With our college graduates preparing to leave campus — most of them “for good” — I find myself wondering if there are any reasons to intentionally stay connected with our graduates.
Sure, there will be those students that we inevitably stay connected with — because they stay local, or continue to reach out, or simply touch base periodically through things like Facebook — but I wonder: is there more that we should be doing to continue these relationships?
It would seem that there is more than enough work to do with students, faculty and staff that currently make up the campus community…
It would also seem, given the contextual nature of most of our ministries, that we have served our primary function — helping students to grow in their faith during their formative college years — and that it is now time to “let them go” and fully re/integrate themselves (back) into the local church.
Still, I wonder, is there reason to stay connect? Is there reason — or even need — to stay intentionally connected with graduates?
What do you think?
- Do you stay intentionally connected with students after they graduate on move on? If so, why?
- If so, how much of your ministry is given to this effort?
- If so, what kinds of boundaries do you set in this area?
- If so, how do you keep up with where your graduates are?
- Does your ministry create space for partnership, or ministry opportunities, for your grads with your undergrads?
I really like to know what this looks like for your ministry. Please take a minute to share in the comment section below.
2 thoughts on “Do You Keep Up With Graduates?”
I am a college graduate and I hear from a few people I went to school with or met at school…..but I wish they can check on me more often so I wouldn’t feel left out at times though
We didnt’ do a ton in this area, but it was something we had started thinking about right before I moved. I think it’s something we should give consideration to though. For a long time, high school youth pastors thought, “oh, my job is done once the student isn’t in the youth group anymore” but what we see is that between high school and college, there is a huge drop off rate of these students actually getting involved in a church or college ministry. In the same way, there’s a gap between students being involved in a ministry on campus and then making that transition well. From my experience as a campus minister, I had some students making phone calls or emails to me saying, “man, this is hard. I’m struggling to find a church …or finding community… etc.” because they go from having a close knit community on campus to a new place that doesn’t necessarily have anything targeted for them (which is fine, but it’s hard to find a place to find community and use their gifts). Facebook makes this easier (being able to see how they’re doing, send a message, etc.). Anyway, all that to say, I think it’s incredibly important but I dont’ have any real examples.
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