College Students Are Coming Home Is your church ready?

Students are Coming home for the holidays If you want young adults to stay connected to Your Church (and Their Church), there are things that a church must do to make them feel welcomed.  The number one thing is to avoid preconceived ideas about young adults

It is as much about fear as apathy that prevents young people from returning to places once they have been away. Often our greatest fear is that we will be forgotten when we are away. Young adults are no different. They are more likely to come to church when they are home, if they think they were missed and that someone will be glad they are there.

Keep them included in the ongoing ministry of the church. Make sure they get the newsletter electronically Include a list of the students and where they are in school on the prayer list so that the church can pray for them Keeping Young Adults Connected to their church takes some efforton the part of the church

When church members travel to the towns where students are attending school, invite them out to eat and cover their cost for the meal.(check with their parents and get contact info and have them give the student a heads up that you are going to contact them to) This is true for church groups as well. When Sr Adult groups travel, we assume that they do not want to see you, but that is not necessarily true. Encourage them to bring a friend and to join you. Keeping Young Adults Connected to their church takes some effort on the part of the church

. Ask each other about the wellbeing of the students when they are away, then when speaking with your student, tell them that person asked about them If you had a relationship with a student before they left to go to school, maintain that relationship though email, Instagram or a coveted handwritten note. (that would be true even if they stayed in town to go to school and have stopped coming) Keeping Young Adults Connected to their church takes some effort on the part of the church

Ask students you know what they are reading or listening to and then read it or listen so that you can have a conversation about it. Brene’ Brown Rachael Held Evans Pod Cast: Liturgist Setup a conversation at a coffee shop close to church during the Sunday School time and ask them how they are. When they are home for a longer period of time, plan a social event so that they can reconnect with each other and the church. Do it at someone’s home or local restaurant Keeping Young Adults Connected to their church takes some effort on the part of the church

WHY?

Why do you want young adults in your church? Why would you do these things at all? What do you hope to accomplish by reaching out to the young adults in your church and in your community? Who is going to be the voice that keeps these issues before the church? How is it going to become part of the ethos of the church? When is it important to the church?

Preparing Your Church for young adults is complicated if you truly want them to belong

It doesn’t just happen. It must become a place where they feel welcomed by the whole congregation starting with the pastor, the ushers, The people in the pews The congregation needs to know that actually engaging young adults in the church will bring change and that is hard for many people who make up our churches

It must be an ongoing initiative . Relationships are what we are talking about and that is never a “one and done.” thing It takes time and patience. Young Adults are like Wild animals. The author Parker Palmer says our spirits are like wild animals, there must be space, safety and quiet before your inner self can emerge. It is very much the same way with young adults

Change can be painful, but the alternative is more terrifying If you want young adults in your church, there are things that a church must do to prepare for that.   Understand that young adults will bring change to your church  There needs to be one person whose focus is engaging young adults  Know that to make this commitment, it will take about 3 years to see a change that has some consistency  It will require the church to make room for the new ideas and new ways of doing things

Change can be painful, but the alternative is more terrifying The pastor and the whole staff will need to believe in and lead out in welcoming this population into your church family   There will need to be intentional assimilation of the new people into the life of the church A list of ways that new people can get involved in the life of the church and then people who will ask them to join into the ministry

My Definition of Change Change is hard: Change happens only when it is more painful to stay the same than it is to change Many People ask me how do we get young people into our churches? That is never the right question for me. The church does not need the people, People need Jesus and the church is created to be filled with people who can help them know about His love for them through our love for them.

During this Advent Season Let us remember Why we are Church and How we can best live out its purpose And then Young Adults will be drawn to that place that tells them they have value and purpose and that they can belong and be of value to that calling. Thanks be to God.