As some of you know, I have been asked to write an op-ed piece in our local Sunday paper (The York Sunday News) every six weeks and in past postings, I’ve linked to those pieces. I usually mention books or authors (duh) and figure that our BookNotes friends might want to see my efforts to talk about the sort of stuff that matters to us here, in a more public setting. Yesterday, a new one was published.
In my last blog post I mentioned helping out with the CCO, the campus ministry organization that trains sharp folks to learn about wholistic campus outreach, and then forms partnerships with congregations that are near college campuses. I allude to them in this column (sadly, their strict word count had me editing out whole paragraphs, cutting entire sentences, and triming some of my more colorful adjectives.) In an earlier draft I named Billy Ferrell as the fella sent by the CCO to York, now working out of Asbury United Methodist.
And, of course, in any talk about caring for the youth of the church, I had to talk about how Derek Melleby and Don Opitz’s new book (see the advert over to the left) will help with the college transition.
Read my Sunday News column, “The Yearning of Young Collegians.”
What do you think?
Is there somebody—church staff? Parent? College-age student? you could send it to?
Byron~ I think your comments are especially right on, Not only considering the yearning that is felt by students as this crucial point of formation in the beginning of University life, but I think your points also address the loneliness that is also felt by most of these same students. To bridge the gap between church/home/school is crucial and it as much an action of the student as it is the local congregation….A Question~ Where do blogs and virtual community fit into on-campus isolation?? Does this online world leave an open door for Church culture? I’m thinking of some comments about online culture and social networking sites that I heard via danah boyd’s blog http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts Just a thought~ Ryan