Cory Daniels, young adults pastor at Liquid Church (No. 22 fastest-growing) in Parsippany, New Jersey, also has a lead team comprised only of young adults. These volunteers plan, run and execute events from the ground up. When one of these events is announced, “People are excited about it because they know it’s planned by young adults, and it’s catered to the felt needs in our community. It’s going to be a vibe for them,” he says.
A Range of Ages
This last year Rock Church (No. 42 fastest-growing) in San Diego, California, moved to stop focusing just on college students and to shift to make their ministry for young adults. Allison Mercer, youth and young adult pastor, describes this as a new focus on the demographic of 18 to 29, because “people are going to school later or not going to school at all, getting married early or not getting married at all, or not really knowing what to do, and they’re figuring it out between this wide age [range] of 18 to 29.”
At the older end, Rock Church doesn’t have a hard stop. Mercer said, “We tell people, ‘Don’t let age phase you out, but [you will reach a point where] maturity will make you feel uncomfortable.’ Maturity is the determining factor.”
The top end of the age range can be most difficult when a church does not have a healthy ministry to those in their 30s. Daniels describes the young adult ministry at Liquid Church as 18 to 20-somethings. He said he wanted to avoid having “a really awkward conversation” if those on the older end of that spectrum get involved in order to try to meet those still in their teenage years.
Challenges to Overcome
There are many challenges inherent in young adult ministry that leaders are quick to point out. “Young adults in general—but specifically those in their 20s—are very migratory. Their jobs are changing, they’re graduating college, they’re starting to get married, they’re starting families,” said Emory Cothen, young adults pastor at Champion Forest Baptist Church (No. 100 fastest-growing) in Houston, Texas.
Bailey also highlighted this volatility, because it creates transitions in your young adult leadership team. “When there is rotation in who is on this core team, there has to be a lot of flexibility,” he observes. “That’s true for the ministry at large as well.”
“This is a group that loves to travel, that loves to do things,” adds Viva. “There are so many things happening, so how can we captivate them? How can we grab their attention?” Similarly, Figueroa notes, “It’s hard to get young adults to come to church every week.” Jace Brandhorst, operations manager for the senior executive pastor at Christ Church (No. 71 fastest-growing) in Gilbert, Arizona, says it this way: “The biggest challenge is just getting people to fully commit to something. It used to be FOMO—fear of missing out. Now it’s FOBO—fear of better [options].”
For those near college campuses, activities on campus are always competing with church plans. “Campus life always wins,” says Bailey. Brandhorst also added that attendance at their site near a college campus drops during the summer.
Leaders note culture tugs in the opposite direction of the kingdom. “When we speak about purity, intimacy, sex, dating and all that stuff, it is like we are speaking [a foreign language] to these people. They don’t get it. They never learned it, and it’s just far from them,” says Figueroa.
Nibbe says their massive challenge is reaching people in Phoenix who “have no church experience, no practical application of giving, serving, grouping, being a part of community, expectations for coming to church, etc.” He would not attribute this to them being young adults, but that they are reaching people in one of the least Bible-minded cities.
As the young adults and connections pastor at 3Circle Church (No. 35 fastest-growing) in Fairhope, Alabama, Jourdain Thrash deals with parents of young adults who aren’t ready for their young adults to grow up. “I get a lot of young adults who are 24 and the mom and dad are still putting a lot of pressure on them. They don’t know how to deal with that pressure in light of trying to discover their own identity and their own faith, and not rely on their parents’ faith.”
“The amount of adulting that they have to be taught is greater than previous generations,” says Moynihan. “How do you say no? How do you have conflict? How do you communicate? How do you follow through with a commitment?” As an example, volunteers may stop serving by “ghosting.” They just cut off all ties and don’t respond to any communication, because that causes them less emotional distress than having to have a hard conversation and say no to somebody. “We have to figure out how to lovingly guide them into maturity and discipleship,” admits Moynihan.
A Shared Vision
Each church that has good things happening with young adults in their 20s has intentional ministry to this age group. Each described some large group gathering, though this varied from weekly to monthly in frequency. Each has small group Bible studies in some form. And each has numerous opportunities for young adults to serve.
While many of the expressions are unique to that church and that young adult ministry, some churches are deliberate about their connection within their church. “It’s very intentional that we actually just have the same vision and mission the church has,” says Bailey.
The approach is similar at Rock Church. “All of our ministry goals, all of our ministry standards, all of our ministry mission values are not different from what our church is pursuing. Whatever the goal is for the house is ours too,” Mercer shares.
Thrash also indicates their desire at 3Circle Church is not to be siloed. “We’re going to push missions really heavily. We’re going to have you partner with the mission trip the church is already doing. If you want to serve, we’re going to plug you into the church.”
While there is much diversity in how these programs function, there is intentionality behind decisions. Faith Assembly of God has their large group gathering every Thursday. “We do that every week so that at some point it can create some sort of commitment in them,” offers Figueroa.