The Commodification of Spiritual Formation

I’ve worked in the field of campus ministry for nearly 14 years now… and over the course of that time I have worked on 4 different campuses — all Christian colleges or universities — and one of the things I have honestly struggled with the most is what I will call the ‘commodification of spiritual formation’.

More simply put — this is offering credit, of some kind or another, to students for participating in opportunities to grow in their faith.

Most Christian colleges and universities engage in this practice, to one degree or another, and there’s something about it that just doesn’t sit well with me.

Maybe it goes back to my own college experience — where everything I attended was because I wanted to attend — for the ultimate purpose of growing in my faith.

And it wasn’t just me… the majority of the opportunities I engaged in were all very well attended.  There were other students who wanted to grow spiritually, and therefore sought out a multitude of opportunities, with no incentive other than the chance to encounter God and be transformed more into the likeness of Jesus.

It seemed like, back then, one’s spiritual formation was more than enough of a reason to prioritize campus ministry opportunities — at least for many of us at that school.

I’ve since learned that my Alma mater is somewhat of an anomaly.

It seems that the vast majority of Christian colleges and universities out there have certain requirements for their students in terms of their worship attendance, or number of community service hours completed, or number of convocation programs attended, or the kinds of cross-cultural experiences had, or even some combination of all of these.

Many of these institutions even make the involvement in, and “completion” of, these different “spiritually forming” opportunities a part of the graduation requirement for students.

And while there’s a part of me that “gets it” — recognizing that sometimes students have to be “encouraged” to “show up” and that, once there, will wind up experiencing God in transformative ways that they had not expected — there’s the other part of me that wonders what kind of damage we are doing to our students.

During some of the most formative years of their life we are reducing their involvement in spiritually nurturing activities to something that will “earn them credit” and “qualify them for graduation”.

We are feeding into the consumeristic nature of our students, and the dominant culture, and — I believe — short-circuiting the spiritual growth of many of our students during some of the most formative years of their life.

Now, I wish that this was where I could insert my “sure-fire solution” into the post, and just point readers towards adopting this new way forward.

But the reality is that, all students are different, and all campuses are different, and therefore, all “solutions” will need to be different.

And while I don’t know what all it will entail for you and your campus, I believe that some of what we will need to address will include:

• the attitudes and consumeristic nature of pop-culture
• the ways that the Church, and greater Christianity in the West, have adopted a consumeristic mentality in our approach to drawing Christians and non-Christians into our faith and/or specific ministries
• the attitudes, expectations and practices that students have relating to their personal spiritual formation
• the realities about the “mystery” involved in spiritual formation, including the kind of time it will necessitate, levels of intentionality and patience, and consistency of pursuit that will be required of each of us, while ultimately leaving the “end result” up to God.

I know this list is not complete, so what would you add to it?

What “solutions” might you offer up?

I also realize much of this may seem quite foreign, and even irrelevant, to those of you who work on state school campuses… but I trust that there might be some insights you might gain from, AND add to, this conversation.

I appreciate you thinking with me about this…

Please take a moment to share your thoughts in the comment section below!