Bookshelf

College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture, by Stephen Lutz.

Stephen Lutz writes this book from his experience as a campus pastor at the thriving environment of Penn State, offering valuable insight about effectively engaging college students on their campuses in a short flurry of pages.

The objective of the book reveals that the unreached people groups of the world are crowding our college campuses en masse.

In order to reach them strategically and effectively, we must change our tired strategies to be more missionally-minded. I appreciate how he cuts beneath the inspirational rhetoric so typical of this genre, and immediately translates “missional theology to the practice of college ministry.”

A big theme throughout the book is the urgency to reproducing disciples, not just converts.

Lutz spends a considerable amount of time fighting the tendency to fall back on the usual modernist ministry proclivities such as concert infatuation, assembly-line efficiency, and head-counting as the sole measurement of success. He articulates the gospel masterfully, restoring college outreach back to the basics of one-on-one, long term discipleship. Lutz then ends the book with a call to die to self-absorption. Yes, I know… that’s how ministry should look. But this is one of the first books I’ve read with a college focus I’ve read that orients itself around the Great Commission of Jesus so well.

The layout of the book is a trisect of short, charged admonitions that move along like a narrative. Borrowing from a tree analogy, Lutz illustrates the activity of an effective college ministry as

1. being rooted in the Gospel,
2. growing out in mission, and
3. bearing fruit that will last in discipleship.

This small paperback is quite dynamic considering its few pages and sharp focus.

As a college pastor in Southern California, I found the book well-suited to train others (myself included) for reaching out to campuses while expecting long-term fruit. Yet, as a former college student, millennial, and product of a college environment, I found myself wishing I had read this book years ago.

Though the “college ministry” in the book title seems to imply a pastoral modus operandi, this is a book for ANYONE who wants to engage the college campus setting with results that will last. In fact, having wrestled with many of the obstacles that Lutz presents, both as a college pastor and a former student, I am suggesting this book as a MUST read.

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I gave this book the highest rating possible.

I’m not sure how other people determine their 5-star rating system, but mine is particular, and since I gave this book 5 stars, you should also know why I did. A five star rating means it fulfilled all of the below requirements for me when I read a book.

1. Did it have something important to say? Or have I read this book before?
2. Was it well written? Not?
3. Was it cohesive? Or did I get lost?
4. Was it consistent? Or was there wasted space?
5. Is it relevant to MY niche? Or just simply a good book?

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