One of the iconic images of last summer was a waistcoat clad football manager standing on the touchline leading his country to the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time in almost thirty years. Gareth Southgate won plaudits for his bold approach of trusting young players he had nurtured with the responsibility of playing for their country on the biggest stage. How can we be as caring and courageous when it comes to nurturing and releasing the next generation in our congregations?
The first decade of adulthood often contains the most significant transitions of life. As young adults leave the bubble of their teenage years behind them, they are suddenly confronted with having to make real decisions, each packed with moments that have the potential to cause faith to crumble. In many places, young adults are the most likely to leave church and not return. It’s right to acknowledge the missing generation.
Last year, we hosted several focus groups aimed at gathering people engaged in ministry to young adults within congregations across PCI. The purpose of these discussions was to discover key principles helping congregations to be effective in reaching and discipling young adults.
Relationship
As we listened to the stories, words like relationship, community, belonging and mentoring all featured highly. It became clear that the young adults most involved in church activities were those most deeply engaged in their church community.
This generation of young adults are at risk of information overload and choice paralysis. With endless social media feeds, movies on demand and smartphone apps, this generation are capable of creating more connections than ever before. Even when it comes to the things of faith, online sermons, podcasts and audiobooks mean that they can discover Christian content without setting foot in a local expression of the Church.
The need isn’t more connections or better entertainment but deeper relationship, and our focus group conversations underlined the benefits of getting alongside young adults and being present in their lives. In settings where ministry among young adults was thriving, the emphasis seemed to focus more on the lives of their people rather than the nature of their programmes.
While we might not think we have anything to pass on, we should be encouraged by the fact that we aren’t called to be perfect in our lives but be present in their lives. Let’s not neglect everyday actions such as the question of ‘how was your week’, the invitation to join an activity or welcoming them into our homes for a meal.
Responsibility
It was also clear that young adults desired more than merely relationship on its own. What emerged from our conversations was the desire young adults had to be involved serving and leading in the life of the church. In fact, the more responsibility that they could be given over time, the more committed they seemed to ministry and mission.
One congregation shared an example of a programme that had regularly failed to engage many young adults. The simple transition of handing leadership over to a small group of committed young adults saw that completely change. By allowing them to shape things, they saw both commitment levels rise and the age demographic change. In other words, the people best placed to reach young adults, were young adults!
Another congregation shared how their young adults group wasn’t so much about doing ministry to young adults, but actually about doing ministry with young adults. This emphasis meant giving more ownership of the programme over to them while continuing to maintain some level of overall leadership and control.
Perhaps we might be tempted to be overly cautious and choose not to give responsibility to those who seem young, or perhaps we have been frustrated in the past by lack of commitment in a younger generation. Author of Growing Leaders James Lawrence said that “young people leave church when we ask them to be passengers rather than participants.” If our desire is simply for young adults to attend rather than contribute, then we run the risk of frustrating them in the present and missing their influence in the long term.
There is no doubt that involving young adults in leadership can at times lead to frustrations, but we should be encouraged that throughout scripture, God is in the business of using the young. While it might mean effort in the short term, it should lead to celebration in the long term.
Resource
To help develop the conversation of how we can be more effective in ministry to young adults, we will soon be launching a resource to help congregations think about how they can be more effective in ministry with this age group. This resource will offer four different models that could be adopted, while also sharing some practical examples from congregations doing this well.
In the meantime, in aiming to resource young adults themselves for the responsibility of leadership in their congregations, we have developed Emerge – a short-term training programme for emerging leaders within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. This is a brilliant training and development opportunity for any young adult taking a lead within their congregation. Click here to watch a short video explaining the programme.
Rick Hill is the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s Discipleship Development Officer.