Trevin Wax relates some of the thoughts he picked up from Robert Wuthnow's book After the Baby Boomers about how to reach out to young adults (18 to twenty-somethings).
His main points are in bold and I've provided a short summary of each of his summaries, but please read his whole post if you're interested:
1. Raise expectations regarding post-boomer religious participation while simultaneously providing support for this generation.
Young adults are busy and uninvolved with the church, we need to create innovative ways of ministering to them while also raising the level of our expectations for their involvement.
2. Buck the trend of late marriages.
We need to emphasize sexual chastity, but more importantly emphasize earlier maturity. Don't push people into wedding vows, but rather breed an atmosphere of maturity so that young twenty-somethings will be ready for marriage.
3. Reach out to new movers.
66% of converts to evangelicalism did so after a recent move. We need to actively evangelize to people who are new to communities as people in transition are more willing to join a church in their settling process.
4. Emphasize doctrine again.
Wuthnow's research indicates a lack of doctrinal understanding among young adults. They also really want that understanding. The church must offer substantial training in this regard.
5. Stop expending so much time and energy debating stylistic issues.
Young adults are not interested in the 'worship wars'. They're interested in liturgy, tradition and the preaching of the Bible.
6. We need to deepen our understanding of other religious faiths.
We're doing a good job of reaching the 'unchurched, but have little understanding of other faiths and how to evangelize to them.
Number 3 makes a lot of sense to me. I know most young adults are looking for places to fit in and find friends. Why not the church? And a hearty Amen to numbers 5 and 6.
Anything you would add to the list? Anything you would take of the list? Other thoughts?
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Comments (10)
Here's my question though. Can someone define what is meant as contemporary worship? As opposed to what? Is the author referring to the kinds of songs sung or an over-produced contemporary music style or the repetition of choruses? What should we return to? My aging parents (70s & 80s) prefer traditional evangelical music. But by that they mean The Old Rugged Cross, Power In The Blood, Just As I Am, I Surrender All and other standards of 30 to 50 years ago with a gospel piano, an organ and a 4 man quartet or George Beverly Shea. Please don't tell me that's what is meant. What faith tradition is this author speaking from?
Usually when the 'contemporary' vs. 'traditional' debate is brought up it focuses on two things:
1. Hymns v. Praise choruses (older standby songs that have withstood the test of time v. newer songs)
2. Instruments used. Namely the debate between pianos/organs and rock instruments like guitars.
Again, I'd affirm that--for the most part--this is a non-issue in most churches nowadays.
"I am glad that Wuthnow’s research backs up what I found to be true in my own congregation. The younger adults are not heavily invested in the so-called “worship wars” between contemporary and traditional music. Younger adults want church to “feel like church” and are more likely than the most elderly segment of the congregation to prefer liturgy and tradition. So much ink is spilled on the newest music style, when the younger generation is often more concerned about the preaching of the Word."
This author is a Sociologist from Princeton. The book is published by Princeton, not noted for it's hospitality to evangelicals. I am interested to read but would want to read critically knowing his background. I notice on Amazon.com several reviews from Catholics, New Age authors, emergent church leaders and the president of Fuller. Interesting. I'll have to read.
At first I read this, wrote my response, then checked Wax's website for the longer response and realized it was a pragmatic statement and that since most young adults leave the church during college years they come back with marriage and kids. Later marriages is lowering this rate and so we are losing people in the churches. I can understand that even if I find that comment about 'marrying early' overly pragmatic and problematic.
However, he then goes on to write 'Our youth need to be brought up with the mindset that marrying at a young age is not only not necessarily irresponsible, but ideal.' Which prompts two thoughts.
1) Since when is pushing marriage before people are ready a good thing? Our present divorce rate certainly doesn't seem to show alot of promise in this ground. I think ideal is when the people are ready, sure let's help foster maturity in youth... but I've yet to meet a pastor who didn't think that was important.
2) How long will terms that once applied to teenagers apply to progressively older ages of people? I still get classified in the category of Young Adult (presently 28 been married 5 years) simply because I'm in my 20s and have yet to pop out a child. Yet that same word was used to describe me when I was 15... perhaps we need other words or perhaps we need the old generation to recognize us as adults without qualifying adjectives.
I don't know anyone, much less young adults, interested in liturgy and tradition. On the contrary, I know many people who are repelled and anti-tradition and mindless ritual.
Amen to good music and worship, amen to well reasoned arguments, amen to unity love and morals etc. but let's not forget the actual commission:
Just preach the Gospel!
Creatively reveal the Bad News so that you can preach the Good News - it's something powerful and life changing if it's communicated properly and people don't get tired of hearing it because in this life nobody completely understands it. As the pennies drop, lives change.
the unchurched? that word makes me puke in my mouth a bit.
the rest i pretty much agree with. we need to reach out to this group very much, it seems that after kids graduate high school they go into the world and nobody cares about them anymore so they fall away. they need to be discipled.
Despite the words of Paul and others about the virtues of being single, churches focus heavily on the concept of the so-called traditional family, so much so, that single young adults often feel out of place. Saying that young adults needs to get married sooner so they'll come back to church misses the point. Churches need to do a better job of being family. I know a lot, and I mean a lot, of young adults postponing marriage because of their vision of what God wants to do with their life in the immediate future...and that's a bad thing?
Call it doctrine of whatever. I'll call it substance. Our church has been preaching from the Bible the past few years, wrestling with hard passages at times. We don't always have easy answers, and sometimes we have hard questions. Our church has grown a lot since then.
I think we've lost the message that living for God costs something, we're making it too easy in the western church. We hand out salvation in the form of a simple prayer and then go on to reassure the newly 'saved' person that they are now in the family of God, without telling them that salvation is not just a moment in time, but something that has to be lived to even be real. I think this is one of the greatest heresies of the modern church; the most important doctrine we have - the doctrine of salvation - has been skewed beyond recognition. Off topic I know, just something that's been on my mind...
And you call it "worship wars" but let's just lump it into one big category: young adults don't want to "play church" anymore ... they want a real encounter with the Living God ...
Thanks for this,
-Cristy S.
<a>http://www.wisdombeyondyears.com</a>
Online Community for Young Christian Leaders