College Grads and Retirees Make Great Church Planters

College students “discovered” the Summit in 2003. If I’m remembering rightly, it went something like this: One week about five college students visited. They pulled up in one car at the drop-off zone, parked it there, and then piled out. They liked the service, and because college students travel in herds, the next week they brought back 250 of their friends. They all arrived in that same one car. In a period of less than a month, our attendance doubled. And during that same time, our weekly average giving increased by $13.48. College students bring a lot of great things—enthusiasm, optimism, evangelistic zeal—but money is not one of them.

One of my favorite memories as a pastor is a Sunday morning when an usher came up to me after the first service with a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from Bojangles. One of the college students had placed it in the offering plate with a little note on it that read (charitably misquoting Acts 3:6), “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I unto you.”

The leadership of our church realized something pretty quickly. With such a huge influx of college students, we might not be the wealthiest church, but we would always have a large pool of potential missionaries. So we began to challenge our graduating college seniors to let ministry be the most shaping factor in determining where they would pursue their careers. We asked our college students to spend their first two years after graduation pursuing their careers in a place where we are planting a church. As we tell them now, “You have to get a job somewhere. Why not get one in a place where you can be part of a strategic work of God?” We tell them, “Give us two years, and we’ll change the world.” Tongue in cheek, we sometimes refer to this as our “Mormonization strategy.” But it has caught on.

Hundreds upon hundreds of these students have answered that call. In fact, recent college graduates account for a third of the people we send on our domestic church plants.

As we have made room for them, God has provided for us. One week, after we commissioned dozens of college students, a guest from the West Coast visiting our church was so moved by the number of students he saw that he committed to give us $186,000. I stood up the next week and told our students, “Okay, guys, for the foreseeable future, financially, you are covered.”

Reaching college students isn’t just about creating enthusiasm and energy for your church. It’s about seeing God fulfill his promise in Psalm 2:8 to raise up a generation that will carry the gospel to the nations: “Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance.” Read More

Also See:
Don’t Sideline the Women in Your Church Plant