Minister/Parent Resources
Help Your Student Grow
Use the videos, websites, articles, and books laid out in this section to help your students transition from high school to college. Also check out the resources we want your students to use. We want them to know that we all want them to succeed and that we are here for them while they are in college. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Websites
Here are some helpful websites to help prepare your students for life in college.
ACM
Find campus ministries at colleges all over the country and the world.
CPYU
Youth Transition Network and Center for Parent/Youth Understanding
Growing Leaders
Help your students realize their ability to lead their peers and make wise decisions during their college career. (Tim Elmore)
Believers College Prep
Help your students prepare and transition well to college and campus ministry.
Boundless
Boundless is a Focus on the Family community for Christian young adults who want to pursue faith, relationships and adulthood with confidence and joy.
Impact 360
Life-changing experiences that help students live out their faith with confidence.
Every Student Sent
Find other campus ministries that aren't members of the ACM.
Articles
Here are some helpful articles to help prepare your students for life in college.
Books to Read
Faith for Exiles by David Kinnamon and Mark Matlock.
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2019. Insightful, hopeful, practical. If you are only going to read one book about leading Gen Z to spiritual maturity, make it this one.
Generation Z Unfiltered by Tim Elmore and Andrew McPeak.
Atlanta: Poet Gardener Publishing, 2019—Data-driven research that gives significant insight into what Gen Z is all about and how to connect with them effectively.
You Lost me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith by David Kinnamon.
Grand Rapids, MI: BakerBooks, 2011–Why do so many “church kids” wander away while they’re in college? This volume looks at causes and responses.
Churchless: Understanding Today’s Unchurched and How to Connect with Them edited by George Barna and David Kinnamon.
Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2014. Since younger people tend to be less connected with the church than ever before, the Barna team’s insights are especially significant to those doing campus ministry.
Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by Christian Smith with Melinda Lundquist Denton.
London: Oxford University Press, 2005—Amazingly broad study of what teens were believing and doing in the first decade of the 2000’s; much of the underlying thinking among teens has remained fairly constant.
Spiritual Mentoring: A Guide to Seeking and Giving Direction by Keith R. Anderson and Randy D. Reese.
Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1999. By now, a classic and fairly comprehensive guide to creating and maximizing mentoring relationships.
Disruptive Witness: Speaking the Truth in a Dist4racted Age by Alan Noble.
Downers Grove, I: InterVarsity Books, 2018. In a world where the average teen receives 10,000 messages a day, how can we even hope to be acknowledged, let along heard? Noble shares some good insights on getting the message through.