college Christian weird.

Question.

Where are all of the campus ministries in which the core activities are things like kicking it in coffee shops with some Dylan in the background, talking about theology?

Why is it that if I want to be involved in college ministry, I have to be down with a whole host of weird?

Let me pause for a second to say that I know that I'm weird. My secret talent is a dead-on impersonation of Britney Spears, I once watched all three Lord of the Rings movies (which I own) in one day, and when no one is watching, I dance to Christian pop. I am unavoidably weird. But...I am not unapproachable. And nothing is more unapproachable to on-the-fence seekers than college Christian weird.

What do I mean?

Do this: go the webpage of almost any of the ministries of [your college here], and peruse their photo albums. Then ask yourself... who is being ministered to?

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that the vast majority being ministered to in some of these organizations haven't been extensively unchurched. They've been very churched. That's why their college ministry albums are almost indistinguishable from their high school ministry albums.

They. know. youth ministry.

They're comfortable with it. And let's be honest--it's fun! But not for everyone.

I wonder... where's the ministry for the college Ashley? For the girl who wasn't about to bounce with some Christians having an ugly Christmas sweater partay, unless there was some rum bouncing in that room? For the guy who considers himself to be above ice breakers? For the students who feel caught between curiosity in Christ, and the seeming normalcy of their own non-Christian circles?

I couldn't have been the only one. Certainly, had there been a ministry, a different kind of ministry, one that reached out to my friends in college in ways they understood, they might have paid more attention to the cross.

There's nothing wrong with the fun and the silliness of some college ministry. It has its place. But I wonder...how are college ministries reaching the people who either don't understand or aren't attracted to the youth ministry feel of a lot of those groups? How are we reaching those who don't have concepts for "small group" and "outreach event"? Who don't know how to be reached?

It's not just our words that need translation from Christianese. It's our concepts, our intentions, our actions, our structures. It's not just a stylistic issue, it's also an intellectual and philosophical one.

Admittedly, I'm writing on a topic about which I know little. But, thinking on my own experiences with college ministry, my heart breaks. For reference, John Podesta, Clinton's chief of staff, went to my college--what if he had given his life to Christ in those four years? Ismat Kattani later became president of the United Nations--what if he had fallen to Christ while at Knox? On and on. How many students passed through--brilliant, brilliant people who could literally have turned this world upside down for Christ--never having been connected with the Truth? Because they saw the ministry and not the cross. Because they thought differently, their minds worked differently, and the Christian ministries, in full love and amazing intentions, didn't know it. Were set in the ways of ministry. Didn't catch on.

Francis Schaeffer begins the unbelievable "the God who is there," with some simple words: "The present chasm between the generations has been brought about almost entirely by a change in the concept of truth." He wrote these words in 1968, asserting that the greatest crisis in Christianity was then that Christianity had missed the crisis! The thinkers, the teachers, and the leaders had missed this fundamental shift in the understanding of truth, and kept on as though nothing had happened, and in so doing, had lost touch with the culture, with the souls they were appointed to assist.

I think Schaeffer's words are fresh.

I fear that they're fresh for college ministry. I hurt for the students who pass through--unfamiliar with the structures of ministry, and the presuppositions of faith, with the style and the substance--never meeting Christ.