Proposal to sow studentsoul Beyond Dunedin

What is the problem?

The Bible Class Movement of the 60’s and 70’s successfully sowed the seed that bore fruit in many of the current generation of ministers in the PCANZ. This movement was able to gather that generation in such a way that not only inspired faith and mission in Christ but also generated a sense of community as part of a wider group of young people enjoying social and spiritual life together.

Currently the mission amongst youth in Presbyterian churches is slowly regaining momentum and this may be readily identified in the gathering of 150 Youth Workers at CONNECT as part of a national strategy to equip and support those who are leading the present generation of young people in our churches.

However, the same is not true of the next age group. There is a gap.

18-30 YEAR OLDS

The age group between 18 and 30 is currently lost to the church.

We can identify several things that occur when a young person graduates from high school.

If the 18 year old remains in the home environment:

  1. Connections with church may remain but the Youth Group will soon become too young.
  2. The church has little expertise in meeting the needs of the young adult.
  3. These young people find themselves in a wilderness in the PCANZ.
  4. The next temptation will be to attend a more Pentecostal or youth oriented type church or none at all.

If the 18 year old moves to a university town, several possibilities can occur:

  1. The student will not transfer into any church environment.
  2. The student will attend a youth oriented or more contemporary, maybe Pentecostal style church.
  3. The student will struggle to find a church home and the temptations of a freer social environment will gradually draw them away from their spiritual roots.

Statistics also show that on leaving a tertiary institution, even those students who have attended a church during their undergraduate studies will not reconnect into another spiritual environment.

The implications of this pattern are now apparent in the PCANZ. A gap in this age range, under 40’s has long been noted. When now we are looking for leadership from this generation for Children and Families ministries, for Youth Groups and for leadership in general, they are not to be found in any great proportion.

WHAT MAY HELP THE PCANZ UNDERSTAND THIS SITUATION AND REDRESS IT?

  1. We need to note that transitions are particularly important periods of time to help young people retain and reestablish a sense of connectedness and spiritual roots.
  2. The transition from high school to tertiary institution and beyond is a particularly crucial time.
  3. We need a model of church, that will captivate and inspire this generation of young people who are our future leaders, yet is still rooted in our Presbyterian heritage. This is absolutely crucial.

 

THE STUDENTSOUL MODEL

studentsoul, as a café style outreach mission for students, was established in 2002 under the guidance of the Synod of Otago and Southland, and through the Dunedin Presbytery.  It has now become linked to a church context as a special outreach project of Leith Valley Presbyterian Church, continuing to be funded as a mission of the Synod and Presbytery and supported by other local churches. studentsoul was planted on the Dunedin campus for the sole purpose of providing a church environment in the first instance for Presbyterian students, and for those searching for a different way to "do" church. It has proven that some of the above trends happening in the PCANZ can be reversed.

Without having any conditions or particular model attached to it, studentsoul was able to evolve with its sole focus on the needs and culture of the 18-25 year old person at a tertiary institution in Dunedin. Yet at the heart of it were deep roots in the Presbyterian Church and its ethos.  In many ways it is a modern day version of the Bible Class movement, in that it has gathered and developed a solid community of faith and fun and begun to seed the call of leaders for mission and ministry in the future.

Over 130 students from across the country attend weekly services during the semesters. It has captured a core of Presbyterian young people who were and would have otherwise gone to other non Presbyterian churches or nowhere at all. It is also reaching students who have not been exposed to the gospel. It is drawing students from a wide variety of church and non church backgrounds, as well as significant numbers of international students.

Studentsoul is a growing community of students who believe in Christ and want to help others to discover a relationship with God through Jesus. It is particularly focused on providing a ministry that integrates the life of faith in Jesus Christ with the special tasks of life as a young adult and student, spirituality, academic experience and emotional and mental health. We aim to provide opportunities for leadership development that prepare students for life beyond academia, and especially for future church and other leadership.

The purpose of studentsoul is to:

We aim to do this through:

Over the last six years we’ve seen:

Where can we go from here?

From our experience of six years of leading this ministry, we are more then ever convinced that there is a need for churches like this offering an indigenous place for young adults to find faith and to find wholeness and focus for a life of service. We believe our experience warrants this model being replicated in other tertiary institutions for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s and for the sake of this generation and our church. It is time to intentionally strategize to retain and grow a new style of Presbyterian Church with great roots and much richness to call forth and seed into a new generation of leaders.

Philosophically this needs:

Specifically a church plant of this nature would take the following conditions and resources: