Tag: big questions

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

The #1 Thing on the College Freshman Mind

You may already know the top issues for your incoming freshman, but Dr. Tim Clydesdale has actually asked them. And in a workshop at this year’s National Collegiate Summit he shared seven common themes uncovered by his interviews with college-bound high school grads.

The #1 theme? Navigating relationships (making friends, finding a boy/girlfriend, getting along with roommates) and managing gratifications (particularly sex and partying, hence connecting gratifications to relationships).

Big Ideas & 'Best Of'

MY NEW FAVORITE WAY TO FIND SEEKERS ON CAMPUS

A College Student, A Homeless Man, And A Rabbi Walk Into A Coffee Shop.

That may sound like the opening line of a bad joke, but it actually describes an experiment I started last semester at the University of Delaware.

A couple volunteers and I were discussing the example we have in Jesus and his disciples, who were intentional about sharing their faith with friends “friendship evangelism” and with strangers “initiative evangelism”. When we scrolled through our phone contacts to count how many friends we actually had who weren’t Christians, we realized something had to change.

Big Ideas & 'Best Of'

JOIN THE MIRACLE OF FEEDING THE MULTITUDES!

About 925,000 people go to bed hungry every night. Food insecurity plagues one in seven people on the planet. Around 25,000 people die every twenty-four hours from hunger or hunger related disease – more than those who succumb to malaria, TB and AIDS combined. Most of them are children – ten children die every minute.

What makes these statistics not only staggering but sinful are these two additional facts. There is enough food produced for each person on the planet to consume 4.3 pounds of food per day – that’s equivalent to seventeen quarter pounders. Even college students don’t eat that much food! And this: nearly 3 trillion pounds of food goes to waste every year.

Spiritual Formation

Our Future-oriented Drift

“What are your plans now?” This question tortures most soon-to-be college graduates.

High School Seniors are barraged as well, “Where are you going to college?” They are asked over and over again.

I hear it when my friends ask, “When are you getting back into your Doctor of Ministry program?”

Even my seven-year old twins aren’t immune to our culture’s obsession with the future. “What grade will you be in next year?” What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Truly, middle class North Americans love planning for the future. Perhaps no sub-culture is more future-oriented than that of higher education. Faculty and staff are planning for their upcoming semester or their tenure applications, students are planning for the next week, for the rest of the semester, for next semester, for after graduation, etc.

Blogathons, Student Culture, Trends & Issues

Gluttony: It’s Not Just For Dinner

“Luke just finished a 10 lb burrito!” exclaimed his friend Colin rushing back from one of our local Mexican restaurants.

Gluttony: to gulp down or swallow; a serious failure in self-discipline. Always the words you want to start the semester with.

I work with two campuses that have the same problem in opposite directions. Campus A is a denominational school that requires chapel twice a week, often bonus chapels, has only one strong Christian organization that many attend, and service opportunities around the school.

Campus B is…

Leadership Development, Spiritual Formation

The Power of Intentional Mentorship

Every four years, I wait with anticipation for the start of the Summer Olympic Games. This year, the world watches the Olympic triumphs of athletes around the world in London.

When I watch these athletes compete and win medals, I am reminded that their journey is a process, not only a solitary moment on the world stage.

These committed athletes train relentlessly with the assistance of coaches intentionally providing strategy, tips and pointers along the way.

As it is with the athletes preparing for their Olympic moment, so it should be with the intentional developing of college students and young adults for the rest of their lives!

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

Strings Attached: Why the “hook-up culture” affects you

[This is an excerpt from an article I wrote for Threads Media on the impact of the hook-up culture.]

The hookup culture — this “no strings attached” paradigm toward casual sexual encounters — has become the new normal among many Christian collegiates in America. According to Relevant magazine, “Eighty percent of young, unmarried Christians have had sex. Two-thirds have been sexually active in the last year. Even though, according to a recent Gallup poll, 76 percent of evangelicals believe sex outside of marriage is morally wrong.”1

Yes, college students are having sex at alarmingly high rates, but truth be told, everyone is not doing it. One out of five young Christians have never had sex. One out of three haven’t had sex in the past year. If you haven’t had sex … you’re not alone. If you have, and you’re ready for a fresh start, now’s the time!

Academics & Vocation

INFOGRAPHIC: Students and Cheating

How big of an issue is cheating for your students?

Now let me rephrase that — how many of your students would say that cheating is a big deal?

In a culture that esteems success and achievement, while having little to say about character and integrity, some of the statistics featured in the infographic below may not be all that surprising.

And although this infographic focuses on the (relatively small) differences between cheating that occurs in online classes vs. on campus classrooms, without any regard for religious or moral underpinnings, we must believe that the students in our ministries fit all-to-comfortably within these statistics.

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

[INFOGRAPHIC] Teens and Porn: 10 Stats You Need to Know

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I’ve got a second book in the works…

The first book is geared towards Mentors — really anyone who might speak into the lives of college students (including, but not limited to: parents, pastors, professors, coaches, directors, et al). I hope it will serve as a guide for having important and timely conversations with students during their formative college years.

The second book will be geared towards college students and will examine some of the things that are literally “killing their souls.”

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

7 Things College Students Wish Every Educator Knew

Earlier this summer I had the chance to sit with Dr. Tim Clydesdale, author of The First Year Out: Understanding American Teens After High School.

His current project (which I think will be released sometime this summer or fall) is on college students collectively.

The research he conducted with high school grads (many of whom went to college), that was presented in his first book, was carried on and was the focus of our conversation.