When students arrive at Regent these days, they come with a range of complexities to contend with that surpasses what we’ve seen before. Finding affordable housing is a challenge. More students take fewer credits, live with increased financial difficulties and even food insecurity. Some students depend on the food bank to feed themselves. That’s a new thing.
Students arrive with deep wounds from church hurt and are aware of the trauma they have experienced. They are sensitive to culture wars and global tensions. They’re stressed about what is happening to our planet. And we know anxiety is endemic in North American culture today.
A key question for many students is how to cultivate meaningful friendships that span age, culture, and life stage. How do we cultivate expansive, sustaining relationships across different groups? Students are looking for safe places for honest conversations about contentious issues. How do we engage well? How do we live together and love each other despite differences?
Relationships have always been key within theological formation. As Dean of Students, I’m seeing an increasingly deep thirst in students for holistic personal formation. They yearn to be transformed by the living Christ to become the person that Christ has created them to be. That’s tremendously exciting and brings a lot of opportunity.
