Tuesday 30 June 2015

Gap Year Internships - why you should encourage them!

GAP YEAR Internships

Young people in our churches face an enormous challenge when they finish college and head off to uni. Many churches and parents lament the fact that when their young people leave Home and church for uni, they also leave the Church and God for the world! The story is so common it is tragic.

But it is hardly surprising. Uni is a very hostile environment for a young Christian. Both Brighton and Sussex university boast a great, 24/7 party life in the city with cheap booze, alternative lifestyles and total acceptance - literally, anything goes! The slogan of Sussex uni is ‘Be Still and Know’. They have deliberately left off ‘That I am God’. Sussex uni was one of the first universities to be built on secular humanist values.

Think about it, we take a teenager who has lived at home all their life, been part of a stable Christian family and church, with friends and family within the church where they get lots of support and encouragement in their faith, we then thrust them out, away from just about every bit of support they have ever known, into a totally strange environment, with strangers all around them, with no restraints except their own will - and the environment is friendly in just about every way except one - it is totally, completely and openly hostile to their christian faith. That is not an exaggeration. 

Of course they are desperate to make friends - and you don’t make friends by being a wet blanket. The only way to make friends is to fit in, be one of them, go out with them - just be like everyone else - or be isolated. (Of course their is the CU - but these vary in quality from year to year and are not the local church.)

Then, they secretly seek out a church on Sunday where they find a welcome, but everything is different there. Not many people their age if any. It is another place where they feel awkward and don’t really fit in. The difference between church and uni, is that church is one awkward place they don’t have to go to.

University life is hard enough to adjust to; new people, new classes and learning, a whole new city. To have to go church hunting and try to fit in there too, on top of everything else can just be too much.

It is no wonder our young people go off the rails - we hardly give them a chance, it really is sink or swim, and for far, far too many it is sink!

Brothers and sister, we cannot afford to keep throwing our sheep to the wolves without preparation and protection! Is there anything we can do to help?

Gap-Year Internships on Site
I believe it basic common sense to encourage every 'student to be', to first go to the city of their university and spend a year as an intern with a local church.

This has great advantages.

  1. It serves the city they will go to and benefit from.
  2. It provides a  strong theological foundation for the student.
  3. It give them an opportunity to really focus on God and getting deep roots down into a local church.
  4. It give them a head start in getting to know the city and the culture.
  5. It enables them to establish strong, gospel relationships with christian friends and church family that will help them through the coming years.

The five points above also mean the student will be more influential than their peers when they start. They will feel more confident and will not have to start searching for a local church when they arrive. As they begin uni, they will have a church family and key friends and mentors who can help them navigate the gauntlet of temptation that university life throws up.

These are some of the reasons we at New Life Brighton offer a Gap Year internship for those planning to study in Brighton. We believe it is basic wisdom to do so. If you know anyone thinking about studying in Brighton, why not encourage them to first do an internship with us? While you’re at it, work on making it part of your church culture that students seek out Gap Year internships in the relevant city.


To find out more, contact me: jrebera.nlc@gmail.com

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