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Monthly youth leaders column

Choosing a university

Just a couple of weekends ago there were several forlorn-looking parents in our congregation. At around the same time the local supermarket reported an increase in sales of tissues. That Sunday there were also some familiar faces were missing from the youth group and I figured it out. It was the start of the university term. Freshers had been duly delivered by parents with tears in their eyes. Little birds had grown into big birds and flown the nest.

Now, if we are to believe the sociologists, the university years are among the most formative in our lives. Ideas and world views are up for grabs. It is a time in which many people become Christians and stick with it for life. It is also a time when many people question the way they have been brought up and reject Christianity for life. University is an important time and one that needs to be prepared for and thought about carefully.

Now is the time of year when students in year 13 are beginning to think about what happens post-A levels. They will soon fill in the forms, take mock exams and decide on a potential university and career path. So now is the time to introduce more criteria than just academic potential into the equation. Here are some ideas to try on for size with the older members of your youth group.

A 'university' evening

Spend an evening together as a group thinking about the options available to the students. You could invite a local university Christian Union to come and help answer questions. Use it as an opportunity for parents to come too. Put on food. You could also deal with year out options at the same time and invite different organisations to send material or even representatives. Be sensitive to those in the group who may not be considering university. Balance this evening with something for them too.

Service

When Christian young people think about the future they need to be challenged to think beyond the salary and qualifications level. What is their understanding of Christian service? Are they thinking long-term for God? By which I mean, not are they considering full-time ministry, although this could be an option. Is there choice of career governed by how they want to serve God, or is service going to be a bolt-on extra once all of life's boxes (career, salary, house, spouse, children, dog, etc.), have been ticked? We must train our young people to think outside the world's box.

Church

One of the reasons so many young people give up on Christianity is because they move away from the cosy environment of the church they have grown up in. It almost happened to me. For my first term at university I revelled in the fact that I was not dragged out of bed for church on a Sunday. However, many university towns and cities these days have churches that knowingly attract students and have a 'student ministry'. One of the factors for Christian young people has got to be finding a university with a good, Bible-teaching church nearby.

Christian Union

The Christian Union can also help and UCCF is happy to help potential students. It publishes a resource called 'Fresh' that is appropriate for year 13s as well as new students. It takes a practical and biblical look at issues that students face. UCCF runs a link up scheme to link students to their nearest CU. All this help is at www.uccf.org.uk. The Blurb magazine is also available. It is essentially a student magazine but would give year 13 students a good feel for university life (www.theblurb.org).

The big picture

Really the planning for this point in your young people's lives should start earlier. It's not enough to give them good advice during their last year and then watch them disappear into the sunset. How are they going to survive as Christians in the B.B.W. (that's 'big, bad world', not 'big, bad wolf')?

Our planning for university options and Christian Unions ought to happen much earlier. Do you work towards the young people leaving at 18? Are you giving them the tools to cope out there?

This means encouraging their prayer life, making sure that they study the Bible and handle it well, and that they are well prepared for the issues that life (and especially student life) is going to throw at them. Training for these things takes years, not just the last six months of the youth group.

Paul's aim, and ours should be too, was to present people perfect (or mature) in Christ (Colossians 1). That's our long-term goal - more Christians in heaven. But the short-term goal has got to be training our young people for the moment that they leave the easy confines of the youth group behind them and become young adults. Plan for university when you prepare your next session for the 11-year-olds, you'll be doing them a favour.

Roger Fawcett