13 Ways Churches Can Engage Young Adults
One of the greatest challenges facing the church today is the missing generation of college students and young adults. They grow up in our youth groups and by their early twenties they are walking away from their church involvement, their communities and their faith. We can’t stay here any longer. No more empty buildings. No more missing an entire generation. We must reach the next!
This month, our team at www.youngadults.today launched a FREE resource called “Reaching The Next: 13 Ways Churches Can Engage Young Adults.” This is a FREE eBook, FREE audiobook, and paperback copies can be purchased for leaders to go through with their teams at a discounted price of only $10 to cover printing, packaging, and shipping costs!
A little bit about the project: This is a collaborative work from thirteen young adult ministry practitioners from across the nation. Each contributor shares their passion to reach young adults in an area of focus they’ve lived out in their ministry. Each chapter gives practical insight about how the Church can engage young adults in their faith and unleash the potential of the next generation in the world.
Now, for a glimpse of the 13 ways that churches can engage young adults:
1. Intentionally
Reaching young adults in your community doesn’t happen by accident – it takes intentionality! In her groundbreaking book, Grit, Angela Duckworth uncovers a formula for why some people are successful and others are not. Her equation for “Grit” is equal to passion multiplied by perseverance. In other words: [Passion x Perseverance = Grit]. She wrote that: “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.”
Let’s pair our passion with perseverance, stick with it, and commit to intentionally reaching the next generation!
2. In Purity
Young adults want to talk about relationships!
“Four words that make young adults squirm, adults blush and pastors cheer! Well at least that is how I feel about the topic of relationships and the four words young adults are wanting to know more about are: love, sex, dating and waiting.
Pastors and ministry leaders have an amazing opportunity and privilege to share the biblical truths about those four exact words, well three. Dating is never mentioned in the Bible. But we cannot deny the importance of love, sex and waiting for your wedding night.”
- Micah Kennealy (author of Worth The Wait: Because I’m Made For You)
3. In Biblical Justice
“So how do we as leaders, pastors, young adult ministry pioneers engage our young adults in biblical justice? How do we build onramps for them to gain God’s heart for the poor, marginalized, the oppressed?
This process will look a bit different in each unique ministry context, but here are six “big rock” ideas that will help move the biblical justice ball down the field in your ministry:
· Exposure
· Brokenness
· Holy Discontent
· Action
· Obedience
· Endurance”
- Brent Silkey (Founder of 30 For Freedom run and movement that has raised over $800,000 to fight human trafficking)
4. In Peace
“You’re doing better than you think you are, and God is doing more than you think He is.” - Nick Nilson
Nick goes on to share that peace isn’t at the end of something (like a vacation, a pill, or a bottle – peace is actually a person: Jesus). And even within a midst of a global pandemic, peace is possible, and peace is powerful!
5. In Theology
“The increasing loss of biblical literacy in the church today is a crisis that is difficult to exaggerate. Without knowledge of God’s word, it becomes that much harder to understand God’s work and thus discern God’s will. If Christians do not know the Bible, then the ceiling is lowered for their growth in Christ because of what is missing from their knowledge of God. Corporately, a church that is biblically illiterate will be less resistant to manipulation and heresy as the hole in their knowledge of the stories and teachings of God will be filled with the stories and teachings of the outside culture. A wide-spread ignorance of God’s word may even put an expiration date on that church within a few generations.”
- Dr. Allen Tennison (Dean of the College of Church Leadership at North Central University)
6. In Mental Health
We believe that mental health matters. “For college students, the start of a new semester is a time of great anticipation and joy, but a recent Harvard Catalyst study reveals that college years are also a time of increased risk of stressful incidents, chronic mental health challenges, including risk of suicide. Published in Depression and Anxiety, a 2018 study lead by the researchers at the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School, surveyed 68,000 college students from across more than 100 institutions related to depression and suicide ideation. Four significant patterns emerged: one of which was ‘75 percent of respondents reported a stress related on the campus.’ Stress exposure was highly correlated with mental health issues, self-harm and suicide ideation.”
- Dr. Sammy D. Kim (Harvard Ethicist and Lead Pastor of 180 Church)
7. In Evangelistic Momentum
“The problem is not with the harvest. The harvest is plentiful. The problem is a lack of laborers. A laborer is simply an obedient follower of Jesus Christ who continually seeks to share Christ and help disciple others as a lifestyle. Being a laborer is not glamorous and it is not only for the super gifted. A laborer is an “ordinary field hand” that is willing to roll up his or her sleeves and get to work bringing in the harvest.
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. What a tragedy. Think about it. There are people who are ready right now to respond to Christ, but there are not enough laborers to go share with them.”
- Paul Worcester (Founder of Campus Multiplication Network)
8. In Purpose
“Young adults are searching for purpose, even if they don’t admit it. How do I know? Listen to the questions they are constantly asking: “What am I supposed to do with my life?”, “How do I know who I’m supposed to do life with?”, “What does God want for my life?”, “How do I get clarity on my next step?” All of these questions revolve around the idea of purpose.
I believe that those of us who work with twenty-somethings (or any level of ministry for that matter), have to be so intentional and laser-focused on what we are offering our people and what we are calling them to. You have to take your people on a journey and I believe people will trust you to take them on that journey if you can help them find purpose in the areas of life they care most about.
Over the years, our ministry has identified these areas based on the most frequent questions, conversations and struggles we hear from our people and what’s interesting, is all of these are foundational aspects of life. These are the areas in which we help young adults find purpose: purpose in dating, community, work, and faith.”
- Andrew Matrone (Lead Young Adult Pastor at Red Rocks)
9. In The Kingdom
“Churches need to begin asking the question: How can churches engage young adults through serving opportunities across the world & across the street?” - Brad Ormonde, Jr.
10. In Leadership
“That’s leadership like Jesus. We keep the distance close between us and those we lead. As we do that, we build cultures of trust and honesty. We build environments of empowerment and investment. We build churches where the next generation can contribute to key decisions, inspire and teach others, and lean into opportunities for development and growth beyond their wildest dreams.
Let’s commit to that vision—a vision where established leaders wisely and paradoxically steward the currency of leadership. That is leadership that lasts because it intentionally invests in the next while carefully stewarding the now. That’s the future of leadership in the church—a future full of potential.” - Clynt Reddy
11. In Financial Freedom
“Young adults need to start with understanding they have not and never will own a single cent and will never own a materialistic possession in their lifetime. They may temporarily possess something, but the deed will forever be in God’s name. Psalm 24:1 tells us the Earth is the Lord’s and ALL it contains. If you look up the word ALL in its original language, it still means ALL. Everything is God’s so we are not the owner.
In effort to make the whole area of personal finance a little less daunting, I have broken it up in 2 major categories. I am sure these lists could be broken up further, but I hope you see how breaking it up can help keep this topic from being so overwhelming. The 2 categories are Stabilize and Structure. Most young adults will need to stabilize from mistakes they have made or are currently making. A few young adults will be ready to start structuring for the future. All young adults should be exposed to all concepts from both lists, but most of the teaching time and energy should be spent stabilizing.”
12. Intergenerationally
“On the Day of Pentecost, Peter quoted Joel 2 when he said God’s Spirit would be on both the old and young. It’s fair to ask, “How will the dreams of the young men and women inspire older generations and how will the visions of older generations guide young adults if they are never together?” I don’t want to be a part of a dreamless church or a visionless church. We need intergenerational connections in our young adults’ lives. Who do you need to help reach young adults? A strong meshed ministry will integrate sages, leaders, mentors, peers and healers.” - Dr. Randy Jumper (young adult pastor at First NLR/UniteYA)
13. In Volunteer Teams
“Give the ministry away. Raise up volunteers and train them, equip them, inspire them with heroic vision, and empower them to lead and serve. Then give the ministry away. Don’t just do ministry to people, do it through people. After all you’re called to equip your people and unleash them for ministry. Look at what Paul says in Ephesians 4 about why Christ has put you in the role you are in,
“So Christ himself gave…pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11a,12–13 NIV11)
Your role is to equip people in your church, so that they would be unleashed in lives of ministry. The verse above is not the entirety of your job description as a pastor, but it is a crucial component of your role.” -David Marvin (Director of The Porch)
Final Thoughts:
Jesus said: let the next generation come to me! He left the 99 to go after the one. He intentionally rallied young adults together to be his disciples who followed closely, carried on the name, and changed the world. Let’s do likewise! May we be leaders who listen, create space, provide opportunities, and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit who prepares the way. As pure hearted leaders let’s rise up.
It’s time for prodigals to come home. It’s time for wanderers to belong. It’s time for the broken to be healed, the discouraged to be encouraged, the isolated to be connected, and the word of God to reign in this generation. Let’s commit to reaching the next.