Coming across a shared social media post by Marisa Boonstra, I was struck by the similarities between her perceptions on parenting and my thoughts on instructing emerging adults. It probably drew my eye even more because she used some of the key terms, such as cultivate and flourish, that have resonated again and again in my research. Even more significant is her comment regarding “you can’t keep your children in a bubble” because we often talk of the “Union Bubble” when describing the protective and Christ-centered environment around us on campus. But I would offer a more accurate description of the precious community around us as Boonstra does, “it’s not a bubble, it’s a greenhouse.”

In her post Boonstra defines the difference between the two concepts, “A bubble stifles growth and blocks out nutrients. A greenhouse provides an environment for cultivation.” Daring to offer an opinion that I believe is shared by the Union community, the expectation that our campus environment cultivates rather than stifles is a more accurate descriptor although the “Union Greenhouse” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue in the same manner.

Continuing with Boonstra’s greenhouse analogy, I offer that if one switches her wording of children to emerging adults, the concepts are applicable to emerging adulthood and the role faculty and staff play in cultivating this season of life.

“Children’s [emerging adults’] hearts need to be ‘greenhoused’ before they’re ready to be transplanted out into the world. We release when their roots are deep and they are mature enough to withstand the storms, not beforehand.

While they’re still under our protection, we take the responsibility for engaging them in learning about different cultures, ideologies and values. They should only know worldly teachings enough that they will be inoculated against them.

It’s neither parenting [teaching] out of fear or legalism, nor going to the opposite extreme of being too permissive.

No, our kids [emerging adults] shouldn’t grow up in a bubble. But they shouldn’t be left exposed to the harsh outside elements, either.

The greenhouse of our home [campus] has all the right conditions for those young seeds to grow and flourish.”

These concepts of cultivating and growing have emerged numerous times in my reading especially in the discussion of multigenerational mentoring with Myer’s Cultivate: Forming the Emerging Generation Through Life-on-Life Mentoring blending many aspects of my mentoring model together. Mirroring Boonstra’s comments above, Myers shares, “Mentoring is the cultivation of young adults, the tender caring for and nurturing of them so that they will grow, flourish, and be fruitful.” Like a gardener, “the mentor can cultivate a young adult, but it is God who brings growth and transformation…God brings the results, and He does so through his people.”

How has God tapped you to cultivate those around you, no matter their age? Or maybe it would be easier to share an experience you have witnessed where a community (such as Union or another college campus) has been a greenhouse which nurtured growth in you or someone close to you. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.