May 21, 2025
Many things run through the minds of college students at the end of the academic year. Exams are over, and summer is here! Families and friends ask when you’ll be back, and you begin counting the weeks and days of relaxing, maybe working, or going on exciting trips. Looking at your calendar, you see six to eight weeks of being away from school and back “home.”
However, as an emerging adult, you start to feel “home” changing. It may not be just one physical location like it once was, as you made a home while away at school. You look on social media to see friends traveling, wondering who will be there if you go to church this Sunday.
Will you have a seat in a group, or should you slide into the service a few minutes late? You have friends in the youth ministry but want to be treated like an adult. You arrive at the heart of the issue: “Is there a place for me anymore at my church back home?”
Our churches are searching for ways to connect youth as they emerge into adulthood. Here are five ways your church can balance discipling college students re-entering your church this summer.
According to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics, undergraduate enrollment after graduating from high school fell by 15% from fall 2010 to fall 2021. Also, in 2021, 61% of undergraduate students were enrolled in at least one distance education class, with nearly 3 in 10 exclusively taking courses online.
Not only are we finding college students choosing to stay closer to home and do distant learning, but they are also older and working. According to stats from the Lumina Foundation, 34% of college students are 25 or older, with 80% working in some capacity and 30% working full-time. If we’re going to minister to college students, we have to see the college student of today, not of years past.
Even with these statistics, some of our churches have 18-22-year-olds who are full-time college students who travel away from their homes for semesters of study. For many college students returning home for the summer, the church didn’t move, but the seat doesn’t feel saved for them anymore. A one-size-fits-all Sunday class won’t meet the diverse needs of post-high school emerging young adults.
Emerging adults are young adults who are not yet paying for health insurance and are also no longer in the youth group. Some are in college full-time or part-time, while others are at home and may be full-time online students, making it challenging for the local church to program a tried-and-true “college and career class.”
With students and youth, we lean on filling up a calendar with events and ensuring there’s always somewhere to be. However, emerging adults have changed and are looking for more relational connection points and less of a busy calendar.
Don’t arbitrarily create calendars and programs assuming who the student is. When looking to connect and minister to college students who are home for the summer, list them by name and build relational environments around those emerging adults.
A missed opportunity this summer could result in a missing generation in our churches. Churches that place themselves in the shoes of those they’re trying to reach will reach them. For the college student who comes home this summer, there’s a unique opportunity to disciple them and meet their needs, starting with re-entry.
Coming home from college should feel welcoming for young adults and shouldn’t just be a place they’re passing through. Consider starting to communicate with those who might be home this summer a few weeks before college semesters begin wrapping up. Invite them to a gathering or simple coffee to catch up on their stories from the semester. Be a friend worth having by listening to and engaging with them to take the next step of discipleship this summer.
Creating a discipleship pathway for college students who are home for the summer is not just a Bible study on Sunday morning. It’s the intentional micro-steps of instilling or reinforcing spiritual disciplines in their lives to carry them through life.
This may fit a predetermined curriculum, but think outside of the box to create disciple-making moments. A weekly structured gathering may work for our calendars, but does it work for those we invite? Consider more extended gatherings at predetermined times to allow for work, family, and vacation schedules during the summer. There is not one way to schedule discipleship, but we can hit what we aim for. And we need to be aiming at making disciples.
Disciples share the gospel, go on missions, and serve others. College students’ summers may be short, but their impact doesn’t have to be. Consider ways to capture their stories from the prior year and share them with their church family. Youth need to be shown they will soon be emerging as adults, and there’s no better way to show them how to do it than by connecting them to those in that life stage.
College students could serve at a youth camp, a youth mission trip, or a youth event while home, but don’t assume that’s their only way to share their stories. Many re-entering may not want to serve in those capacities as they forge their way into adulthood, distancing themselves from their youth the year before. Offer them adult mission trips, adult service opportunities, and young adult discipleship groups so they can choose which environment they are most comfortable in while at home.
Churches of any size can empower college students while at home if we plan intentionally and relationally engage those returning. They need to know they have a place to worship, serve, grow, and share their faith no matter how many weeks they’re with us. They want to be seen, named, and known authentically rather than treated as a number to be counted.
In our excitement, it’s easy to focus on re-engaging our college students who came back to the church for the summer and forget about those 18+ in our church or community who never left and can feel left out. We need strategies that speak to the person we’re engaging and not assume everyone fits one mold.
Targeted communication with college students coming home will connect them while they’re home. Remember that this is done best through relational communication, not a pulpit announcement or an isolated gathering.
If we aim for relationships and discipleship, we’ll see fruit. If we aim for events, we’ll fill our calendar. A one-size-fits-all solution no longer works for the emerging adult population. To advance the gospel, we must focus on the relationship and see the person.
We need to be the church, to all the church, to all our emerging adults. While some will marry, this group of emerging adults is predominantly single. They crave community and friendships, and if we provide disciple-making environments where that can happen, we will connect all emerging adults to the local church.
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Dr. PJ Dunn serves the Georgia Baptist Mission Board as a Discipleship consultant.
