Several of the churches always come and have a table in order to chat with students and maybe even give them some candy or something. They share with them service times and oppourtunities to get involved with their body of believers.
I just called a local church. Because a female answered, based on the denominational information I had, I believe that the secretary answered (but maybe I am assuming too much here). Either way, I could tell she was annoyed by my call in the first place. I proceeded to inform her about the event, and she asked me for more specifics. I told her that it would be a great opportunity to interact with students, encourage them to come to their services, and tell them how they could get involved. She paused.
Then she said, "I really don't think we have anything for them here."
"Okay," I said, a little shocked.
"We're not interested."
I told her goodbye and hung up, incredulous.
You don't have anything for "THEM" ??
Does the "them" you refer to mean a lost and dying world that is in need of Jesus? The reality is that a lot of our students may not have a relationship with Christ. If an evangelical church thinks that we have nothing to offer them, then we are in big trouble.
So what if this church doesn't have a thriving college ministry. Maybe they don't have a huge budget to make cute little goody bags or pop an obscene amount of free popcorn. It doesn't take much to impress a broke college kid, so a little love and grace (along with maybe some grandmas in the congregation baking some cookies or something) means a lot to a kid far away from everything he once knew.
Maybe they are busy and stretched too thin ministry-wise. That's a fair reason to respectfully decline. But avoiding it because it's too much work to love on some college kids is a problem.
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