Young Adult Ministry

I have to admit it was a bit disconcerting.  Despite weeks of tracking daily registrations and numerous Facebook status updates sharing first 60, then 70, 80, 90 and over 100 registrants for our annual young adult retreat, it was still a bit amazing to be in the presence of this gathering of young people.  You see, Methodists aren’t supposed to be able to do this; and certainly not in the secular Pacific Northwest.  But here I was, sitting around a campfire with 115 young adults passionately worshipping and intently listening to our weekend’s speaker, the Rev.  David Tinney of Vancouver First United Methodist Church.

 

Not many Annual Conferences have had success organizing connectional ministries with young adults.  It’s a tough area to work in even on the local church level.  Young adults are often only loosely connected to the church and even those that attend a faith community more frequently are not necessarily ready to commit to a weekend when they aren’t confident it will be worth their time.  Unlike previous generations, there is very little automatic buy-in to offered programming; each participant has to be earned.

This summer is my high school reunion.  Recently, I received in the mail a questionnaire asking me about my best memories in high school, my accomplishments since then, and if high school really were like the Breakfast Club, what character would I be?  (The brain.  No getting around that one.)

It seems weird to think that I’m this old (I’ll wait for the laughter to subside).  I had gotten used to being young, carefree, energetic, and all those other adjectives we’re told that we are when we’re in our late teens and early twenties.  Now, after being out of high school for ten years and out of college for six, it’s finally starting to kick in that I’m a real-deal, bonafide grown-up.  Instead of just a job, I have a career.  Instead of a rent payment, I have a mortgage.  Instead of staying up all night, I’m in bed by ten and up at six.  I am a professional.  Good heavens, what happened?!

A lot has happened in ten years.  Thankfully, I’m not the same person I was in high school.  I’ve snowshoed in an avalanche basin in the Cascades, went white-water rafting in Costa Rica, got pick-pocketed in Paris, crashed a car, bought a house, ran a marathon, had high tea in Hawaii, backpacked through Vancouver, hiked and camped all over Washington, and had a great many other adventures.  I’ve grown and matured in response to the many changes in the world around me.  I wouldn’t want to be the same person I was a decade ago!  

You’re probably wondering by now what this has to do with the church.  No, I’m not going to say church is like high school, with its Breakfast Club stereotypes.  Instead, I invite you to think about your church through the passage of time.  It is the same as it was ten years ago?  Twenty?  Why?