Reaching Young Adults: What Will it Take?

The Rationale For Change
We live in a culture, and attend church in a culture, which has taught us that the most important things are those which we get out of the experience, and what we take away from it. That's almost completely contrary to what the scripture teaches about the church. What matters most is what God gets from us. And for us, serving others is the way we live out the faith we have in Christ.

We've operated our adult Bible study in recent years based almost exclusively on preference. We've pretty much allowed people to choose a class and a teacher based on their perceived needs, and on their social connections. Up to a point, that worked for us with regard to assimilation of new members, and perhaps even a little bit with regard to outreach. But we are now at a point where the direction of what we do on Sunday morning needs to take a turn and move in a different direction.

This change is based on current research, knowledge of the demographics of the growing community in which our church exists, and expert advice regarding successful methods and strategies for reaching the kind of population that lives in our church field. From our Summer Leadership Seminar, we determined that efforts related to both evangelism and discipleship must be intentional. Looking at our adult ministries in particular, it became clear that reaching young adults, people who are 18 years of age up to 40, needs to be the focus of intentional ministry at Garden Oaks.

Young adults exist in abundance in our field, yet most of them are not involved in church anywhere. Research tells us that they are leaving the institutional church for a variety of reasons, but that they have an intense interest in spiritual matters. As many as 65% of them, according to one recent Lifeway Research study, responded that they would be willing to attend a church which would meet them where they are in their life now, teach them the deep truths of scripture, provide opportunities for meaningful service, and engage them in celebrative worship.

Setting Aside Personal Preferences
There, then, is our challenge. The time has come for us to make the necessary turn in our discipleship ministries in order to be equipped for making disciples and building community for them in order to assimilate them into the local church. An intentional effort to do this will be required, and this will involve asking those in our church involved in adult discipleship to set their own preferences aside, and help prepare the church to provide for the spiritual needs of others.

As we begin this intentional effort, our Bible study on Sunday morning needs to shift in order to accomodate young adults and meet them where they are. This will require adult departments and groups that are age graded rather than chosen by content, teacher, or social grouping. Our current group of 18-40 year olds, who will, by necessity, be at the forefront of this effort, will need to become a group, a Biblical community which studies the Bible together, fellowships and builds relationships into community, and disciples each other in the deep truths of the Bible. That's one major change.

The other involves the content of the Bible study. Our adult leadership has done a great job preparing expository or thematic lessons to present each week. For young adults, these must be a curriculum specifically geared to their spiritual needs, exploring the depths of scripture and presenting them in an understandable and applicable way. We will need to look at some available curriculum materials designed specifically for the needs and life situations of young adults, which can be promoted in an outreach that creates interest and hunger for its Biblical content.

The Strategy
Creating one department on Sunday morning, and perhaps as many as two home groups, aimed at young adults will involve moving people around from one place to another, and displacing some people who may be comfortable where they are. But as the stronger believers, those who will be asked to move, or be displaced need to consider that what they are doing, they are doing for the "weaker brother," to make a comfortable place for someone who would not currently find a place or feel a welcome in the body as it now exists.

One of the things we do not want to do is to discover that, once re-arranged, there is still no room for the unchurched to find a place. The whole idea of making these changes is to be flexible, and to understand what it takes to make disciples and assimilate them into Biblical community. It is not as easy as the simplicity of reorganizing. It takes the work of building relationships of trust, and for many young adults, overcoming obstacles that loomed large in their transition from childhood to adulthood which separated them from their church in the first place. That sounds like walking on eggshells, and that's exactly what it is like. But we can make this part of our DNA by continuing to realize,

"This is not about me."

The Personal Sacrifice
As we learned in the Summer Leadership Seminar, intentional action is the exact opposite of simply maintaining the status quo and expecting results. If it is to be, it is up to me. That's a statement that holds true here. When people get involved in new relationships, it carries them out of their comfort zone, especially if those with whom they are involved have not been trained in the unwritten social ettiquette and behavior system that is expected in the church and among the churched. Relationships are hard, they are sometimes messy, and they are usually difficult to maintain unless effort is made.

We are asking people, for the sake of the church's ministry, and for its future, to go outside their comfort zone and do something different. That is a personal sacrifice, especially in a voluntary situation. It also happens to be what God expects of his children, no less. It's the point at which revival happens.

Being cooperative with the changes that need to be put in place is the very least you can do. Being willing to see the changes as an opportunity for you to invest in relationships outside the Kingdom for the sake of winning people into the Kingdom is the goal. The future of the church depends on it.