The transition between a teenager’s senior year in high school and his or her first year of college is a critical time in the student’s life.
A study done by George Barna showed that 75 to 80 percent of high school students will leave church when they go to college, and only half of them will return to church later in life, usually after they are married and have children of their own.
Matt Kerlin, campus minister of Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM) at the University of Alabama, said, “The falling away process begins in their senior year in high school – all the things to do when you’re a senior: working to save for college, more social freedom, less difficulty as far as curriculum goes that last year in high school. And when they go to college, multiply those things by 100.”
Kerlin is the Alabama representative for college transitions, and he works closely with Keith Loomis, director of collegiate and student ministries of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), in helping high school students make smooth transitions to college.
“We want to let students see that the college years are not a time to put a pause on their relationship with Christ, but a launching pad for that relationship,” Loomis said.
“Obviously, as part of that maturing process, we want to challenge their relationship with Christ on a new level: in discipleship and growth, to steps of faith, giving themselves away and in missions – and our Baptist Campus Ministries are an extension of the local church.”
Currently, Kerlin and Loomis’ collegiate team at the SBOM are developing strategies they believe will keep teenagers and youth ministers informed so that when the transition period arrives, they will have a solid opportunity to proceed.
Loomis added, “We want to create awareness” about BCM and potential college ministry involvement.
“We have to ask ourselves, what can we do locally, regionally and statewide that is still going to be effective?” Kerlin said.
There are 562 youth ministers in Southern Baptist churches across Alabama, and 280 of them are full time.
“We write churches in the state of Alabama to find out if they have graduating seniors and where and when they plan to attend a college. Then we contact them at school as well as the campus minister at their university.”
“We network with youth conferences such as the Youth Evangelism Conference, MissionFuge, Centrifuge, CrossPoint and World Changers. We meet students, get their names, addresses and phone numbers and begin contacting their youth ministers to get them geared toward possible involvement with Baptist Campus Ministries when they go off to college,” Kerlin said.
Local informants
“My students [of BCM] go visit graduating seniors in local church student ministries and eat dinner with them. This helps give these college students a presence with high school students, serving as a reminder to these seniors that they will already have friends at the school’s BCM if they choose to get involved.”
Kerlin said he is working toward an area youth rally in Tuscaloosa that will be for junior and senior high school students. He plans to have his BCM praise band lead in praise and worship, offer a decision time and have campus ministry student leaders to counsel.
During counseling times, college students will talk to the teenagers about college life. Kerlin said, “This will begin gearing youth as young as sixth grade to think toward getting involved in Baptist Campus Ministries when they go off to college.”
Other ideas in the works are regional transitional conferences such as the North Alabama region that will cover areas that are in proximity to the University of Montevallo, the University of Alabama, the University of West Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Samford University.
Kerlin said he hopes these transitional conferences will begin, at the latest, by summer 2003.
Another idea is to offer directors of missions resources and personnel to come to their associations to inform area youth ministers and church leaders about college transition and information on BCM.
The office of college and student ministries at the SBOM has currently designed an interactive compact disc that will provide graduating seniors and youth ministers with information on every BCM nationwide, along with their Web site links, strong introductions to their ministries and contact information.
“Colleges do a good job of telling you what college is going to be like,” Loomis said. “We want to make sure [high school seniors] continue that pilgrimage.
“You never stop growing, and they are at a time in their lives when they will decide what to do for the rest of their lives. … We want them to see that ‘my experience in the youth group will come into focus when I go off to college,’ and that those principles will continue growing in their lives as they move out.”
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