\n<\/p>\n
Higher education has a hard road ahead. Christian colleges, in particular, are in crisis<\/a> over lower enrollments, the financial constraints<\/a> that come with fewer students, and larger ideological conflicts<\/a> that reflect our increasingly fractured society. Data indicates that young people are the demographic most likely to leave<\/a> organized religion behind.<\/p>\n Arguably now more than ever, college is a coming-of-age time when many young adults figure out who they are and what they believe.<\/p>\n For Christian students, going to college means figuring out how to \u201ckeep faith\u201d and deepen it. This retention depends in part on learning how to flourish in mind, heart, body, and soul; how to love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself; and how to do college right, not by avoiding mistakes (which isn\u2019t possible) but by making wise decisions early to avoid the more common and ruinous obstacles.<\/p>\n Drawing on my experience as a theology professor at a Christian university, here are the habits and choices I\u2019ve seen work well, along with a few to resist.<\/p>\n 1. Go to church\u2014but not online.<\/strong><\/p>\n The first and most important thing to do is find a local church, place membership there, and attend worship every Sunday you\u2019re in town. Try the college ministry, go on the retreats, join a Bible study. These are non-negotiables for being a believer in college. If you\u2019re at a Christian school, you might be tempted to let campus activities be a substitute for church. Don\u2019t\u2014they\u2019re not. Nothing can replace the people of God, the word of God, the Lord\u2019s Supper, or worship in the Spirit with fellow disciples.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not at a Christian school, you might feel tempted to sleep in on Sundays or let the busyness of intramurals, classes, roommates, and concerts distract you from what matters most. You\u2019re already a Christian, though. You know what matters most. Go to church.<\/p>\n What kind, you ask? I\u2019m not going to answer that question. But I will say: Unless you need it for health or accessibility reasons, streaming worship shouldn\u2019t be on the table. It\u2019s not the same. Find a local body\u2014read: body<\/em>\u2014of believers who pray, listen to the Scriptures, proclaim the good news, celebrate communion, and serve the community.<\/p>\n Christian worship is Word and sacrament\u2014each is essential. Word and sacrament<\/em> doesn\u2019t mean \u201cword and worship band,\u201d or as I like to call it, \u201cCCM and TED Talks.\u201d If you want your faith to survive college, you need the sacraments. And you need fellow believers.<\/p>\n 2. Delete social media\u2014for real.<\/strong><\/p>\n I teach a class on the topic of Christian discipleship and digital technology. None of my students protest when I say they\u2014we\u2014are addicted to screens. None of them denies wishing they could cut in half (or more) the amount of time they spend daily on their smartphones (typically 4 to 8 hours; one student averaged 12 per day). But all of them suppose it\u2019s impossible.<\/p>\n During the course of the semester, I invite them to delete any and all nonessential apps from their phones for a one-month period. No more YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok. They imagine their lives will come to a screeching halt. But here\u2019s what they discover instead: Not only do they not need it, they don\u2019t even miss it.<\/p>\n I invite you to do the same. If it\u2019s too difficult to delete completely, limit your daily usage to 1\u20132 hours. Turn it off on Sundays, especially. If you meet someone, swap numbers or email addresses. Your spiritual and mental health will skyrocket as everyone else\u2019s plummets. Do it. You\u2019ll thank me later.<\/p>\n 3. Build a library\u2014starting now.<\/strong><\/p>\n My first rule as a professor is never to assign a book I don\u2019t love\u2014a bad book, a boring book, or a poorly-written book\u2014but not every professor lives or can<\/em> live by this rule. And not all books are life changing.<\/p>\n However, some, or even many, of the texts you encounter will be worth your time. If they\u2019re worth your attention now, they\u2019ll be worth revisiting later. Don\u2019t view them as obstacles on the way to a diploma. View them as the point<\/em>\u2014the reason you\u2019re in college in the first place.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve gotten rid of social media (or at least most of it), you can sit still with a book in your lap for more than five minutes at a time. If the book means something to you, if it speaks to you or sparks something in you, or even if it seems to mean something to others you respect\u2014keep it. Money permitting, don\u2019t rent it. Buy it. Store it away. Come out of college with a small but growing library.<\/p>\n Let these years plant a seed that sprouts over a lifetime\u2014a yearning to keep reading about the world around you and God\u2019s work in it.<\/p>\n 4. Make friends\u2014with the dead (and others).<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s an old Latin phrase: nemo nisi per amicitiam cognoscitur<\/em>. Roughly rendered, it means \u201cno one knows anything except by friendship\u201d (or love). C. S. Lewis suggested there are four loves. I like to think there are four friendships, and they\u2019re perhaps more widely available on a college campus than anywhere else.<\/p>\n First, there\u2019s friendship with the dead\u2014authors who are no longer with us but whose books live on. Stanley Hauerwas once remarked<\/a> that what makes Lewis so perennially popular is his capacity for friendship with readers: \u201cHe makes himself available to his readers as a trusted friend in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n