Brian Mills

Preparing Students for College, with Brian Mills

The number of students today who go off to college and walk away from their faith is staggering. What can we do about it? Can we be better preparing them for the next stage of life?

On this episode of the podcast, Brian Mills joins us to talk about how to better prepare students for college. Brian is an author, speaker, and Pastor who led prominent student ministries for 15 years, and now leads a very successful college ministry that is reaching students at Cross Church in Fayetteville, AR. He is the author of Checkpoints: A Tactical Guide to Manhood.

Takeaways from this episode:

Focus in on a clear understanding of the Gospel
- Lay out the Gospel
- Teach students evangelism
- Teach them the impact of the Gospel by 1) preaching it and 2) having students go out and share the Gospel themselves
- Changed people change people
Students need a clear understanding of the sanctification process
- Teach them the process of becoming more like Christ
- Teach them spiritual disciplines
- If you want to live out the Word, spend time in the Word
- Teach them how to have an effective prayer life (and an effective prayer list)
- Scripture memory
- Teach students what repentance is
Students need to learn the importance of living out their faith
- Sharing their faith
- Not getting involved in worldly activities
- Students need to be prepared to live out their faith BEFORE college
The Local Church
- Teach them why attending is important
- Serving in the Local Church
- If they learn this at a young age, they will continue this after high school
Giving
- Why is tithing important?
- Why are we called to give?
- You cannot expect adults to give later in life if they were not taught to give at a young age
Community matters
- More than just a small group
- We were built to do life with people
- We need to be held accountable
Healthy relationships
- Teach them how to have relationships in a godly way
- Most grow up watching people/ parents get divorced
- Most are in/ or have had bad relationships
- If you are going to teach about healthy relationships, live out a healthy relationship
Wisdom
- Don’t ask what the right thing is to do, ask what the wise thing is to do
- Teach children at a young age what wisdom is so they are prepared to make wise choices in college
- Teach them how to receive and recognize wisdom
- Teach them who and what to listen to