Shaping Their Future: Mentoring Students Through Their
Formative College Years
[ Order your copy here! ]
About the book:
The college years are some of the most formative years of life. The context of the university campus is unlike any other – rich with educated voices, diversity, freedom, opportunity, and space for students to explore – who they are and who they are becoming. However, for far too many students today, the formative college years are being wasted. In a lot of ways college has become high school – Part 2, but with a lot of debt incurred. The college experience demands a transition, or series of transitions, and our young adults need to be encouraged to work with God to make the most of their formative college years.
And that’s where you come in. Most of today’s students will not find their way into these significant transitions on their own. They need you. They need a Mentor – someone who can help them to recognize God’s present work in their life – and the direction they need to move in. This book is designed to assist Mentors – the parents, pastors, professors, coaches, employers, etc. – as a guide, a rudder, or even a springboard into conversations surrounding specific arenas of life that require our students’ attention, consideration, and application or action. It’s about the rest of their lives and best utilizing some of the most formative years they will ever have available to them. Now is the time for students to co-labor with GOD – and YOU – to become the women and men they are intended to be!
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What others are saying about Shaping Their Future:
A primer allows us a way in, introducing us to the ideas and issues that matter. Guy Chmieleski’s Shaping Their Future is just that, a primer for people who understand that the college years are critical years. Written almost as a conversation between a mentor and a student, the book walks through the dynamics of forming a faith that makes sense of life for the rest of life.
Steven Garber
Principal of The Washington Institute
and Author of The Fabric of Faithfulness
There are three things about Shaping Their Future that stand out: first, Guy has done his homework on discerning what makes the college generation tick; second, he has provided an excellent set of wise, experienced-shaped strategies for ministering to and with college students; and third he puts in your hand a book that will help you, the mentor, in shaping the future of the next generation. There is no book like this. Get one for every college professor and every campus minister.
Scot McKnight
Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary
and Author of One.Life and The King Jesus Gospel
Guy Chmieleski has provided a welcome guide in a time when mentoring relationships are more important than ever! This book is great for campus ministers, pastors of college congregations, and other mentors who work with college students. Guy draws from the best scholarship related to the changing needs of emerging adults as well as his own personal and ministry experiences. He identifies the central role of mentoring relationships in the faith development of young adults and is spot-on in describing the changing relational skills of college students. The chapter topics are relevant and clear, the ‘Mentor’s Toolbox’ provides excellent applications, and he gives handles for those seeking to navigate a mentoring relationship. It is a great resource for both experienced guides and those who are only beginning to be a positive presence in the life of young adults.
Rev. Ashlee Alley
Director of Campus Ministry
Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas
The thesis of this book is straightforward and true: College students are traversing the exciting, risky, and often dangerous path to adulthood. They need mentors who know what they’re getting into and will give themselves to formative relationships with college students. Written by an attentive and insightful practitioner, this book is wise, savvy, honest, and real. Each chapter starts with where we are and leads to where we need to go. It weaves personal experience with pastoral reflection. The ‘Mentor’s Toolbox’ asks probing questions that keep us on track. Guy mentors us as he teaches how to mentor others. I heartily recommend this book.
Rev. Dr. Stephen Rankin
Chaplain and Minister to the University at Southern Methodist University
and Author of Aiming at Maturity: The Goal of the Christian Life
Even if they appear well put together and technologically savvy, don’t be tricked. Today’s young adults need you more than ever in their lives. Guy Chmieleski’s book teaches and trains you on what it takes to encourage and disciple the next generation. If you love college students, this is a book you can’t afford to miss.
Margaret Feinberg
Author of Wonderstruck
[ Order your copy here! ]