Is Student Ministry Important?
By Mike BarnettDo you think student ministry is important? Is it strategic for God’s mission to all nations? Or is it peripheral, a transitional phase of missions and ministry, a “necessary evil” compared to more vital aspects of missions? Does student ministry put a strain on resources? Is it basically a sacrificial aspect of the ministry of the Church or parachurch—or is it in fact a most effective means for communicating the gospel? Is student ministry primarily event-driven and entertainment-oriented—or does it flow from the personal relationships housed in authentic communities of young believers?
Be honest. When you contemplated answers to these questions, were you thinking of student ministry as something others do to/for students? Or were you thinking of something students do to/for others?
Most Strategic for the Mission of God Today
Student ministry—the kind done by students to/for others—is most strategic for the mission of God today. It has always been so. God worked with and through youth in biblical times. Think of David, the young shepherd boy loading his sling for battle against Goliath. Or the teenaged Joseph, the youngest son of Israel. How about Timothy, the pastoral student of Paul? Most scholars agree that the disciples of Jesus were in their late teens or twenty-somethings.
God also used students and youth to accomplish his mission throughout post-biblical history. Francis of Assisi, the thirteenth-century Italian, began his pilgrimage as a contrarian, rebel, mystic, and servant of the poor when he was a teenager. The Swiss Anabaptists students of Ulrich Zwingli, “first lights” of the free church movement of the sixteenth century, were martyred at the hands of Protestant and Catholic churches alike. Remember the outflow of young, talented, student missionaries from Europe and America during the decades following the Haystack Prayer Meeting (1806) or the remarkable mobilization of the gospel through the subsequent Student Volunteer Movement (1888)? How about the generation of students during the 1960s Jesus Movement?
Historically, God has used students and youth to expand, even explode, the gospel of Jesus to impact the nations for his glory.
Still Today
Open your eyes and look around the world. Do you see them? Students and youth are stepping up to serve as witnesses and disciplers among all peoples. Majority World youth and students, inspired and led by God’s Holy Spirit, are “salting and lighting” their worlds for Jesus Christ (Matthew 5). Do you see them? Take it from this old Baby Boomer, they are there—still today!
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In Zurich, a church movement of students and young professional Christ-followers swept through cities in Switzerland and Germany in the past decade. This European mega-church network (International Christian Fellowship) resembles others around the world. Yes, its top leaders are older, but the energy comes from the youth, the twenty-somethings. These kinds of youth-driven churches are rising up around the world.
How many international students attending universities in China were catalysts for church starts in that country? History will show that God used students on the leading edge of his multiplication of churches in East Asia and beyond. As I travel the world, I discover students meeting in coffee shops, relating to each other in authentic communities, discussing faith issues, and dealing with global realities through the eyes and ears of postmodern, global citizens. They are uniquely aware and refreshingly naive at the same time.
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Dr. Mike Barnett is professor of missionary church planting at Columbia International University (CIU). He and wife Cindy served twelve years with International Mission Board, working throughout the 10/40 Window. Barnett has published on various topics and is co-author of Called to Reach: Equipping Cross-cultural Disciplers, 2007. |
