I just spent two days meeting with Jeff Schadt, Executive Director of Youth Transition Network (www.YouthTransitionNetwork.org and www.LiveAbove.com ) discussing these issues. Jeff has done a great deal of research on the subject and the issues are much deeper than those revealed by the Lifeway Study on which Thom Rainer's book was based.
According to Jeff, unless college freshmen (who were church going high school students) plug in with a local church or campus ministry with 72hrs of arriving on campus they will probably fall away. Without this connection, the loneliness and desire to fit in is so great they these freshmen quickly fall in with the wrong crowd. Subsequently, peer pressure leads them to do things which they swore they would never do and it is the resulting guilt which keeps them away from God.
He has created a ministry (Youth Transition Network www.YouthTransitionNetwork.org) which provides materials to local youth groups (www.LiveAbove.com) to prepare students for the transition to college and to connect them with campus ministries/churches before they arrive on campus. This program was first tested at Arizona State University which saw campus ministry participation almost double after implementing this program.
I highly recommend ordering his DVD to share with your youth group.
If you are part of a college ministry, I highly recommend you review his materials and perhaps partner with his ministry to help connect with teens before they reach college.
Posts
