Discipleship 101?

I'm in eastern PA this week, stumping for PIONEERS at Messiah College, Philadelphia Biblical University, Eastern University, Thomas Jefferson medical school and points in between. Today was the stop at Messiah in Grantham, PA. Messiah is a Christian school (duh) with a student body of 2800. I spoke briefly in a class on leadership, sharing bits and pieces of what I've been learning about leadership development on a corporate level. I described discipleship and mentorship as forms of leadership in that they develop character in people in much the same way that a good leader does in his followers -- and that a good leader ought to be exhibiting in her or her own right. I relayed my own experience of being discipled for two years beginning as a college freshman and how I, in turn, discipled a freshman when I was a junior and my discipler had graduated. I then asked the class of about 10 how many of them had been discipled or mentored or were currently in such a relationship. Not one student raised a hand.

How tragic. Who knows if this class is indicative of the campus as a whole, but I suspect it is. And what a shame that almost 3000 students live, work and study all within just a few square miles and they're not engaging in each other's lives in this way. I didn't have the heart to tell them it gets harder once you leave that environment.

This may be a generation adrift. They have an undeniable longing for community and personal development, and yet they seem not to know how to get it or provide it for each other. We desperately need Pauls and Barnabases who will step up to the plate and lead the way to consistent discipleship and mentorship relationships for men and women on college campuses and, indeed, in all phases of life.