goal to take students into a Second Naivete (Ricouer’s language) in a nurturing way to their faith.

    I think it’s not a “not happening in church, but is happening in colleges” thing. It’s just school to school person to person. At undergrad I was nurtured by fellow Christians (not sure how “churched” you could call them), but in grad school it happened in the classroom setting with passionately interested professors.

  • Kenton Slaughter

    There is a very fine line between tolerance for multiple perspectives and the univeralist relativism that has taken hold in many of the “modern” churches. As a college freshman, I can tell you that what Christian college students need is not a redefined understanding of Scripture, but a much more fundamental understanding of Scripture. It is precisely the “black-and-white, right-vs-wrong” perspective that is needed. Note: this is not to say that black-and-white are determined by denominations or tradition- that is the biggest problem, confusing spoonfed religion and genuine obedient faith. Neither is this to say that we shouldn’t make room for questions concerning our faith. But at the end of the day, we can’t adapt Christianity to the modern world. And by this I mean that we can reinterpret or redefine Christianity by modern trends. To do so is to attempt to fit in with the world, which Christ specifically condemns. In contrast, we should relate to the world through the unchanging message of the gospel, which, make no mistake, is offensive to the world. However, for those who desire righteousness, it is good news indeed.

    So we need to be very careful in how we approach this. Bottomline, Scripture has the final say, and, unlike the world, it is not contradictory, paradoxical, or “mysterious”.

    • Anonymous

      In all honesty this is the viewpoint I find that tends to push young people away from church. You say that we need to have a fundamental approach to scripture and a right vs. wrong perspective. I think most young people hear this and think “if you drink or have sex you are not welcome with us.”. Or if they engage in these things they try to hide it from their church leaders or are consumed with guilt and shame. Now I don’t want to get into a debate over sex and alcohol. But why is it that the church is known primarily for it’s teachings on these issues when Jesus barely mentions them in the Gospels and devotes the majority of his ministry to questions of healing, breaking through social taboos, peacemaking, and exposing religious hypocrisy. Why is it so many young people view Christianity primarily as adhering to a set of black and white principles rather than attempting to follow Jesus in healing the sick and serving the outcasts and the marginalized?

      I think that saying Scripture is not contradictory or mysterious is pretty remarkable. Is it not contradictory that in some passages of Scripture you have a God who sanctions the killing of whole societies and then you have Jesus forgiving the woman taken in adultery? A young liberal arts student who has questions about this dynamic is not going to be satisfied by our mere trumpeting of Scriptural infallibility.

      And I think to say that Scripture is mysterious is not a devaluing of it but the highest value we can place on it. When Jesus says “Before Abraham was, I am” this to me is a clear compass point to the mysticism of our faith. Many of the greatest Christian works of art have been produced under just such reflections.

  • Guest

    I cannot speak generally but only from my own recent experiences as a student at a Christian university. There are always some professors ready to meet and challenge you in whatever stage your faith is at and there are always others searching. However, the rhetoric of the administration, a few professors, and the culture of the student body oftentimes denies the legitimacy of questioning and tolerance – your stages 3 & 4.

    Personally, I think one of the great weaknesses of Christian higher education is lack of diversity.

    If you’re a gay and thinking of attending a Christian university then find out what student life will be like for you – contact a LGBT group on campus to find out how they’re treated before deciding whether or not to go.

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