THRIVE to help churches reach collegians

College is often a time when young adults are either learning to own the belief system they grew up with or are testing it to see if it’s true. All the while, they are trying to figure out who they are and where they fit in the world, says Lance Crowell, church ministries associate.

But when they are properly mentored and discipled, they are some of the greatest assets imaginable to God’s kingdom and to the local church, Crowell is quick to note.

Helping churches, staff members and lay volunteers tap into the potential fruit of a vibrant ministry to collegians is the aim of the Thrive Conference, Jan. 11-12 at Southcliff Baptist Church in Fort Worth.
In most churches, ministry to collegians—if it exists in any organized way—is volunteer-led, Crowell said. Pastors and staff members want such ministry but often don’t have the hours available to help their members effectively sustain it. Thrive is geared for just that, Crowell said.

“Often we’ll have lay leaders who are working hard, pastors who are excited because they have some folks doing it, but the lay leaders may struggle or they may be needing help on how to better reach students or even how to develop and build their own Bible study lessons or facilitate a small group,” Crowell said. “Or when students come and ask the big questions, how do I help them navigate that?
“This event is crafted to help pastors and churches by doing training and offering specific tools for lay leader and staff and provide that for them without this having to be an extra task that the church and leadership has to do.”

One example of that at this year’s conference: Josh Smith, pastor of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving, will be teaching on how to study the Bible effectively, “which I think every leader needs to be able to do,” Crowell said.

Other sessions will deal with practical topics, such as ways to help collegians connect with leaders and with one another, relational connection being a crucial value to young adults.

Crowell said in smaller- and medium-size churches where only a few college students attend, they are often invisible because they are serving in children’s ministry or perhaps they aren’t the most regular attenders or givers. But typically, there are more of them than thought and the potential is great to kindle a fire if preceded and sustained by prayer and diligence.

“In our culture now more people are going to college than in the past.… There are more of them around. And more are staying home or closer to home. They are looking for identity. They are really struggling to figure out who they are. And I think a church can really help them biblically understand … to figure out who you are and what you are supposed to be. The ultimate answer for those questions really comes from God’s Word and through the body of believers. And I think sometimes we just don’t raise that approach enough.”

In America’s history, the Great Awakenings and other spiritual stirrings have begun with young people, Crowell noted.

“Sometimes I think we forget that. There is just incredible potential—and the word vibrancy has been used—when young people who really don’t have the cares of the world that sometimes we as adults have, they just decide to start following Christ and they abandon all and amazing things happen.”

In addition to Smith, other speakers include Brian Zunigha, director of campus ministries at California Baptist University, John Strappazon, Baptist Collegiate Ministries specialist at the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, George Jacobus, college minister at Central Baptist Church, College Station, and Tim Simpson, college minister at First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, Ala.

For registration information on the Thrive Conference, visit sbtexas.com/thrive.