PATRICK SHORTT
Zion Evangelical, The Dalles, Ore. (small town, rural and 90 miles from Portland)
• Average worship attendance: 110 • Best young adult draw: The integration of all generations and worship styles. • Words that describe your congregation: Liturgically eclectic, respectful and we engage all people in everything we do. We invite the gifts of all people into the fullness of our faith practices. • Words that describe your church’s young adults: Not from this town, chal- lenging the norms, liturgically eclectic. • Most new members learn about the congregation through: Word of mouth and newspaper articles; referrals from other churches. • When young adults enter your congre- gation, where do they get involved? Worship, relationships (with other members), hobbies they share, service the church engages in through the community. • Gifts young adults bring to your congre- gation: New ideas, joyful service, vitality.
Rebekah Evans, 21, member; and Christopher T. Kramer, pastor
report a strong connection with a reli- gious community, sociologists tell us they tend to be healthier, have a more positive self-image, participate more frequently in volunteer service, are more empathetic and achieve highly in academics. They also are less likely to participate in risky sexual behavior, abuse drugs or alcohol, or engage in criminal activity. The sociologists would tell us: the young adults who are in worship are an interesting and lively group.
Society’s changing nature At the height of the 20th century (the so-called “Christian Century”), young adults typically partnered and had children early in adulthood. Single adult households represented fewer than 9 percent of the total population. Today such households comprise almost 30 percent of the U.S. popula-
22 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
Chad Holloway (front row, left), Cooper Holloway and Bobby Sterling-Holloway enjoy the worship service at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, The Dalles, Ore. One of the things that attracts young families to the congregation is the multi- generational membership.
tion. And, whether or not they marry or partner, young adults are waiting longer to have children, if they do at all. Since young adults often consid- ered beginning to attend worship at the transitional moments of marriage and the birth of children, with more people postponing or foregoing these transitions, the old patterns are bound to change. With a few sociological landmarks behind us, let’s explore three points of interest along this same young adult landscape. There are many others, but these seem to be just complex enough to be missed by many congregations.
Aim low
Statistically we know that almost all of the young adults today who wor- ship frequently had religious experi- ences as teenagers.
Powerful experiences of prayer or commitment to God, a transformative spiritual experience, internalizing the language of Scripture, or having a strong sense of the divine holding and connecting all things—when these experiences don’t occur in someone’s teenage years, statistically speaking, it’s unlikely they will attend worship as a young adult. So this first point of interest regarding young adults in worship takes an unexpected route
through the teenage years.
One of the most important ways to cultivate regular church attendance among young adults is to nurture the worship lives of our teenagers. Evi- dence seems to point specifically to devotional, spiritual (and even mysti- cal) religious experiences as impor- tant. For instance, worship that seeks, as liturgical scholar Frank Senn put it, “enchantment, not entertainment.” So when we’re seeking to serve and open the doors wider to young adults in our congregations, one of the things we might do is, in a sense, aim low. Let’s ensure that: • Our teenagers aren’t just in “activi- ties” but are given space for and led into the mysteries of prayer and contemplation. • They are not fed only with youth night pizza but also with the mystical bread of life. • Some of them become leaders in worship (not as cute tokens or object lessons but as true leaders of the entire assembly, using their emerg- ing gifts) in ways that might grow in young adulthood.
Religion & politics
Sociologists tell us that young adults today (whether they’re religious or not) share a general sense of what the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52