As several of our children are getting into their teen years, my husband and I have more and more conversations with other parents about what our children plan to do after high school, and especially about deciding where to send children to college. Usually, these conversations about college center around three factors—cost, classes and majors, and extracurricular activities.

These are all good factors to weigh, but I would like to challenge parents to consider adding another factor to this equation, and, in fact, ranking this factor ahead of all the others. Consider what church or churches are near to the colleges your children are considering, and, specifically, if the school at which they are looking has a church body where your child can worship with freedom of conscience, according to the standards and convictions with which they have been raised, and with a level of accountability that would help them as they learn to live away from their parents. There are other post-high-school options besides college, but any option should still include the church as an essential part of that decision.

In question four of the covenant of baptism, we promise to train our children “to understand the nature of the Church, the value of its worship and fellowship, and his/her need to seek communicant membership in the church.” John Calvin talks about the church as being “into whose bosom God is pleased to gather his sons, not only that they may be nourished by her help and ministry as long as they are infants and children, but also that they may be guided by her motherly care until they mature and at last reach the goal of faith. ‘For what God has joined together, it is not lawful to put asunder’ (Mark 10:9), so that, for those to whom he is Father the church may also be mother” (Institutes, book 4, chap. 1). We are clearly taught in the RP Church that the church is of vital importance to the believer. Hopefully, as we are raising our children, they are seeing the importance of worship and church life reflected in our lives. Many children have become communicant members in the church by the time they graduate from high school, so they would have an even more personal commitment. How then do we help our older children translate this commitment to the church into their own lives as they grow into adults?

One of the ways we can train our children to understand the value and importance of the church is to encourage them to make the church one of the first things to consider as they search for a school. If we train our children to allow the church to take a backseat in this decision, we will be encouraging them to give the church a backseat in all of their decisions. However, at this crucial time, when our children will be stepping out more fully on their own adult legs, if they can understand the church to be a crucial part of their college decision, then it will make it much easier for them to make the church a priority in their decisions later on.

A couple of scenarios come to mind. The best-case scenario is this: Children choose a college that has an RP church within its community. This church has a witness on campus, is committed to biblical worship and doctrines, and welcomes this student into their midst. The leadership and body of this church get to know the student and provide shepherding and oversight while the student is at school. It also provides a place for the student to bring others as a witness, and to answer questions and challenges to their faith that will face them in the college setting.

As much as we may laugh and joke about going to college to find a spouse, this is very often where we find one. This scenario would give our children a good opportunity of meeting others of likemindedness. In the end, the student has a solid foundation that will encourage him in biblical convictions as he more and more learns to step out on his own.

A more difficult situation is this: Our child chooses a school that has no RP church nearby, and no other churches that are Reformed. In this case, they may find a good “sola scriptura” church, but they are not taught to uphold the standards they have been raised with about the Sabbath, worship, the sacraments, etc. Here their standards are not only challenged in their college classes and campus life, but also in the church itself. It is much harder, if not impossible, to meet likeminded people. While we know that the Lord’s arm is not short, we also know that these are years when a student’s direction is often cemented. The student is weakened in his faith and leaves the RP church, or worse, denies the faith.

Granted, this last scenario seems like the worst case, and there are many scenarios that could be fit in between these two. Nonetheless, the college years are crucial years for our children. They are quickly moving out from under their parents’ authority in the parents’ homes, establishing themselves as adults, and eventually establishing their own homes. The college years are still training years for our children, and their personal convictions are often still being solidified. As parents, do we not continue to have a responsibility to place our children as much as possible in an environment where they will have influences that will conform, not undermine, these convictions? Also, as touched on earlier, the children that are communicant members of our denomination need to think about the vows they took towards the church, particularly vows four and five: “Do you recognize your responsibility to work with others in the church and do you promise to support and encourage them in their service to the Lord? In case you should need correction in doctrine or life, do you promise to respect the authority and discipline of the church?…Do you promise to regularly attend the worship services, observe the appointed sacraments…?” Yes, the church can bring much blessing to them, but they are also called to be a blessing and to minister to the church.

Helping our children find the right college with the church at the forefront of that decision also encourages these young adults as they finish college to seek where God would have them in relation to the church. Knowing the blessing of the church through their college years, they better see the need to have that same blessing as they join the workforce. The church is a vital part of the decisions made by those who do not attend college after high school as well. How tempting it is to accept a job because of the benefits, salary, opportunities, etc. Yet we are called to seek first the Lord. This includes being a part of his church and working for its benefit. Often this calls for sacrifice.

The comments so far have been a challenge to parents and students considering their next step, but churches should also see this as a challenge. Is your church close to a campus? If so, do you seek to encourage and embrace those students in your midst, challenging them in their growth, and providing solid Christian fellowship for them as well as assisting them in their outreach to others on campus? Does your congregation welcome and show hospitality to newcomers in your services and activities?

I am thankful that the RPCNA already has several churches whose location puts them in close proximity to various colleges and who have developed ministries on those campuses. Though this is far from being an exhaustive list, several college/RP congregation combinations that I am aware of are Grove City College/Rose Point RPC; Oklahoma State/Stillwater RPC; Purdue/Lafayette RPC; Indiana Univerity/Bloomington RPC; Geneva College/College Hill, Tusca, First, and Eastvale RPCs; Penn State University/Grace (State College, Pa.) RPC; Sterling College/Sterling RPC; Bethel/Elkhart RPC; Syracuse University/Syracuse RPC. I am also thankful as over and over again I hear stories of young people who are newly joining the workforce, who have sought a job close to an RP church, and who have been a blessing and seen great blessing because of that decision.

May the Lord continue to place the church in our and our children’s hearts and lives as He desires.