Tim Casteel

Thoughts on Leadership and College Ministry

The Chief End of College Students

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One of the first rules of communication is “Know Your Audience”.  As we seek to communicate the life changing message of the gospel to this generation of college student, we have to understand their world.

Every day this week during our team’s staff planning we are getting to know a different aspect of our audience.

This morning we’ll be looking at: “What Drives College Students – What is their purpose in life?”. The book Souls in Transition, thru careful research, presents a fascinating view into the minds of the current generation of college students.


Here’s what the authors found:

“Some emerging adults have settled on what seems to be a clear and strong sense of purpose in life.  But they are the minority.”


So what Drives College Students, what do they organize their life around? The short answer: Themselves.

The fuller answer reveals

  • A driving focus
  • A long term goal
  • And thus the (perceived) irrelevance of religion/God:



Driving Focus = Standing on One’s Own

“The central, fundamental, driving focus in life of nearly all emerging adults is getting themselves to the point where they can “stand on their own two feet”.  Life’s major challenge for them is transitioning from dependence to independence, from reliance on others to self-sufficiency, from being under others’ authority and eye to living on their own.”   pg 34



Long Term Goal = Materially Comfortable Life

Most of the transitions, the figuring new things out, and the learning to stand on one’s own has the long-run goal of enjoying a materially comfortable life.  [The interviewees were asked] what they wanted out of life, to describe their life goals and dreams.  Nearly all of them replied with some version of the same essential answer: finish education, get a good job, marry, have children, buy a nice house with a yard, raise a family, become financially secure, drive reliable cars, enjoy family vacations, enjoy good relationships, maybe have a dog.  In short, nearly all spoke sincerely as if they still believed in the American Middle-class dream. Respondents voiced very few alternative life dreams, like achieving major social reforms, living overseas, serving the poor, or pursuing any other alternative lifestyles.  pg. 69



Unfortunate, all too common by-product of those two: Religion is irrelevent to life right now

One student summed it up well: “I’m not really involved with that type of thinking [religion] right now.  I’m really involved in my life and where I’m heading right now.”  pg. 145

“Emerging adults are primarily dedicated in this phase of their lives to achieving their own financial, identity and household independence from their parents.  Serious religious faith and practice do not necessarily directly conflict with that mission, but they are not crucial or intrinsic to it either.”   pg. 76



Those three things – 2 things they organize their life around, and 1 (religion) that they don’t – HAVE to affect how we do ministry.

Their focus has to be transferred from self to God.  They are not “captain of my ship master of my soul”.

They have to be shown a greater purpose.

But the third one is what it all rests on – how do you even get your foot in the door (to talk about 1&2) when Joe Freshmen you’re talking to dismisses you out of hand because he’s not buying what you’re selling? Your message is irrelevant to him.



I would LOVE to hear any thoughts you have.   How do you overcome this perceived irrelevance?




photo courtesy of depinniped via flickr