Challenging thoughts from Penn State Cru on helping students become
“independent, capable, Christ-centered laborers equipped and motivated to continue their own development and influence the world for Christ”:
We need to build better bridges to life and ministry after graduation. We often say that your 4 years in Cru are really about the 50 years that follow. But in some ways our structure hasn’t helped prepare you for life and ministry after graduation. One reason is that some of our ministry methods don’t transfer easily to the work-a-day world. More tragically though, we have heard from far too many of our grads that the sudden transition from the considerable support structures they experienced in Cru to the independence and relative isolation of the “real world” has been jarring. Indeed, too many of our grads cease influencing others for Christ, and worse still others stop walking with Christ at all.
Typically, students in Cru get increasing attention over time culminating in the greatest attention their senior year. Then the day after graduation, it all suddenly goes away. A friend of mine who works with graduate students observed to me that in graduate school, where the plan from day one is to create independent adults, they increase independence over time, not attention. In this way the newest, youngest grad students get the most attention to lay their foundation, and the oldest grad students function independently. The day before graduation is little different from the day after graduation since they have been steadily moving towards greater independence. It seems that we have something to learn from this system.
This is a great overview of how they hope to accomplish this:
What strategies are you employing on your campus to help launch independent, Christ-centered laborers?
Share the wealth in the comments.