How to Prepare Seniors For College and the Workforce
There are many transitions a student goes through during their teenage years. This month’s series does a fantastic job describing some of those transitions. The phase I want to cover in this series is transitioning from high school into college and the workforce.
As youth workers, we are always trying to prepare our students to enter the real world after high school, grounded in their faith and equipped to do great things for God’s kingdom. Yet, a study done by Lifeway research in 2018 says that 66% of students dropped out of the church after high school (Ben Trueblood, Within Reach, p.11).
Even though preventing our students from adding to this statistic goes beyond what we do with them in their senior year, I do believe we can miss some vital discipleship opportunities by not planning specific topics we need to address and teach to prepare them for the transition from high school into adulthood.
Below are four vital areas to address that can help our students thrive when they transition out of high school and into adulthood, whether in college or the workforce.
Teach Them How to Make Wise Decisions
When they reach their junior or senior year, most students ask, “What is God’s will for my life?” Big decisions regarding college, what major to study, where to live, what career path to pursue, and who to marry dominate our senior’s minds. Unfortunately, the church, at times, has made discerning God’s will a mystery or series of “throwing out a fleece,” “listening to the voice of God in meditation,” or “praying until you have peace about it.” I believe all these pieces of advice are said with good intentions, but the Bible provides a clearer picture of how we are to discern God’s will.
To help our students discern God’s will, we need to teach them three things.
First, we must pursue the Lord in prayer
Instead of praying, “God, please tell me what to do,” and waiting until he “speaks to you” in some mystical way or sign, we should pray for illumination from the Scriptures. We should pray that God would open our minds to understand his word and will for our lives. We should pray for humility and teachability and for our hearts to be more conformed to Him. We should pray that God’s kingdom will come and that his will will be done in our lives on earth as it is in heaven. We should pray that God will give us wisdom and discernment in our decisions, and we should expect God to answer these prayers according to his will through his word.
Second, we must saturate ourselves in Scripture
God’s moral will for how he wants us to live is revealed in the sixty-six books of divine revelation. Even though the Bible will not give us every scenario (the 1%), it does tell us how we should live with wisdom and for his glory. After asking the Spirit for illumination in step one, by reading and studying the Scripture, we will know God’s heart and ours to be conformed to his. Thus, our desires about a career, college, or spouse will align with his.
Third, we should consult wise counsel
Proverbs 1:5 says, “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance.” As we seek God’s will through receiving his voice in Scripture, we should consult with our parents, pastors, and other godly adults who know us well and want the best for our lives. As hard as it is for students to accept this, their parents are usually right when it comes to what is best for them, and if they are not ok with a decision, I would urge them to reconsider whether it is wise or not. One sign of spiritual maturity is when a young man or woman listens to godly counsel that’s contrary to their own personal desire.
Once a student has done these things, encourage them to decide and not “hyper-spiritualize” their decision. In his book Just Do Something, Kevin DeYoung says, “Sometimes you won’t have time to pray and read and seek counsel for a month. That’s why the way of wisdom is about more than getting a decisive word about one or two big decisions in life. The way of wisdom is a way of life” (p. 95).
I recommend DeYoung's book if you need a resource to help you with this. It has a discussion guide in the back that is perfect for small group studies, allowing your students to learn how to make wise choices that honor God.
Teach Them How to Find a Healthy Local Church
One of the reasons students drop out of church when they leave home is easy to resolve: They simply never decide which new church to attend. Most students grow up in the same church and attend the church their parents attend. Anything different from that feels foreign and uncomfortable. When faced with this decision for themselves, they can either feel like there are too many options and don’t know which to choose, or they might choose an unhealthy church that does not preach the gospel.
One way to teach your seniors how to find a doctrinally healthy church is by walking through your own church’s statement of faith and highlighting key doctrines and practices that are ingredients of a healthy church. For example, you can ask what their statement is on the Bible, the Trinity, the person of Jesus, salvation, and church membership, just to name a few. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church is also a great book to go through with them in identifying some of these ingredients. By conducting this exercise, you can help them know what to look for on a church’s website to see if it is worth visiting instead of basing their decision on the attractional church or where their friends are going.
9Marks has produced some excellent material describing the components of a healthy church and what to look for. I recommend using their “church search” feature when students move to a new city as a good starting point for finding a healthy church to get plugged into.
Prepare Them to Engage Other Worldviews and Religions
YPT recently finished a series on the importance of teaching apologetics to our students. Teaching our students a biblical worldview and how to confront worldviews and religions that differ should be a high priority in our teaching ministry. Furthermore, addressing specific beliefs and claims they will encounter in college and the workforce will help our seniors be more readily equipped to defend and persevere in the faith.
Walking through books like Discover: Questioning Your Way to Faith, 10 Questions Every Teenager Should Ask and Answer, Surviving Religion 101, or a sermon series about world religions during a student’s senior year are practical ways to prepare them to answer tough questions skeptics pose about the Christian faith.
Helping Them Find Their Place in Your Church
Most youth workers are not surprised by the topics I have discussed above. But one topic that we must not overlook (but sometimes do) is how we will integrate our students into the church's life if they continue to live at home once they graduate. Many students leave the church because they don’t know where they fit in after high school. Large churches often have a college ministry, but some, like mine, do not.
Many youth pastors wear the hat of youth and college minister . This can make the transition hard because college freshmen don’t see the difference between high school and college ministry, and it can potentially extend adolescence. To break this mold, we need a plan to make a clear divide between high school and college ministry. Some ideas include providing a college-aged small group, doing college-specific events and retreats, or incorporating college students into specific roles to serve and invest in the student ministry as assistant leaders with your adults. Those foregoing college and jumping straight into the workforce need a place to land. Since they are of similar age and life stage, young adults who enter the workforce should be placed and invited to college events, small groups, etc. However, it is essential to not simply address “college life” things or topics in these groups but make them accessible to all young adults between the ages of 18-24. Within this ministry group it’s important to find ways to minister to these young adults while actively promoting their belonging within the broader church.
Lastly, when considering how to help seniors transition from high school into adulthood, we cannot forget about partnering with their parents in all these facets. Starting in July, I suggest meeting with the parents of seniors and then continuing to meet a few times in the Fall and Spring leading up to graduation. Along with the topics addressed above, Legacy Milestones has provided an excellent guide to help your parents prepare their kids for adulthood.
By the grace of God, by prioritizing this transition, you will help your seniors not just survive but thrive in their Christian faith as they enter adulthood.