A College Sized Faith: Why so many Students lose their Faith in College

“And we pray that these young people don't lose their faith when they go out into the world and to college.” this line was used during the closing prayer of Senior Sunday (AKA graduate Sunday) the year I graduated from  high school. Growing up in church you hear about the kids who used to go to church but they lost their faith in college. As a senior, you hear the advice to find a church and bible study, so you don't lose your faith, again and again. There are statistics you can look up showing the drastic rate of college students who stop going to church and lose their faith, But I don't believe that's true.

I believe that minimal high school graduates, if any, lose their own faith in college. Instead I believe that if they lose faith, its their parent’s faith. Growing up and through high school a student does not need their own faith. Should they? Yes, but it's easy to fake. You go to church with your family, you have family bible study or prayer time, everyone might go to Wednesday night bible study, but you can do this without having faith. As a student you might even think it is your own. You say your a Christian, your friends at school know you go to church, but your faith is not your own.

Then you graduate and go to college. You become an adult. You can no longer rely on your parents to wake you up on Sunday morning and maybe the hangover from last night is just so bad you don't want to get up, so you don't. Instead you say, “ill go next week” but next week comes and goes without you going to church. When having faith is your own responsibility it can no longer be your parent’s faith you rely on. It has to be your own faith. It has to be a relationship you want to have and not something you are forced to do. And this faith can't start when you graduate (it can, but it should happen sooner) instead it should be fostered as a child grows so that their faith is always their own instead of their parent’s.

The prayer should not be “And we pray that these young people don't lose their faith when they go out into the world and to college.” Instead it should start when the child is young. It should be that the church and family teach the child how to have their own faith. And the prayer should be that the child accepts this faith and fosters it as their own, into adulthood.

So I think the reason so many students lose their faith in college is because it was never theirs to begin with and that needs to change.

Love God, Love People, Love Disney

~Lacey