It’s obvious that social and digital media are a part of the daily diet for students in our culture. According to a recent survey, nearly 70% of students text and over half of them spend time on social media every day.

With stats like that, it may seem like it’s impossible to actually reach students and have them connect in community at church. I mean wouldn’t they rather just live out their faith online?

The truth is, students still prefer face time to screen time. While they may be addicted to their devices, student still desire an opportunity to unplug in an effort to have real, meaningful relationships.

Our Next Gen team at South Tampa Fellowship get this. Rob, Shea, Chris, and Sara do an excellent job at creating environments for students to connect. They get the fact that social media does not equal a social life.

I just got back from, Epic, our weekly student ministry gathering where hundreds of teenagers meet every Sunday night for worship and teaching. However, tonight was different. Yes, they had powerful worship. Yes, there was a clear gospel presentation. But tonight they did a high invite event called the Pumpkin Bash…which included everything from a pie eating contest to, you guessed it, throwing a pumpkin from the roof of our building. It was a great opportunity for students to unplug and connect in real time.

Our churches need more opportunities like this for students to build community. Check out this info graph and let us know how this impacts your student ministry. What are you doing to help students connect in real time?