6 Ways that Christian Students Can Prepare for College: #3 What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
I am in the middle of a 6-part series helping Christian students think through how to prepare for life at a big university. This topic is particularly relevant, I hope, given the number of high school seniors who are in the middle of deciding where they will go to college in the fall.
This little series is based on a recent lecture I gave to the Regents School in Austin, Texas, where I laid out 6 principles designed to help rising college students think more clearly about what’s ahead. It’s also based on my book, Surviving Religion 101. You can read the prior installments here and here.
We now … Continue reading...
6 Ways that Christian Students Can Prepare for College: #2 You Won’t Have All the Answers
Last week I began a new 6-part series helping Christian students think through how to prepare for life at a big university. The series is based on a recent lecture I gave to the Regents School in Austin, Texas, where I laid out 6 principles designed to help rising college students think more clearly about what’s ahead. It’s also based on my book, Surviving Religion 101.
In the first installment my advice was simple: “Take this transition seriously.” Yes, students can be overly skeptical about their future college experience—what I call a “martyr complex”—where they begin to think everyone is out to get them. But the opposite is a … Continue reading...
6 Ways that Christian Students Can Prepare for College: #1 Take This Transition Seriously
Well, it’s that time of year. By now, many high school seniors have heard where they have been accepted to college. Others are still waiting. But all are beginning to think about the next stage of their life post-high school.
And for Christian students this time of anticipation can be particularly acute. It is natural for them to wonder, How am I going to survive at a big university as a Christian? Am I ready to handle the challenges coming my way? What if I don’t have all the answers?
Of course, this sort of angst is not just felt by the students. It is also felt (and maybe felt … Continue reading...
Keeping the Faith in College
Now that it’s officially August, the “back to school” conversations have begun. For many parents, however, it is not back to school for their kids, but “away” to school. Some parents are sending kids to college—perhaps for the first time.
My family is in exactly that position. My second child, John, heads to college in just a few weeks. My oldest, Emma, already left three years ago. And I know what parents are feeling. They are wondering how their child will survive the intellectual and spiritual challenges of university life.
Indeed, I can still vividly remember my own college experience as a believer on campus. In the fall of 1989, … Continue reading...
How to Prepare Your Student for College
Now that high school graduation season is coming to a close, I know that a lot of parents out there have one simple question on their mind: Have I done a good job preparing my child for college?
Every Christian parent wonders this. We pray that we’ve adequately prepared our high school graduate to enter into the fray of college life: intellectually, spiritually, and morally. Indeed, this is why I wrote my recent book, Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College.
If you are asking these same questions, I talked at length about these issues in a recent podcast with Reformed Youth … Continue reading...