Nathan Creitz, pastor of the Church at the Gate, responds to the skepticism concerning the possibility of success in planting a church with college students as the core.  Pastor Nathan's church focuses on Boston University.

   1.  Can College students support a church financially?

The truth is, starting ANY church in a New England context can take up to ten years.  However, our church (over half are college students) has given generously to meet every need.  We have raised over $40,000 for missions and outreach in addition to our budget items.  Currently, I get a small stipend from the church, but other than staff living expenses, we have been a 100% self sustaining church for more than a year now.  I have realized that college students will give to something that they value.  If no one is willing to invest in them, they probably won’t realize what they are capable of in the first place. Give them a chance.

   2.  How can you expect them to invest their time and energy when they are notorious for being unreliable?

At the CHURCH at the GATE we have discovered that college students and young adults have discretionary time and money and will invest it in things they value.  If you can impart a hunger for God’s Word and the work of the Lord into their hearts, they will give their time to the cause.  If they think that no one in the church cares if they come or not, then you probably won’t get them to be very involved.  Young people vote with their feet.

    3.   Are people other than college students welcome and invited to your church?

I like to use the analogy of a dartboard to answer this question.  Our bull’s eye is a college freshman at Boston University.  That is a very narrow focus, but it allows us to concentrate our outreach efforts on just a few target groups.  However, just as with a dartboard, you still get points if you get the dart on the board.  We have seniors, juniors and sophomores as well as freshmen.  We have students from [other colleges].  We have graduates and we even have a married couple.  We are praying for other groups to join us.  Our hope is to have a multi-generational church one day, but our focus will always be the same.