Want your church to reach young adults? Lead a college/young adult ministry and want to see a deeper impact in the lives of those you’re ministering to? Or maybe you’re a parent with kids in the 18-30 age range and aren’t sure how to best engage them. Regardless, this is for you.
Here are five things that the next generations need, based on my experience in young adult ministry, work with young adult and college ministry leaders across the country, my own experience as a young adult, and wide-ranging reading on the topic.
1. Peace, not hype.
You’re never going to be able to out-hype the hundreds of thousands of apps, videos, songs, and technological innovations that are at the fingertips of today’s young adults. The good news is you don’t even need to try. Young adults don’t need and generally aren’t looking for more stimulation or more hype in their lives. All the information, opportunities, and entertainment that we have access to has contributed to increases in anxiety, depression, loneliness, and more.
What we need is space for peace, rest, and security. When a young adults steps into your ministry, home, or simply into your presence it should be a place of peace where they can let their guard down, be themselves, and discover God’s glorious goodness – not just somewhere that they get pumped up for the next big thing.
2. Intimacy, not more acquaintances.
This is the age of quick connection, but young adults are more lonely than any other generation. What’s lacking isn’t acquaintances – it’s real, authentic intimacy. Young adults need people to know them for who they really are. We need to have real conversations that go beyond the typical “How’s it going? What do you do for work? Where do you go to school? What are you studying?” and delve into heart-level issues.
That’s why at elementum we strongly encourage the leaders we’re working with to invest heavily in spaces where people get to know each other deeply rather than prioritizing large-group weekly services. The deepest change happens only in the context of authentic relationships where truth can be communicated to the heart, not just the head.
3. Truth, not good ideas and moral advice.
I’m constantly amazed at how many young adults who have grown up in church, taken part in sunday schools, youth groups, and the like have next to no understanding of absolute truth. Their Christianity is, as has been pointed out in definitive research, moralistic therapeutic deism – be a good person so you feel good and God will be pleased with you. The gospel has become a series of good ideas and excellent moral advice, neither of which are Gospel-grounded truth.
We must, whether it be in our leading of ministry or our personal relationships with young adults, be ferociously intentional about bringing them into an encounter with God’s truth. That means, first and foremost, bringing them into an encounter with God’s word and wrestling with the reality of the truth contained in it. Whether in the context of preaching, small group studies, or one-on-one conversation, let’s be sure we’re speaking (and reading) truth to the heart rather than jumping to good ideas or moral improvement. After all, truth is the foundation of purpose.
4. Purpose, not self-improvement.
This point is particularly prevalent for young men. Odds are you know your share of young men who spend far too much of their time lost in the world of video games. Or the more gender-neutral time-consumers Netflix, Reddit, Instagram, Youtube, and the like. I’ve found that this wasting time isn’t generally due solely to laziness or some other moral failing. Instead it’s rooted in a feeling of purposelessness, which young adults feel an overwhelming urge to escape from.
If you want to effectively engage young adults you must connect them with their Kingdom purpose – the reason that God created them and placed them on this earth. As the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians, God’s created good works for us to do. Our lives aren’t about improving ourselves; their about fulfilling the purpose we were created for – to be loved by God and give love to others. As we live into that purpose we’ll find a lasting hope.
5. Hope, not momentary happiness.
The previous four points all feed into this one. When we’re working with young adults and college students they need to know that there is hope. Despite the conflict, the constant barrage of negative news, and the deep-rooted culture of cynicism, there is incredible hope. In Christ we have something far better than the momentary happiness of a consumerist lifestyle. Intimate relationships, deep-rooted truth, and eternal purpose all free us from the need to pursue the high of the experience for the “now”.
Young adults need hope, even if it’s at the cost of happiness in the moment. If you’re a pastor or ministry leader, make sure that you’re consistently pointing those you lead above the horizon of this moment and this lifetime, into the eternal hope that the Gospel gives. If you’re a parent of a college student or young adult, strive to let your life communicate that immortal hope through what you prioritize and celebrate and communicate.
Young adults need peace, not hype. Intimacy, not more acquaintances. Truth, not good ideas or moral advice. Purpose, not self-improvement. Hope, not momentary happiness. Each of those is a need that Jesus meets beautifully in his life, death, and resurrection. So, long story short, what do young adults need? They need Jesus. Just like all of us.
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