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Christian Student development professionals play a vital role in creating co-curricular formation experiences outside the classroom. We enjoy participating in students’ growth and seeing them thrive. When I was a resident assistant, my residence director (Dr. Neal Anderson, current VP of Student Life at Colorado Christian University) first introduced me to the concept of support and challenge as a fundamental theory of student development. He not only introduced me to this theory but also embodied it in his leadership and connected it to the richness of our Christian faith. For some of us, the support and challenge concept may seem basic, but perhaps this idea may give fresh perspective to new professionals or a meaningful reminder to seasoned professionals as we serve students.
The Foundations: Nevitt Sanford’s Theory
Dr. Nevitt Sanford (1967) famously coined support and challenge in his book “Where Colleges Fail.” Sanford researched ethnocentrism and anti-Semitism while at University of California, Berkeley, but he’s most famous for his support and challenge theory. The quotes below provide a basic context for his work:
- “Development occurs when the individual experiences a challenge to which he is competent to respond, and for which he is supported.”
- “If the support is too great, the person is not challenged; if the challenge is too great, the person cannot cope.”
In my experience, student development staff tend to be great at supporting students but can often struggle with challenging them. A few years ago, a student leader challenged me in this area when she confronted me at the end of the year because I did not challenge her or our student leader team enough. She said I was supporting them, but I avoided challenging them – I taught her support and challenge theory but I was not putting it into practice. I offered support but my neglect of challenge resulted in spiritual, social, and intellectual stagnation.
Mapping Support and Challenge
The diagram below describes what occurs when we don’t balance support and challenge. We want students to thrive, and we don’t want students to become stagnant, disengage, or retreat. If we have a student development culture with low levels of support and challenge, students will disengage. A culture of high support with low challenge will create stagnation. An environment of high challenge with low support will result in students retreating. We strive to get the balance right, but it’s not always easy because of further complexities.
Mindsets: Protecting, Striving, Thriving
There are complexities and personal factors to consider when applying support and challenge. Students will be in different places in their readiness to receive challenges. Dr. Wayne Hammond (Flourishing Life, 2026) describes students’ mindsets in three categories he calls protecting, striving, or thriving. Some students will have a protecting mindset. These students tend to avoid challenges, especially by themselves. They are people that need 75% support, 25% challenge. The striving mindset describes students who take on challenges, but only if they can be successful. It could look like 50% support and 50% challenge. Some students will have a thriving mindset. These are students that embrace challenges as an opportunity to learn. They desire 75% challenge and 25% support. I am sure we can all think of different students in diverse places on their readiness to receive a challenge and we need to be attentive to this. We also need to consider the ways Jesus supported and challenged his disciples.
Jesus: Support and Challenge Master
Did Jesus support and challenge his disciples? Absolutely. Jesus in his very being is full of grace and truth (John 1:14,17). We see Christ’s support when he says, “come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I’ll give you rest” (Matt. 11:28-30, ESV 2025). We also see Jesus challenging leaders in the cleansing of the temple (Matthew 21:12-13). The Apostle Paul in the Spirit of Christ exhorted the Ephesians to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15) which harmonizes support and challenge in the early church. We love students by challenging them, and we need to apply this in a loving way.
Chrysostom’s Leadership Challenge
There is a quote by John Chrysostom (1997) that I have found personally challenging as of late. He speaks in a church leadership context, but I think it also applies for us in student development:
The way to judge whether a person is called by God to be a Church leader is to look first at his moral qualities. Is he generous to those in need? Is he gentle toward those who are weaker than himself? Is he patient toward those less intelligent than himself? Is he a loyal and faithful friend? Of course, there are many people who are generous, gentle, patient, and loyal, and yet who are not called to be leaders. Second, look at his spiritual qualities. Does he pray regularly and diligently? Does he read the Scriptures with care? Does he sincerely try to hear God’s will and obey it? Of course, there are many people who truly love God, and yet are not called to be leaders. There is, however, one quality—or rather a combination of two qualities—which marks out the true Church leader. Is he humble about his own abilities, and at the same time can he discern the abilities of others? The most basic task of the Church leader is to discern the spiritual gifts of all those under his authority, and to encourage those gifts to be used to the full for the benefit of all. Only a person who can discern the gifts of others and can humbly rejoice at the flowering of those gifts is fit to lead the Church.
When people look for leaders, they first look at moral qualities. Secondly, people look for spiritual qualities. Chrysostom says the third and most important quality is a combination of personal humility and being able to discern the gifts and abilities in others and nurture growth. Chrysostom challenges us to discern students’ abilities and “rejoice at the flowering of those gifts.” I hope we can be challenged as student development professionals to nurture the growth of students with their gifts; and I believe this best happens in a context when support and challenge is being intentionally applied consistently.
Conclusion
In summary, students are best formed in a campus community that is both supportive and challenging. Students will be in different places on their readiness to receive challenges with different mindsets. Jesus was the support and challenge master, and student development professionals need to be attentive to their students. St. John Chrysostom inspires us to take a deeper look at our leadership and how we are forming students. Support and challenge theory provides a simple method for us to constantly consider in our work forming students for the good of the world and the glory of God.
References
- Chrysostom, J. (1996). On living simply: The golden voice of John Chrysostom. (R. Van de Weyer, Comp.). Liguori Press.
- Flourishing Life. (2026). About Us. https://flourishinglife.com/about-us.
- Sanford, N. (1967). Where Colleges Fail: A Study of the Student as a Person. Jossey-Bass.
