On May 24, 1961, the Yale Pastor William Sloane Coffin Jr. This voyage and its subsequent arrests made the Coffin a national figure in the fight for civil rights. However, even if he made headlines, the Coffin was committed to another quieter aspect of his role as a university pastor. During his 18 years at Yale, he counseled students almost every afternoon. They discussed interpersonal relationships, academic worries, theological issues, and the prospect of being drafted (for those who qualify) into the Vietnam War. He was the first and most importantly, entering what he called the “secret garden of another person’s soul” was “a great privilege.”
Today, at the moment when young people say they are less likely to have religion, you might think that the demand for college pastors will be declining. But recent evidence shows that the opposite is true. Although the 2022 report from the Institute of Public Religion found that nearly 40% of young people do not agree with any established religion, college students are actually participating in a larger program than decades of religious life, and many colleges and college volunteers and some salaries are paid than earlier in the 2000s, James W. Fraser, New Yark, and some volunteers and some salaries. Religion and American University,tell me. Many of these pastors are drawing inspiration from the coffin: They are reimagining spiritual leaders in order to better meet students’ needs and beliefs, whether they have religious beliefs or not, still long for a sense of belonging, meaning and purpose.
For centuries, religion has been the core of American college life. Many colleges were established as seminaries and ruled by the president, who were John Schmalzbabauer, a professor of religious studies at Missouri State University, who studied pastors and campus departments. But in the early 20th century, many institutions began to shift their focus to research departments, and university presidents began to devote less of their time to spiritual life. The university hires pastors officiating the daily chapel service and provides ethical guidance to students.
In the following decades, the shape of the academy pastor changed several times, namely in the age of the coffin, when it became a platform for advocating social justice; again in the late 1970s and 1980s, when social movements in the 1960s lost momentum, academic communities became significantly lowered religion, and college pastors reduced some of their previous status.
The modern college pastor, dean and director of religious life have grabbed the new bag of duties. In addition to leading forms of worship and talking about their faith with students, many pastors can help students navigate housing insecurities, security threats, and campus protests. Although the position once considered “the pot of definition,” Costine Boswell, pastor of Elon University and dean of multifaith engagement, told me that it is now more like an interdisciplinary “network.” The priests themselves are also more diverse. Pastors were once dominated by white Christian men, and many today are people of color or people of color, which come from a range of religious traditions. Of the 471 pastors recently surveyed by the Higher Education Pastors and Spiritual Life Association, the country’s largest university pastor, director and dean of religious and spiritual life (6%) said they did not identify with the main religion, while 2% said they did not believe in God at all.
The primary work of the pastor is still consulting students, but many conduct these conversations in a more open way than their predecessors. While reporting on this story, I spoke with about a dozen university pastors and campus experts across the country, some of whom sat on Aclhe’s board. They cite their own experiences, supported by a large number of research, explaining that most modern pastors are both involved in established religious practices and adopt alternative forms of spiritual or self-care, whose colors, friendship lessons and nature journeys can all be varied. Some students may see “religious centers as where someone tries to convert them,” Vanessa Gomez Brake is the senior associate dean of religious life at the University of Southern California and the first atheist humanist to hold the position at a large American university in the United States. But today’s pastors tend to draw on various texts and traditions rather than preaching their own beliefs.
For less religious students, their first conversation about spiritual affairs may be related to the pastor. During the stages of life, many undergraduates may find themselves in a “explosion of hardwired body, mind and soul spiritual growth” when they figure out who they are and what they believe. Although religion is definitely not necessary, it has historically been a useful starting point for many students. Until recently, most American families have been religious in some way, which promotes “de facto spiritual life in the air and water of our culture,” Miller explains. Regardless of their own religious beliefs, many teenagers once arrived on campus with “backpacks of spiritual and religious practices.” Today, many people have never prayed.
Perhaps due to the lack of exposure from students, contemporary college pastors say they “never felt the need,” Schmaltz Bower of Missouri State told me. After inquiries dedicated to service and survival, pastors can be good at suggesting religious devotees, spiritual curiosity, or just ordinary young people who are troubled by anxiety. Their guidance may help undergraduates because they categorize any number of uncertainties, whether it’s about God, school, friendship, romance, family, or an uncertain future. “Students need someone who will hear their voices, will sit with them, who will be present with them, and who will not be on the phone in front of them. ” Nathan Albert, chairman of the Acslhe board of directors and pastor of Lynchburg University, told me.
Of course, the need to help college students sometimes goes beyond pastoral training. Recent data suggest that with certain measures, Generation Z is the loneliest generation in the United States, and the speed of anxiety, depression and suicide thoughts on college campuses has reached their peak. “These kids have achieved very high levels, they skip basketball, go to college, and then they want to know what this is for.” Never Enough: What Can We Do When Achievement Culture Becomes Poisonous,tell me. Universities do not turn a blind eye to the pressures they face, and many universities regard their health as a priority. This may be one of the reasons more schools invest in religious and spiritual life, Fraser of Nyu of NYU and others told me.
But, as Schmalzbauer explains, it is crucial that pastoral care is different from psychological counseling. Pastors can sometimes get stuck, especially because the demand for mental health care exceeds the supply of therapists and psychiatrists on university campuses. Varun Soni, dean of religious life at USC, told me that most of his students deal with routine anxiety and he is willing to talk about it. However, he also met with some students who experienced depression and suicidal thoughts. For these more serious cases, Soni and his colleagues worked closely with the university’s mental health center and even brought students themselves to the counselor’s door.
This is not to say that pastors have no role in improving students’ health and well-being. Research by Miller of Columbia University and others found that mental development is linked to the protection of depression and drug abuse and makes young people healthier relationships, more purposeful work and greater emotional resilience. In recent years, some schools have paired pastors with therapists and counselors to provide “preventive mental health care.”
But unlike mental health professionals, the goal of pastors is not to treat students, but to help them find communities, meanings, and habits. Chaz Lattimore Howard, pastor and vice president of Social Equity and Community at the University of Pennsylvania, told me: “People want to feel loved because of who they are, not because of who they are.” Whether they believe in God or not, they want to rest assured that it would be nice. "In this seemingly bad world, college pastors say they can help students - not through certainty or quick repair, but like a coffin: by raising their inner lives.
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