Young adults (ages 22-30) are missing from many mainline congregations. Their absence is one reason those congregations’ average age is passing 60.
In our opinion, congregations can be successful in reaching young adults. But doing so will require our understanding who they are and what they are going through.
Without drifting too deeply into stereotypes, here are some factors worth considering:
- Their “in-between” status (post-college, pre-parenting) can make young adults invisible to congregations populated by the married and settled.
- As they go from college to first jobs, and from domicile to domicile, young adults can “fall off the radar.” Mailing addresses, employers, and other usual identifiers get out of date.
- Because they tend to be work-centered and not yet affiliated with institutions like schools and youth sports, young adults miss the hooks that churches often use.
- Because their schedules are less consistent, young adults might not fit into existing church schedules.
- Because they tend to float among several friendship groups — work, sports, former college friends — they might not be as reachable through “customer evangelism” as they will be later in life.
- With marriage typically happening later, perhaps after 30, if at all, the ways into community life known by earlier generations might not be available. (Schools and play groups, for example)
In considering the work of serving young adults, we need to remember that this is a decade of vast changes and high mobility.
- The changes of the 20s are substantial and often lead to painful consequences, such as loneliness, over-commitment to work, separation from former friends, even from spouses, and financial stress.
- It can be a time of heightened personal need but reduced openness to expressing need or acting on it. New adults don’t want to be put into the “child” position again.
- Former support networks might have been left behind and new networks not yet developed, except possibly online.
- This is often not a time when faith and church are perceived as needs.
- Many young adults believe, rightly or wrongly, that they have just this one decade to prove themselves professionally. Other expressions, including church, are put on hold.
- With health still strong and career options open, stresses can feel manageable and not require any “outside assistance,” such as a faith community or a God.
- If they grew up in churchgoing families, that familiar activity might seem linked to childhood, not to life itself, and tied to a specific congregation, not something one can seek in a new locale.
You can find a more detailed section on Young Adult Ministry at www.churchwellness.com .
Tom Ehrich is a writer, consultant, and leader of workshops. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C. The church wellness project may be found at www.churchwellness.com
