GroshLink

have the chance to express their doubts in high school, the higher their faith maturity and spiritual maturity. Thus the key is not to get kids to say the right things before they graduate to the big bad world, but to help them think through the tough questions and verbalize some of their faith and personal struggles before they hit the ups and downs of the college transition. --Kara Powell, the director of the Center for Youth and Family Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary

The lion, the witch and the college campus is a must read. Written by Derek Melleby, a friend from the Geneva Higher Education Program who works for Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO) and the Center for Parent and Youth Understanding (CPYU), this piece includes an interview w/David C. Downing, C.S. Lewis scholar at Elizabethtown College. For parents/students in the transition process (and youth ministers in general), don't miss the College Transition Initiative Resources.

Derek concludes, First,

we need to create space for students to wrestle with some of the intellectual challenges to the Christian faith before going to college. Students need to know how Christian beliefs will be challenged not only in the classroom, but by living in close proximity with other people who do not share the Christian worldview.

Creating space for students to articulate what they believe and why will help them to be Christians from the inside out, rather from the outside in.

Amen.