by David Gunner Gundersen, Director of Student Life
In the last two posts, we’ve talked about the church’s need to love and serve wisely according to the circumstances and seasons of people’s lives. We’ve also made five observations about college breaks and explained ways to minister to Christian college students during these breaks. In this final post, we want to discuss five more unique challenges and opportunities that college students face as they live in the unique gaps between semesters.
6. Breaks invite students to explore new expressions of faith, hope, and love. During breaks, Christian college students are often called to trust God in different venues, with fewer trusted resources at their disposal, in less comfortable circumstantial climates, with less of a schedule and routine to guide them. They’re put in fresh situations where they have to hope in God, trust his daily deliverance, and look to his final redemption in ways they can sometimes avoid when settled into comfortable patterns of life. These changes open all kinds of doors for ministry — conversation, counsel, provision, and practical help. Ultimately, God providentially uses change to draw our eyes upward to the one who is unchanging. The sensitive Christian who wants to minister to Christian college students embodies this divine stability through faithful love and care.
7. Breaks provide focused times of extended rest and unforced labor. Breaks give students a chance to unwind, relax, and refresh. It’s essential that they take time to do this, especially if they’ve run themselves ragged during the last few weeks of school. So rejoice with students as they hit the temporary finish line of completed term papers and finals week in the rearview mirror (hopefully with passed classes!). At the same time, these students are now heading into a unique season. There’s much less accountability during a typical school break in terms of how hard you work, how much you get done, and how much money you earn. While this is a breath of fresh air, it’s also important for students to think through and plan out how they want to spend their time. Pastors, mentors, friends, and family members can all lend a hand — advice, accountability, forward-thinking, job recommendations. If you hear a student talking about his grand goals, follow up with him and ask how it’s going. Give them gentle encouragements to stay the course and fulfill those good intentions.
8. Breaks give us space for less-hurried reflection. The constant din of college life tends to drown out substantial reflection. Like so many scattered papers on a cluttered desk, college students’ thoughts tend to get scattered and fragmented as the semester goes on. It’s helpful and important to seize the opportunity of the break and to carve out time to reflect, meditate, evaluate, plan, and organize thoughts. Parents, pastors, and friends of college students can help them process their college experience by asking good questions and listening well.
9. Breaks challenge us to care via distance and to follow up faithfully. It’s easy to be out-of-sight/out-of-mind in college ministry. People are here and then they leave, and the revolving door can be pretty intense. Breaks challenge us to care for people when we don’t see them every day; to remember the ways we said we’d hold someone accountable; to write down the date of that family death and to call them; to remember that someone has no family to celebrate Thanksgiving with and to invite them over. On the home front, breaks can be a reminder that the college student you know and love could still use your ministry, your encouragement, your listening ear. You can still have a ministry from afar. College students often feel disconnected from home, and it’s refreshing to get a call, text, letter, or care package from home. Relationships, history, memories, old friends and mentors — reconnecting with these graces from the past can have a stabilizing effect on a student caught up in the throes of college.
10. Breaks provide opportunities to see new shades of God’s multi-colored grace. As seasons of the year change, we see God’s creative power in new ways. And as seasons of our lives change, we see God’s sustaining power in new ways. We are tempted to believe that our stability is due primarily to our circumstances; that our growth has been fostered mainly by elements of our structure and schedule; that our sense of contentment must be based on our circumstantial consistency. But as students walk through seasons that have their own unique challenges (like school breaks), they see and experience unique expressions of God’s faithful mercy toward them. Fresh difficulties are met by fresh grace, and they get to see and worship. If you know a Christian college student, engage them in conversation about what God’s doing in their lives. You’ll see dark shades of trial and bright hues of grace, and you’ll be encouraged.
– Caring for College Students through the Breaks (Part 1)
– Caring for College Students through the Breaks (Part 2)