Question: What does the term 'young adult' mean? College students? 20-somethings? 30-somethings? Singles? Young married couples?
Answer: I have no idea.
How's that for honesty? The world of young adult ministry is not very defined or clear-cut. There are varying styles of young adult ministry and different targets for ministry, too.
What do you think young adult ministry means? What is a young adult to you in your ministry role? Please comment below.
What About Young Adults? A Discussion Place for Young Adult Ministry
Thanks for starting this blog! I am excited to follow it and hopefully get some new ideas for YA ministry here in KC!
ReplyDeleteI don't know either! I have been struggling with this same issue. When do you stop becoming a young adult? Is there a specific cut off? Do we stop reaching out when they stop feeling like one? What about those who are obviously not young adults who attend young adult Sabbath School to feel young? What about those who don't come to SS do we treat them as those in SS or just invite them and focus our energy on those in SS? Do we treat the whole group as one focus or do we minister to the natural friend groups independently or both? Sorry I am just providing more questions. I am excited about this collaboration! Maybe a book will come out of all of this?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Loma Linda doing YA Ministry, we were at the height of GenX ministry. This was about 1997. We defined YAs as 18-35.
ReplyDeleteOur ministry, Young & Restless, targeted the 25-35 year olds. La Sierra's First Service (started by Sam Lenore), targeted undergrad students - about 18-25. At Loma Linda, they had a ministry that seemed to target 20-30 year olds.
One of the reasons I left YA ministry is because I was approaching 40 years old and it is known that leaders will attract people within 10 years plus or minus of their age. If we were going to keep Y&R a YA ministry, we would need someone less than 35 years old.
Since that time, many ministries have moved away from an "age" defined ministry and moved more toward postmoderns in general.
You may find this recent research helpful (I think I cc'd this to you in an email recently).
http://faithcommunitiestoday.org/increasing-young-adult-participation-churches-and-other-faith-communities