How can college students stay active in their faith?

Be prepared for the challenge in advance

The Rev. Nancy Thellman, interim associate pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church:

The best way to keep faith alive in college is to be prepared for that challenge years in advance. When kids grow up with someone at home who models faith, and where the extended family of faith is valued (i.e. where relationships with other members of the church, synagogue or mosque are nurtured) they grow up knowing they belong to and are loved by a family much greater than their own, and that kind of grounding lasts a lifetime. Kids who worship alongside faithful adults in a faith community tend to keep and grow their faith into adulthood.

But college is a challenge. How do I keep faith alive?

One way is to get connected with a faith family in your new community. Many groups reach out to college students, especially at this time of year through fellowship events. Visit plenty of places – your own denomination and others – but ask some important questions along the way.

College students are full of quandaries about religion in general and faith in particular, and they should be! Asking tough questions about God is the first step toward growing mature faith.

With each visit ask yourself, “Are my hardest questions welcome here, or is there a rush to easy answers?”

Michael Yaconelli writes in his book “Dangerous Wonders”: “The church exists to guard the important questions! Keep them alive! When the questions are kept alive, our souls have a chance of staying alive. The church should be full of Christians who seek questions rather than answers, mystery instead of solutions, wonder instead of explanations.”

Find a place like that, my college friend, and your faith will not only stay alive, it will flourish!

Send e-mail to the Rev. Nancy Thellman at nancythellman@sunflower.com.

It takes a community to raise a disciple

The Rev. Marcus McFaul, First Baptist Church senior pastor:

Thanks in large part to my own college congregation, I am in ministry. Fortunately, that church exposed me to a wider world and served as a window through which to view God, worship, service and faith in a way different than the provincial one of my youth. So my advice to a university student is simple: Get thee to a community!

In the context of a practicing community of faith, the habits, disciplines, ethics and behaviors of a people are nurtured and sharpened. Whether it is a campus group or congregation, the idea is that “it takes two to gospel.”

In the Christian community, there are elements for personal and communal faith exploration through study, prayer, music and outreach. These intentional practices aren’t done for perfection’s sake, but for the formation of a people. We believe it takes a community to raise a disciple.

While in college, a faithful student can pursue mission and service through a Habitat for Humanity build (locally or on a spring break challenge); Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen service in downtown Lawrence; volunteering at a neighborhood center or a shelter for women who’ve experienced violence; educating oneself on the needs of the homeless or other vulnerable members of our society; and risking oneself for the sake of others. Faith feeds the hungry and binds wounds.

“Staying active in the faith” isn’t another self-help strategy designed for personal fulfillment. Jesus puts it this way: Whoever wants to save her life will lose it, but whoever loses her life will find it. I, for one, discovered that truth while a collegiate, a truth which set me free.

Send e-mail to the Rev. Marcus McFaul to office@firstbaptist.lawrence.ks.us.