1. Ministry with Young Adults
William J. Cork, D.Min.

2. What Is a Young Adult?
Young
Adult
18-35

3. Developmental Perspectives
Young Adulthood
Developmental Perspectives

4. Tasks of Young Adulthood
Developing Personal Identity
Developing Relationships
Developing Meaning for Work
Developing a Spiritual Life

5. Styles of Faith John Westerhoff
Owned Faith
Searching Faith
Affiliative Faith
Experienced Faith

6. Sociological Perspectives
Young Adulthood
Sociological Perspectives

7. Generational Studies Baby Boomers (1945-1960) Postmoderns 1961 to 1981
Generation X
1982 to …
Millennials
Generation Y
iGeneration
Generation ME

8. Generational Studies

9. Generational Studies VS

10. Should we be focusing on generations?
Question:
Should we be focusing on generations?
Or are we seeing a change of culture, that will impact all our ways of doing ministry?

11. Young Adults Today “I Am Special” Follow My Dreams
Mobile
Cultural Diversity Assumed
Technologically Hardwired
Pragmatic
Materialistic

12. Young Adults Today Extended Adolescence High Expectations
Sexual Disconnection
“Hooking Up”
STDs
Relationships Matter
“Soul Mate”

13. Young Adults Today Spiritual Hunger Personal Experience Central
Biblically Illiterate
Personal Experience Central
Moral Relativism
Desire to Serve
Crime Statistics Down
Better Relationships with Parents

14. Demographics

15. What YAs Seek from Church
Sense of belonging & community
“Will you be there for me?”
Opportunities for involvement in church life
Meaningful worship services with experience of the holy
Silence is OK!
Spiritual growth and enrichment
Incorporate old and new
Understanding the faith
Guidance and direction

16. Return or Not?
1999 Survey of 200 young adults by Bill Cork

17. Spiritual Hunger
Frank DeSiano, Sowing New Seed, p. 79ff
“At worship, they don’t feel they have contact with God.”
“They will do whatever to takes for them to have a sense of contact with God.”
“If liturgy could present people with an experience of Christ, with contact with Jesus, it would come closer to what people are actually seeking today.”

18. Other Suppliers … Willing to shop Other congregations (floaters)
“Twentysomethings were nearly 70% more likely than older adults to strongly assert that if they ‘cannot find a local church that will help them become more like Christ, then they will find people and groups that will, and connect with them instead of a local church’” (Barna 2006).
Other congregations (floaters)
House churches
Small groups
Individuals
Webpages

19. Exodus
Barna 2006

20. Basic Principles of YAM
Evangelize young adults
Nurture their spiritual life
Connect with community
Involve in mission
Prepare for leadership

21. Growing a Young Adult Ministry
Small core team of committed people
Support of someone on staff
Initial social events (with food) to get acquainted and to generate ideas
Build around a regular, consistent event S3
Spiritual
Social
Service
Occasional regional or city-wide events

22. Making it Young Adult Friendly
Sabbath School
Making it Young Adult Friendly

23. Principles Emphasis on dialogue
Safe environment—all questions respected
Sharing of experience
Teachers who are
authentic
knowledgeable
unflappable
and have a sense of humor

24. The Quarterly
“Folks, believe it or not I can resonate with some of your concerns. The problem is simple: we have one guide for a whole world church, i.e., the folks who go to Chris Blake’s class, to the folks who congregate on benches in some room with no electricity, to folks in Copenhagen, to folks in Patagonia, to folks who have been in the church for 40 years, to those who have been in 40 days. How do you meet all those needs? You can’t.

25. The Quarterly
“The ABSG is a guide. Repeat ‘Guide,’ that’s all. It says the world church is studying this topic today. Period.
“Beyond that, it has to be up to the teachers to contextualize it, to make it as much as possible meet the various needs all over the world. … It’s a guide; I tell people follow it as closely or as loosely as you need.”
--Clifford Goldstein

26. Possible Topics Relationships, dating, sex
Faith and fulfillment at work
Spirituality
Making a difference
Understanding Scripture and church teaching

27. In Mission to Young Adults
Reaching Out
In Mission to Young Adults

28. Retreats Time Away Openness to Change
Focus on Relationship with Christ
Worship and Prayer
Building of Community
Fun

29. Coffee Houses May meet in a church hall or in a restaurant
May include:
Live music
Food
Short talk
Q&A
Social period

31. Service Local service projects or mission trips
Plan your own or go with established agency
Plan well!
Learn about project and context first
Pray without ceasing
Theological reflection during and after

32. College Students Stay in contact with those away
Develop student ministry on campus
Adventist Christian Fellowship
Don’t forget about faculty and staff
TXAY: Texas Adventist Youth Leadership Convention
August 10-12, SMAU, Keene.

33. Communication It’s hard to get “pulpit time” for oral announcements
Young adults don’t tend to read the bulletin, even if you are able to get something in it.
Best practices:
Personal invitation
and Text lists
Webpages / Facebook / MySpace