I spent a couple of afternoons this week interviewing college students for camp staff. A few were high school seniors but what I am choosing to write about here is the college age folks. It was a good time working with Jonathan on this and really a joy that our jobs overlap a bit so that we can help each other on various projects.
I want to make some observations about what we heard and I hope you will read the sadness we felt as well as the frustration rather than view my remarks as critical. If you recall, I shared the humorous moment from a conference a few weeks back about an old college professor who stood up and expressed how tired he was of hearing that youth ministry has failed. Well, this is anecdotal evidence but it really supports the findings of Christian Smith and the National Study of Youth and Religion. Here is what we tended to discover (bear in mind not all these apply to every interview).
Generally speaking we found many students to be very inarticulate. I realize the nerves factor into the conversation as they are interviewing for a job and these were phone interviews. Yet, a handful of strong candidates were able to clearly express themselves.
Shallow or weak theology. This was not just in the common phrases that people tend to use which are theological weak such as “I accepted Jesus into my life”. It ran much deeper when students could not articulate why they believed or what they believed. We prompted and prodded some to really see if they were just very nervous and often came up empty. In fact the overall theological viewpoint we heard expressed was…
Moralist Therapeutic Deism! Yes, the phrase that Smith coined which expresses the notion that there is a God, he helps me get through life (solves my problems was a phrase we heard a lot) and helps me to be a good person (I try to live as a Christian and stay away from bad things). This was frighteningly common!
Specifically, we found a weak understanding of sin. It was expressed more often than not as our humanity, the state of the world and not my rebellion against God. It actually kind of reminded me of our confession in Rite 2 where we more or less confess to God that we are not perfect. It is very common that people understand that Jesus died for our sins. The game changes significantly when we can express what that really means.
We rarely found students able to explain the gospel clearly. This is a vital question in the interview process because of the evangelistic work out at camp. So, we gave them every opportunity, reworded the question several times for people and some still came up blank. Very few mentioned repentance. Most stated something to the effect of praying to accept Jesus. The odd thing about this discovery is that Camp has long been known for being a place where the gospel is made clear. Most of the candidates were life long campers.
We asked them to share a favorite scripture passage or verse. Few had it by memory but the most common verse shared was Philippians 4:13 (I can do everything through him who gives me strength.). When asked why, they expressed that it meant to them that they could accomplish anything they set their minds to. Wow! That was fairly out of context. If you read the chapter, Paul is writing about contentment. The very next verse speaks of suffering. (I won’t unpack that now).
What does all this say to me? It reminds me of the teaching that Chris Folmsbee did with us last year. Chris suggested that scripture forms our theology, which forms our practice and behaviors. We tend to teach on the behaviors without providing the Biblical or theological foundations.
The saddest conversations we had were with students who have really struggled to keep their faith at college. Is it any surprise that falling away from faith is the key issue for them? Not really, considering they don’t have much of a Biblical basis for their faith. Those who were doing best were actively part of a church at college. We closed every interview with prayer and will keep praying for those who are struggling.
In case this annoyed you… If you are reading this, then chances are good that we did not interview any students who were in your groups. So, no need to fret or feel evaluated. However, it should serve as a wake up call to us all!
Leave a Reply