Okay, there’s a demographic that I
need to define here really quickly. What
do I mean by “young adults”? I suppose I
am referring to those young people who are post-high school and have not
settled into the “rigors” of raising a family just yet. You may be married with kids, but they are
young enough that you aren’t quite spending all of your time running to soccer,
school, and ballet lessons just yet. I
know this is a little subjective, because my message is for a LOT of people,
but I want to focus in on a couple of things here today.
I have noticed some key things in
my twelve years of ministry (I know.
That’s not very long compared to some, but long enough to have noticed
some trends). Churches that are missing
generations in their ranks are “incomplete”.
If there is a generation that is “missing”, so to speak, it is the
Millennial generation in the church. I
do not mean this to demean those who are present, but by and large, there is a
noticeable lack of those young adults who are hanging around and taking an
active role in discipleship.
Hold on! What do I mean by “active role in
discipleship”? By that, I mean those who
are able to prioritize their walk in such a way as they are gathering,
learning, assimilating the Bible, and pouring that back out in some way in the
form of ministry. Showing up once or
twice a month isn’t “participation”. Let
me now affirm that I do see a presence of those who DO all of these things (you
know who you are and you make me proud!), however, they are not the norm.
What’s the norm? Well, from what I see, the young adult
demographic seems to attend church or Bible study sporadically, not have a
personal Bible study time, and live life in such a way that the main filter for
life is not yet (many of you are getting there!) through the pages of
Scripture. This is a problem.
Why is this a problem? Well, instead of focusing on the problem, I
would rather focus on the benefits of young adult ownership in ministry and
this is best approached by giving anecdotal evidence.
This week has been a GREAT week at our VBS! Our student ministry has been involved in
presenting the Bible story for a few years now and they do a GREAT job! As the student pastor, I have intentionally
stepped back further and further in order to let other adults and teenagers
take the bulk of responsibility. I have
some AWESOME youth staff members who have stepped up and taken a great deal of
responsibility for the student ministry in this project (and in other ways, as
well). Some are adults with kids in the
student ministry (how awesome that parents and teens are ministering
side-by-side!) and others are the young adults to whom I am referring. One young adult in particular is doing a
great job doing the main presentation of the Biblical material, which was my job
just a few years ago. Her husband (yup,
she’s married guys. He’s too awesome, so
just forget about it!) is actually running the game station and doing a
FANTASTIC job! Yet another young adult
has taken a leadership role in the presentation of VBS as sort of an MC that
gets the evening kicked off. There are
other examples of teen and young adult participation, but time and space limit
me here.
Here’s what I notice as I watch
these young adults: they are able to connect with a lot of children and teens
in a way that I cannot. I am 40 years
old. I am overweight. I am not very cool. I still listen to 80’s thrash metal and like
it. I am becoming more impatient with
technology every day. I didn’t even know
what Snap Chat was until last night! These
young people are ideal in that they are none of these things. They are able to reach into the lives of the
generation behind them in a way that I cannot.
But wait, there’s MORE!
It isn’t just the generation behind
them that young adults impact. I have
noticed that they cut a far wider swathe through a church than even they realize. While they provide a solid “next-step”
example for children and teens, they provide something for people like me, as
well. For one thing, young adults are an
outlet for mentorship. They give me
someone to whom I can pass the torch of ministry. After all, they do have more years to live
than I do. They also provide the church
with hope. I cannot count the number of
times that I have heard our senior saints RELISH in the fact that they look
around and see children, teens, and particularly young adults in the
church. It indicates to every generation
that the church is alive and well and actually growing in a direction. I think it displays a legacy to our senior
saints and validates all of the years that they have been teaching, working, sweating,
and bleeding for the local church. They
look around and see young people from five years old to thirty five years old
and realize that it was all worth it!
So what’s my point? I suppose my point is that I want the young
adults who may be reading this to understand their potential in the
church. Your church needs you. We NEED you.
We need for you to take the Bible seriously. We need for you to get up on Sunday morning
(or whenever you have a Bible study available) and get to church. We need for you to grow in faith and stop
being mere consumers of the gospel. We
need for you to dig into your Bible and find a willing mentor who will help you
to navigate the tough things you encounter.
We need for you to assimilate faith into action and help us to advance the Kingdom of God! We need for you to make Jesus your first
priority and rearrange your life as such.
You are NOT the future of the church, but the very real present.
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