Study guide Spiritual nomads: Young adults S
By Robert C. Blezard
tatistics show that traditional, mainline churches, such as Lutheran churches, aren’t meet- ing the needs of younger adults. This bodes poorly for a church whose membership is aging, and it ought to serve as a wake-up call.
Exercise 1: Young people If your congregation is one of the many without a lot of young adults and children, discuss: Was there ever a time when your congregation did have lots of younger members? When? What brought them to church then? What kept them there? What happened? How did the church change? How did the church fail to change? How did people change? Do you have children, grandchil- dren or nieces and nephews who were raised in the church but now don’t come? Why don’t they come? What can you do to help mentor them in the faith? What can your congregation do?
Exercise 2: Age of members What is the average age of your con- gregation’s members? And what is the “spread” of people—from 0-25, 26-50, 51-75 and 76-100? Check with the office staff since
Blezard is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Arendtsville, Pa. He has a master of divinity degree from Boston University and did subsequent study at the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.) and the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia.
many church-management software programs can readily provide this kind of information. Otherwise, do the hard work of going through the membership list and estimating which category each parishioner fits in—just to get an idea. What does
the research reveal about your church?
Exercise 3: Current leaders Why is it that most people’s ideas of “good” come from their own experi- ence—what seems good “to me and my peers”? What age groups are represented by your congregation’s current leaders—such as members of the congregational council, dedicated Sunday school teachers and the reli- able “worker bees” who help out with everything?
In many congregations the lead- ership consists mostly of people in late middle-age to retirement. Can such a group effectively plan wor- ship, education and programming for people much younger than them? If so, how? If not, why not? What else can your congregation do to identify leaders in different stages of life and get them on board? Why would this be helpful?
Exercise 4: Future leaders Roughly speaking, what percent- age of the very active leaders of your church have been members for more than 10 years? Fifteen years? Twenty years?
Looking at your congregation today and the age of its leaders and its members, who will lead your congregation 10, 15 and 20 years from now? Do you think you will have leaders? What does this say about your congregation’s culture? What can be done about it?
Exercise 5: What’s it about? Millennials want a church that stands for something. Forget
the official mission statement— describe in your own words what your church is all about. What is its purpose and mission? How is that purpose and mission reflected in all it does?
If you have a hard time with the previous questions, how hard would it be for a visitor to understand your church’s mission and purpose? What would your church have to
offer to a millennial who sought a deep experience and clear purpose? What can you and your group do about it?
Exercise 6: Faith and service Lutherans know that we are saved by grace and not by our good works, but James 2:14-17 famously tells us that faith without works is dead. Do you agree with this text?
Sociologists say millennials are looking for concrete expressions of faith through service. Are service and faith intertwined in your congre- gation’s culture? What opportunities are there for service (make a list of them)?
Exercise 7: Not religious In growing numbers, younger people are identifying themselves as spiri- tual but not religious. What’s the difference? How would you describe yourself?
Could younger people be dis-
avowing “religious” because they perceive church people as religious but not spiritual? Is there some jus- tification for that perception gener- ally? In your congregation? Ideally, shouldn’t all church
people be “religious and spiritual”? How can we make it so?
This study guide is offered as one example of the more than 350 that are currently available on The Lutheran’s website. Download guides—free to print and Web subscribers—at
www.thelutheran.org (click “study guides”).
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