Community and the College Student

This post kind of got shoved to the back after the events of the weekend...the tornado, the aftermath and all.

I don't know the statistics of college students who attend church after high school. I've been told what they are, like, in sermons and stuff...but I'm old and I can't remember. It's low. REALLLLY low.

I think it would be so disheartening for parents to have raised their children and watched them grow in Christ and share their faith...only to get into the habit of not attending church, not using their gifts to minister to others...after they moved away to college.

But it happens every day.

I didn't know about Logan. When we moved to a new town when he was in the 10th grade, we joined a church that was very different from our previous church home. And we joined it FOR HIM. And for Clark. This church definitely wasn't our style...but our two younger boys felt comfortable there. Logan really liked the youth group, and Clark jumped right in to the middle school ministry.

But being boys and teenagers and all, I kind of wondered if they were just going because they didn't have a choice in the matter. You know...we went, and so they went.

But one of the first things Logan and Morgan did when they got to college was to find a church home. Each Sunday they would go to a different church, and each week, they would go to the ministries or events offered by the various churches. They went to the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) activities. They settled on a church with a smaller college group, and they have gone there every since.

They go on Sunday mornings to the 8:30 service.

Let that just sink in. They are in college...and they go to the 8:30 service. 8:30 in the morning.

Can't even believe that.

They have worked in the nursery, helped in the preschool, helped with events at the church like the Fall Festival and the Special Olympics rodeo. They've gone on various missions trips with the college ministry from their church. They attend the Wednesday night suppers and go to Bible Studies there. The college minister calls on Logan and Randy...and Morgan...if there's a need in the church they can help with: babysitting or parent's night out or a family that needs help moving.

Logan's not perfect...not by a long-shot. He's just a college kid who could've gone a different way...or a myriad of different ways...and instead was mentored and discipled and supported by a loving church family.

I am blown away at the goodness of God, and the graciousness of His people.

Two years ago, their church started an Adopt-a-Student ministry, and Logan got "adopted" by a sweet couple named Joe and Martha. Joe and Martha talked to Logan...and his roommate, Randy...about their likes and decided they would meet on Monday nights at their home. Mrs. Martha would make a home-cooked meal for them, and then they would watch Monday Night Football with Mr. Joe. They've done other things with the boys, too. Some nights, Logan will bring Morgan with him...and then some nights he will go with Morgan to HER adopted parents. It is the coolest thing ever the way complete strangers have invested in the lives of my son. I can't even think of words to describe how that feels.

This past Sunday was Senior Recognition Sunday at Logan's church. He is graduating from college in May, and so we went for the service. From the time we were in the parking lot...until we left the church that day...everyone was so welcoming to us and friendly. His adoptive parents were there...right on the front row.

Their church is a pretty old-school church, which is what Logan said attracted him (and Morgan) to it in the first place. Surprising, huh? Since we all think college kids want the screens and the bands and the lights that change colors during the service.

NOTTHATTHERESANYTHINGWRONGWITHTHAT.

And every person we met, when we introduced ourselves would think a minute and say, "ohhh...Logan? You're Logan's parents? We know him."

Jesus, take me now.

We all need to take a lesson from this church...and I'm talking to myself. It's an older church. It has the wooden floors and the smelly blue carpet. It has a pipe organ. It has beautiful stained-glass windows on either side of the sanctuary. It's full of people...imperfect people, like in every other church...but people who have been the hands and feet of Jesus to Logan and Morgan...who did not treat them as "temporary" members, but instead reached out to them, and loved on them during their 4 years in that church.

Logan was welcomed there. He and Morgan feel at home. They belong. I am so thankful that they will have another year there while they wait on Morgan to finish school and graduate.

All proving that church is not about a building...it's about people...and God working in and through them.

"Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church; the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ." Ephesians 4:11-12