Nov 13 2016 - How to Reach Students - Q&A with a College Pastor

This is a Question&Answer session with Matthew McClure, a pastor at H2OKent, and a student, Scott Peterson, a sophomore at Kent State.

Matthew: Jeff gave this great introduction to Oceans – but I am always reminded of my honeymoon – where I jumped into the water to snorkel – and the waves were choppy – and I started to hyperventilate – and my wife had to hold me up and calm me down…
Grace Summit has been with us from the beginning – I remember Jeff helping to unload Jason Slack’s U-Haul when he moved to Kent. I consider Mike Marette to be a mentor of mine – when things are over our heads – we have asked Mike Marette and Dave Brunelle – “can you help us, because we are clueless here…”
Mike has told me that you have a heart to reach young adults – and I don’t know that we are experts in this – but it is what we do. So feel free to ask questions – pick our brains – and if you can’t think of anything in that regard – ask us whatever you want.
A quick update on how things are going on campus – it has been a great year. Our ministry is kind of cyclical – in the summers we dip to a core of about 50, but during the school year we have about 250-300. We are trying to figure out how to grow leaders and maintain a college church.
I am on staff – I am a pastor – but if I am doing my job right – I’m helping others to do the work.
College students have an unbelievable amount of discretionary time – it makes me, with 3 young kids, jealous. We are trying to figure out how to grow leaders here. The staff to student ratio is getting worse. On Sunday nights, we have the student leaders into our homes – and build into the leaders. I am moving away from the forefront – and more into investing into the student leaders.
2 Tim. 2:2 – the things we have experienced we are entrusting to younger leaders. We ask a lot of them in leading small groups and ministries. We don’t want to burn them out without taking care of them.
We just had our fall retreat – it is where we really get to know the freshman students. We are rolling along.
I wanted Scott to come along to share his story. This church supports H2O in a variety of ways. I wanted you to see a face and hear a story of what your investment brings.
Scott: I grew up in a Christian home near Mentor. The church I was in didn’t really stress community – so I didn’t really understand why I needed my church family – or that it was more than Sunday mornings - or why I needed to be in the Scriptures. I was stuck – not growing – not learning – not understanding. When I was a junior in high school that started to change. So I got baptized. I remember praying about what I was going to do for college – and I considered Kent State and my mom told me about H2O.
When I went to college, things got tougher. I didn’t have my mom waking me up to tell me to get up and go to church. My first semester, I was lost and grew far from the Lord. But He was relentless in His pursuit of me. One Sunday I was in worship at H2O and God broke my heart – I realized how far I was from Him and realized I needed to stop sinning and to get involved and grow in community.
A few weeks later, I started to apply that. One of the things that amazed me was the genuine friendship at H2O. I started going to life-group – and people started helping me to find my faith again. Then I started getting more involved. There was a season of suffering from heartbreak – but I learned what joy in suffering means – what it means to depend on God – what it means to have Him as the center of my life. It was a lot of suffering. It continued throughout the summer. I was in a pretty bad accident and it seemed like things weren’t getting better – but God was continuing to show me how to love and depend on Him. I learned what JOY in suffering means. I fell in love with H2O – the worship and the atmosphere – and it has helped me to grow.
Matthew - To see this over and over again – I just love to see it. Scott now helps to lead life-groups. It is one of my greatest joys to see this. One thing that was in Scott’s story – as you think of questions to ask us – the value of community. The epistemology of participation is the phrase used in my theology classes. Rather than accepting it in a detached way – they want to say – show me what that looks like. Some of these theological issues won’t be accepted in the context of truth. In community though, they see it lived out.
Another way it is stated – the longing before believing. We see this in students with no church background – they will hear it preached – but won’t respond then. It is then in the context of a small community
PB – How do you see social justice issues and how students react to you? Is there more lack of trust in Christians because of different issues? I am curious how students respond.
Political – things students are protesting?
How are students on campus responding to hot-button issues – and how do we see it playing out on campus as a Christian organization?
Matthew – there is a lot of confusion what it means to be a Christian – I’ll be delicate – when I talk about the election. Christian can mean a lot of things – it can be a voting block – or a person who goes to church – or a committed follower of Christ. We are seen as those who think certain ways – those who are morally superior/old-fashioned and those who reject science and hate homosexuals, and a lot of other ways that are not true. I don’t know how dissimilar it is – but people view Christians in a certain light – but we have to live in that reality and do our best to represent Jesus and His kingdom. To follow Jesus is to be counter cultural, but at the same time – we have to engage people to overcome these misconceptions about who we are – we want to represent Jesus well.
Practically – how does that work out on campus? Why would anyone want to get involved with an evangelical Christian church – we work really hard at teaching our students – from the beginning – that they are missionaries and that how the church advances is not because of a great church on Sunday – but because they have unprecedented opportunity to build relationships. It doesn’t happen that someone just keeps showing up and gets saved – they usually get involved in a small group and get in relationships with people.
The church possesses the very things that everyone wants – so the more we bring people in and they discover that their identity is not wrapped in these other things – but in who we are in Christ. Some of the misconceptions and initial disagreements begin to fade – and they begin to be open to Scripture.
Joan – I work at KSU – and how do you reach out to students and how do you reach out to the LGBTQ community –
Scott – In my experience of how we interact – we are taught that it is first about friendship – being there and loving as a friend – so that is how we are reaching out to everyone – not pressing our views first. We have a lot of people who have come with completely different views – and are leaving life-group to go party – but eventually they turn the comment back to us – how do you believe about this? I have found people grow closer to God because of this. By loving people where they are – that is how they are reached.
Matthew – from 11 pm to 2:30 am – we hand out pancakes to those who are visiting bars – so we set up shop in front of our office and get into great conversations. People have started coming to our church – because we gave them pancakes. A lot of us on staff remember when we were that person at the bars. That is the only programmed outreach we do. We cast the vision to the students that they will never be around this many opportunities for relationship – and discretional time.
We need to do more and get better at equipping our student leaders to build bridges and not feed into and reinforce the sad misconceptions about how people are treated.
Witt – We have people at Akron who try to proselytize – and turn people off from God.
There is a good way to minister in this way – but there is a lot of yelling and screaming condemning things.
Scott – they do it without grace – without the balance of truth and grace. So whenever someone sees this happening – we will send a message out – to engage in conversation – the people listening and the people screaming – we’ve had great conversations with those who are standing around listening. And we’ve had interesting conversations with the speakers.
How we respond as a church? Some students have responded with talking to those who are listening – it burdens our people that they are lumped into that hate-filled angry view of Christianity.
How does H2O relate to other Christian ministries on campus – like China-Outreach? Or are there other umbrella groups?
Matthew – there is unity and there is relationship. The university puts us in a religious leaders cohort – we have to show up to a meeting once/month. We used to do worship nights together. I am friends with the director of Navigators – we pray for each other. We are friends with the Cru guys – we realize that the campus is massive and the amount of workers needed is more than what we have. Some of the students who are part of the parachurch organizations worship with us – but they tend to worship where their leaders worship. I think that is a good thing.
How many – intervarsity? Campus Crusade? Are they still there? Cru/Nav/CCO/chi alpha/
Do you have suggestions for us how to reach the younger generation? We have a heart for them – but need to know how to reach them.
Matthew: How can this church meaningfully engage with young adults?
I think the biggest barrier is establishing connection. As you go about your natural day – third spaces – (after home and work) – coffee shop/library – once you make that connection – and you pursue someone – there may be some stiff-arming because you are older – and maybe I have a skewed group – but I think young people want someone in the next phase of life – as you get to know someone – I think some of the influence we have is because we are older – there is something about being the next phase – we know more about life and the struggle – and I think – You have something to offer that is profound – and there is a
You guys have supplied us with some high quality people – what we do with graduates – we are figuring that out – putting on a senior retreat and talking about what is next – what it looks like to follow Jesus in your vacation – and brace them for life, post-college. I think there is opportunity for conversations. I know the folks we work with are burdened by the drop off from campus ministry to community church. In a college setting – it is so homogenous – we operate in a bubble that is not real life – so we want to do well at seeing our graduates not just attend church but to step in and be leaders. We see this as a mission – to supply churches with quality leaders - and there is opportunity to talk about what that looks like with Grace Summit.
What can we do to help you and members like you.
Scott – if you want to get a college kid excited, offer food! We do want insight from people who have been through life a little bit longer than us. We have a desire for insight and help and guidance – and someone who can listen to what we are saying – and pursuing that friendship. AND food!
I don’t know if I have a good answer for that – but that is an apparent way of helping – going and getting lunch with someone who is there to help guide.
Do couples get involved in bringing students into their homes – having dinner and developing relationships?
Once/week – the staff members have students into their homes for a time of fellowship – we don’t start until 9 pm so our kids are sleeping – but sometimes we do it earlier – so our kids CAN be part of it.
Dave Brenner – It is good for the students to see a functioning family.
Matthew – we try to do this about once/week in addition to having the leaders over once/week.
I’ll pray – Father, thanks for this opportunity to be here – we are so thankful for this church and all it has done to push and bless h2o forward. We pray for continued influence – hopes and dreams – and supernatural influence into the lives of those who are far from You and that this church would grow for your glory. All that is happening here and in our church is because we are on a mission and you are pursuing your people and drawing them back to yourself.
Thanks!

MJ: In a small group – what are some things we can do with what we have? What might be a program you would attempt?
Matthew: we would use homes – and small groups on campus meet in dorm rooms or dorm lobbies or dorm conference rooms…
MJ: So even before in a congregational area – in homes.
Matthew – we want to make it as easy as possible.
Marianne – how do we start? We have very few young people right now. (They’re all in H2O) –
Matthew – that is a great question – here is my best flawed answer – young people are not so different from everyone – they want to be loved and pursued – and to feel like they matter – anyone can do that. It may be a little harder - - by and large, it is about building relationships – and if you can do that – that is where it starts.
Part of what makes ministry easy, so to speak – is that we ARE older – and shortly, I will be double the age of incoming freshmen. There is something about having kids – if you think about a college sophomore – our lives are vastly different. Different realities – but they want and like our perspective. Once you get beyond the initial stiff-arming – they want a voice of someone who is a little further down the road.
DC: You said you were at a point in your life when you started attending H2O – what attracted you to H2O and what gripped your heart?
Scott – 2 things – first – the worship – I had never seen 200 kids in a room on Sunday morning, not caring about what others think – so that drew me in. It was incredible to be vulnerable with everyone.
The second would be community – I had never experienced such kind friendships. The first week I went – one of my buddies has a passion for music –and within 30 minutes – he invited me up to listen to this band from his hometown. We have a desire for community – to relate – and to be sharing each other’s lives. People don’t know how to pursue genuine friendships – but at H2O they do?
Scott – what is your strategy/plan to help your students continue in the faith?
Matthew – not a ton – we have been trying to understand our own mission for those who are geographically close to Kent. We have our campus life groups and single city group. There are people who have been a part of our church. In the future, it may be possible, but we won’t attract a family with young kids. We would rather keep everyone together – and do small groups separately with city groups – that end earlier. We would like to. With regard to graduating seniors – we do a senior retreat for an overnight – and it is our chance – to thank them and encourage them and to get them thinking about what is next. How to find your next church – what matters and what doesn’t. The preaching of the word, the small groups – high priority – the worship style – low priority. Our graduates go all over.
MJ – so – life groups/campus groups – small groups that have a connection with the larger body – what are some extra – community building activities – non structured activities?
Scott – As we began to grow together, we began to live life together a lot – game nights/ texting – hey, I’m going to get food… - I get lunch with a lot of the guys – Ski trip – that day I grew a ton in getting to know them – the biggest thing – whatever interest the individual has and run with it –
Matthew – I would add to that – the translatability for post college is difficult – it is not the reality of 9-5 job and evening with the family – but as college oriented – we are geared toward church being a part of every part of life. Be pursuers of other people – I love that that is happening.
Alan – I’ve heard that one of the greatest opportunities for campus ministry is International ministry – does H2O have a special outreach to internationals?
Matthew – we do – we partner with some ministries on campus who have been doing that work for years. We provide – two nights a week – we send volunteers to do English language conversation – so we really get to know them. We are bringing them around on Sundays – and how that works and how slow it is and how many barriers there are. It is a slow process. It is encouraging to see people our folks are engaging with to come around on a Thursday for lifegroup. We have a growing number of students that want to do that.
We also use spring break to go overseas – to give our students international experience – it probably doesn’t have a huge impact to have Americans come for 7 days – but it has a huge impact on the lives of those who go. This year we are going to India with Back-to-back. We are actively trying to plant a church in Sweden. That is all still in the works.
Sue – We got involved – my last quarter – it was a whole new world – relationship community – and there were a lot of people who dropped out of school because they wanted to do this 100% for God – and found out – it was not a great way to live the rest of your life – but rather, being directed by God in pursuing a career – how do you encourage the students in this?
Matthew – great question – because – I would never say to a student – drop out of school and pursue God – but how often do I ask a student about their career? Theologically – a sense of calling is not just in vocational ministry – we need well-trained architects and school teachers. Your question is challenging to me – I don’t know how much that factors in.