Young Adult/ College Ministry in the Context of the Local Church

The local church is a gateway to the new life that Jesus offers to His creation.

My idea of the local church is people from every age, race, social status, economic level, and vocation within a local community coming together to: worship the Lord Jesus Christ, grow in relationship with Him, build authentic, encouraging, and accountable relationships with each other, serve and meet the needs of the world around them, and share the faith, love, and hope that they have found in Jesus Christ in a tangible way with all who they come into contact with.

Within this local church, this community, everyone needs to be integrated in order for the community to progress and reach others with the same good news that they have been transformed by.

One way to integrate everyone is to break up into smaller communities- communities made up of: specific age groups (infants, children, youth, college, young adults, seniors, etc…), specific life stages (singles, married couples, parents, empty nesters, retirees, etc…), specific ministry passions (local missions, homeless ministries, global missions, etc…), or specific life situations (divorcees, addicts, grief, etc…); all while continuing to meet together as a large community in order to strengthen and encourage one another.

One such smaller community is Young Adult/College Ministry. Young Adult/College Ministry usually consists of young people in the 18-30 age group in various stages of ‘young adult life’: High School Seniors (possibly attending a Young Adult/College Ministry to transition out of the Youth Ministry and into young-adulthood), College Students (attending a Young Adult/College Ministry during the school year while on campus and/or during breaks if they live in town), Young Professionals (Young Adults who attend a Young Adult/College Ministry that are in the work-force and have either graduated  or did not graduate from/attend college), and Young Couples(who attend a Young Adult/College ministry and still feel a part of that age group even though they are in a serious- possibly marriage- relationship). Young Adults and College Students are not ‘the church of tomorrow’ as so many people like to label them, THEY ARE A VALUABLE AND INTEGRAL PART OF TODAY’S CHURCH.

Young Adult/College Ministry is the greatest way for the local church to reach the lost Young Adults and College Students of their community for Christ.  Not only is Young Adult/College Ministry the greatest way for the local church to reach JUST the lost Young Adults of their community, BUT one of the greatest ways to reach lost people OF ALL AGES for Christ- period.

In a poll conducted by The Barna Group in 2004, 43% of all Americans who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior indicated that they did so before reaching the age of 13. The same poll also revealed that 64% of American born again Christians accepted Jesus Christ as their savior before their 18^th birthday. Only 13% of American born again Christians made their profession of faith between the ages of 18 and 21.

This means that approximately 77% of all Christians in America choose to follow Christ sometime between birth and the age of 21- with the chances to reach them declining dramatically each year. These statistics point to the fact that we as Christians are not doing enough to reach Young Adults and that the early stages of Young ‘Adulthood’ is a crucial time to reach the lost. It is imperative that the local church put much of their outreach and ministry focus on children, teens, and young adults in order to reach the lost for Christ.

In addition; a recent study done by Life Way Research showed conservatively (other unscientific sources show much higher numbers) that 70% of Protestants who attended church regularly in High School said they quit attending by age 23. 34% of those who said that they quit by age 23 had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30. That shows that approximately 25% of Protestant Young Adults have left the church-period! This is a HUGE problem.

Life Way also cites three basic components that Young Adults look for in church: 1) The ability to connect with others, 2) the ability to participate in exploring the Scriptures, and 3) the opportunity to meet the needs of others through social action and justice. Those needs, for the most part, are not being met in the local church. Young adults who are leaving the church in staggering numbers see that the churches offer so much for their teens and offer so much for young families, but don’t offer anything for those that are in between those two life stages

So, needless to say, Young Adult/College Ministry is extraordinarily important within the context of the local church. But what could it look like?

It is important for Young Adults and College Students to have a ministry targeted directly at them within the local church. The reasons for this are many, a few of those reasons are- because Young Adults and College Students face issues unique to their age group (discovering their identity, deciding what they want to do with their life, learning how to build and keep relationships, struggling with the pressures of sexuality, working to get good grades, etc…), Young Adults respond more within a group of their peers more than they do within a group of  older adults or teenagers (because their peers are going through the same issues as them, their peers tend to be less judgmental than older adults, they enjoy recreating with their peers more so than older adults, etc…), and Young Adults tend to relate more with others who share or are aware of the same generational interests as them (music, television, movies, publications, video games, web sites, etc…).

This ministry would have a weekly worship gathering for Young Adults and College Students- preferably during the middle of the week so that the Young Adults could be encouraged from the events that have transpired previously in the week and for the ones to come. This weekly worship gathering would have a relaxed atmosphere, yet offer high energy corporate worship music, corporate prayer, Bible teaching, and group ice-breakers or games. The weekly worship gathering would be the GATEWAY to the local church’s Young Adult/College Ministry where Young Adults could confidently invite their ‘non-Christian’ friends because they themselves know that their friends will be accepted by their peers and their leaders, have a good time, hear a message relevant to their lives, and encounter Jesus in a non-judgmental, non-pressured way.

Serving a meal before the weekly worship gathering would be optimal as to draw Young Adults in from the community who don’t have time to prepare a meal or eat dinner before attending a worship gathering; and would allow the rest of the church community an opportunity to serve their young people.

This ministry would have weekly small-group meetings split up into age-specific and possibly gender-specific groups. In these weekly small-group meetings Young Adults will develop close-authentic-accountable relationships with a small group of their peers and a mentoring relationship with their small-group leader. Within these groups Young Adults will eat together, share their struggles with one another, pray for each other, read and discuss the Word of God together, and hold each other accountable. Different small groups could meet at different times, but having this group meet on Sunday nights would be optimal as to encourage each other to live for Christ throughout the coming week and to discuss the topic from the Sunday morning service and the previous week’s Young Adult/College Age Worship Gathering.

This Young Adult/College Ministry would have consistent monthly events planned for Young Adults to recreate, serve, and evangelize together. These events would enable the group to grow closer together, invite their friends, and have life experiences that they may have never experienced without attending. These events could transpire both locally and in distant locations.

The Young Adult/College Ministry would have at least one retreat or camp scheduled per calendar year for Young Adults and College Students to attend. These retreats or camps would give the Young Adults a rare opportunity to be ministered to outside of their local context- lowering their inhibitions to what the Lord can do in their life and opening their eyes to new life experiences.

This Young Adult/College Ministry would be led by a Jesus-loving College Pastor who would build and oversee a team of volunteers within the local church and Young Adult/College Student Leaders within the Young Adult/College Ministry. The College Pastor’s duties would be (but not limited to) to schedule and oversee all events as well as spend quality time loving, serving, and mentoring his Young Adult Congregation, volunteers, church community, and surrounding community. The volunteers’ duties would be (but not limited to) to run and work within certain departments of the ministry (leading individual weekly small group meetings, preparing meals before the weekly worship gathering, engaging and mentoring Young Adults at the weekly worship gathering and at Sunday services, etc…).

A healthy Young Adult/College Ministry will have its leaders and volunteers visiting with their members and visitors for coffee, lunch, or other activities in order to develop relationships and trust; and mentor those they minister to.

I believe that Young Adults and College Students should have the opportunity to attend ’Big Church’ with their other family and friends so they can- learn from the senior pastor’s teachings; worship with their family and friends; be mentored by older adults within the church community; feel, hear, and see that THEY ARE A VALUABLE AND INTEGRAL PART OF THE GREATER CHURCH BODY; have more opportunities to serve their church community; be involved with ministry at Sunday services (on the worship team, ushering, greeting, etc…); and so that the other adults within their church community can see that the Young Adult/College Ministry needs their support- prayerfully, relationally, financially, and by volunteering. Some churches have their ‘Young Adult/College Services’ during Sunday morning ‘Big Church’ services or as an alternative to their ‘Big Church’ service, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I feel that it robs Young Adults and College Students of awesome opportunities that they can experience with the other adults and young people of their church community. This is one of the reasons why I advocate for Young Adult/College Ministries to have their weekly worship gatherings during the middle of the week.

I believe that if some of the above ideas were followed and if the local church as a whole were committed to similar philosophies, that the natural result would be growth within the local church’s Young Adult/College Ministry. Once the number of Young Adults (20 something’s) and College Students (18-22 year olds) within the local church’s Young Adult/College Ministry reached a large number, respectively, it might be wise to consider separating the weekly worship gathering up between those two groups in order to minister more strategically and effectively. This is because just as Young Adults and College Students face different issues and relate to culture differently than their older adult community members do, the same division translates on a smaller scale between Young Adults (once again 20 something’s) and College Students (18-22). So having separate weekly worship gatherings, and possibly even events, would allow the College Pastor and volunteers to tailor meet the ministry needs of the two different groups.

All this being said, there is not necessarily a wrong or a right way to do Young Adult/College Ministry. You have to do what works for the people unique to your community. And the only way to do what works, in any ministry, is to let GOD LEAD YOU- by His Word, through prayer, by His Holy Spirit, and under the direction of an elder that God has placed with you.