Unlike megachurches that have forged strong ties to young adults, mainline Protestant congregations tend to struggle in responding to people in their 20s.
The problem isn't that they want to freeze out young adults. They just don't have practices that enable them to hear young adults and to respond to their unique needs and interests.
Here are some tips on how to improve your congregation's "hearing" what young adults are saying:
As Presbyterians celebrate the 100th anniversary of camp and conference ministry in 2008, one trend they're noticing is towards diversity. While there isn't any shortage of the traditional campfires and canoeing, there's also a move towards innovative programming that builds on the passions and strengths of particular locations.
At Calvin Center near Atlanta, for example, people who want to learn more about international mission work -- often in preparation for short-term mission trips -- come to its "Global Village," where they live in conditions designed to represent what they would find in Haiti, Nicaragua, Kenya, Palestine, or a barrio.
Peter Surgenor, 59, is a Presbyterian minister who's just been elected to a three-year term as president of the American Camp Association. He's executive director of the Holmes Presbyterian Camp & Conference Center in upstate New York, which is run by the presbyteries of Hudson River, Long Island, and New York City.
And he's a man who can trace the history of church camps from the time when volunteers did most of the work and donated most of the food to keep costs down, to an era when camps have become accustomed to multiple streams of income.
Editor's Note: In September 2007, Joel Winchip became the first executive director of the Presbyterian Camp and Conference Center Association. He recently sat down to talk with Outlook editor Jack Haberer about the state of Christian camping and about Joel's new role.
JH: What is the current state of Presbyterian camp and conference ministry?
JW: It's going to be a big year for camp and conference centers in our denomination. We'll be celebrating 100 years of Presbyterian camp and conference ministry, so it's a great time to look back on how this ministry has touched our lives through the history of the Presbyterian Church.
Just a half-hour's ride from the concrete and steel of New York City, Stony Point Conference Center welcomes Presbyterians to the Hudson River Valley. But its serene appearance shrouds a season of turmoil as it struggles to formulate a future for significant mission.
This orb that drew us far across the ancient dark,
whose radiance was, at times, a comfort,
other times, it seemed, a mocking challenge,
What began two years ago as a simple notion -- replace an aging play structure at Westminster Woods Camp & Conference Center in Occidental, Calif. -- became an unprecedented venture that reunited, redefined, and reinvigorated the community of the camp's supporters.
After raising more than $100,000 for a new, one-of-a-kind playground, kids, teens, young adults, parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents came to The Woods in last October for a five-day build process that was both energizing and exhausting. Through hard rain, fog, cool evenings and colder mornings, the roughly 300-person volunteer brigade persevered and created a unique play structure that will be a centerpiece of the camp's ministry for years to come.
Church mission projects are not uncommon. You can walk into almost any church in America, glance at its bulletin board, scan the church newsletter, or have a brief conversation with the pastor as you're walking out of the worship service and quickly find out the various projects it supports.
But not all mission projects are equal. Some demand an enormous amount of energy from the church while others actually give life and energy. Some appear wonderful to the casual observer but secretly inflict pain and stress on those in charge while other mission projects mysteriously seem to run themselves. Some projects that should have been buried years ago continue to be repaired and kept on life support at great
(RNS) Though college students' attendance at worship services declines, their interest in spiritual matters grows during their time on campus, a new UCLA study shows.
UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute compared the views of students who were freshmen in the fall of 2004 with the same students' thoughts in the spring of 2007, when they were juniors.
In the cacophony of issues before the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) today, there is one that has not been reviewed with sufficient care. And as the denomination finds its administrative clothes too big, this particular unsung cause will, with the grace of God, add healthy girth to the corpus ecclesial.
The neglected song whose sweet melody needs to be heard throughout the church, from the local congregations to the denominational headquarters, is the song of the diaconate.
(PNS) The Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA) is seeking nominations for four ministry awards that will be celebrated during the 218th General Assembly in San Jose, Calif. next June. Deadline for nominations is Feb. 15.
They include:
The Presbyterian Association for Community Transformation (PACT) Award recognizes a congregation that either through ecumenical or interfaith community ministry or a special project of the congregation, has been faithful and creative in its ministry to and with its community.
"Have you ever seen it done well?" This was the reply that came to some of my concerns about contemporary worship. The questioner had a good point. There is a tremendous difference between worship that is led poorly and worship that is led well. Perhaps at least some of my concerns had more to do with sloppiness than with substance.
The following eight quality characteristics make up the Natural Church Development model outlined in the book by Christian A. Schwarz, Natural Church Development. After completing a series of surveys, a church is evaluated on each of these characteristics in order to provide a portrait of church health.
Empowering Leadership
"¢ Leaders of growing churches invest the majority of their time in discipleship, delegation, and multiplication.
Gift-oriented Ministry
"¢ The role of church leadership is to help its members to identify their gifts and to integrate them into appropriate ministries.
As an executive presbyter I am very aware of how much parish pastors do for others on a daily basis. I was in the parish myself for 22 years, so I understand the stress and strain on both pastors and their families. What I also know all too well is how often many are under-valued, taken for granted, or at the worst, devalued as doing little more than preaching on Sundays. Those of us in ministry have encountered a few colleagues who are lazy and slide by with doing as little as possible, but as a whole, ministers in the parish are oftentimes under-appreciated, underpaid, and forgotten until there is a crisis and they are desperately needed. I don't mean to imply that no one ever says "thank you," or shows some form of kind affection.
The confirmation of recently sworn in Attorney General Michael Mukasey gathered opposition at one point because he refused to condemn waterboarding as a form of torture. His refusal is curious, because to acknowledge that waterboarding is torture is like conceding that the sun rises in the east. After World War II, Japanese soldiers who practiced it were prosecuted as war criminals.
The primary issue of purity before the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at this time is how we are to be faithful Christians now and into the future. Three points: (1) The purity of the Church comes from Jesus Christ. (2) The dilemma we are in comes from a clash of epochs as well as a clash of poles, right and left. (3) PC(USA) identity, resources, and actions point us to a third way out of our dilemma.
Preparing a sermon for peers and other preachers has been a nerve-wracking experience. I couldn't help remembering the advice we gave each other in seminary: "Keep it short, make it good, and watch your pronouns." Choosing the text, however, wasn't particularly difficult. I ran across this text several years ago and it hooked me. Since then it's been a favorite and I preach it whenever I get the chance.
(PNS) "I wish I could send them home with some small thing, even a piece of soap." These were the words of a pastor in the Cameroon, West Africa. He was telling our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) delegation visiting Cameroon about the support group his congregation sponsors for people living with HIV/AIDS.
The support group is a lifeline for people who are often ostracized because of their disease. The pastor reminds them often that they are loved by God. However, it hurts his soul to have to send these people away with nothing in their hands to remind them of God's love and the church's care.
As you contemplate tomorrow, you need to keep in mind two cultural phenomena that will shape your future: time and gasoline prices.
Sunday ministries tend to be time-insensitive because people will travel an hour to church. That hour isn't available on weekdays, however. With every adult in the household working long hours, travel-to-church time tends to shrink to 30 minutes or less.
I am a veteran of all four New Wineskins Convocations. As a representative of the Office of Theology and Worship I attended the Visionary meeting in Minneapolis, the Angry meeting in Tulsa, the Legal meeting in Orlando, and the Moving On meeting in Sacramento. Dealing with New Wineskins Association of Churches (NWAC) puts me in an awkward place. I count some of the leaders and participants in New Wineskins as friends, but I work for the General Assembly Council and have a strong personal commitment to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The past three years have taught me that the New Wineskins Association of Churches is right about many fundamental issues in the PC(USA), tragically wrong about others.
I can see that little building in my mind's eye. It had been a modest residence, but our fledgling congregation had converted it into a place of worship. We knocked out walls to make a worship space, and various remaining rooms served for classrooms. We were a small group, but things looked promising, as World War II was bringing new people into the area all the time. For a kid who had spent the first nine years of his life in a small country congregation, the bustle was exciting.
We knew that when the fighting ended the congregation was going to move to a much larger place, just a few blocks from our small suburban home. This place was our tabernacle for a time.
Worship should reflect the questions people are asking.
For example: After a national or local tragedy, it would be artificial to present worship that ignored the trauma that people are feeling. After a spate of deaths, or some high-profile bouts of illness, a healthy church will want to respond publicly, not just go about "business as usual."
A congregation with many young families will want to address issues common to young families, such as life-purpose, concern about public schools, time and money management.
Pastor Susan Quinn Bryan first encountered the Church of the Saviour fifteen years ago. She was pastor of a small, struggling Presbyterian church in Houston, Texas. She was searching.
View photo essay
He came a most unlikely guest
on night when air was cool and still
and people sought to hide from dark
amidst the shelter of an inn.
At one level, faith communities are no different from other human assembly.
Opinions differ, interests collide, feelings get hurt, leaders fail, constituents renege on commitments, money has undue sway, and we store up grievances like currency for later use.
Moreover, churches tend to get as stuck as any other institution. Historic grievances are passed down from generation to generation, from old-timer to newcomer. Like a dysfunctional family that molds every new member to its self-defeating ways, we make sure that newness has the sour taste of oldness.
© Copyright 2026 The Presbyterian Outlook. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement. Website by Web Publisher PRO
