Follow-up: 5 misconceptions about "young adults"

I have been overwhelmed by the response to my previous blog post. I have been encouraged by the conversations that have already begun to flow from it. Because it seems like an important issue right now, I have decided to continue the conversation in this venue. Before I do, I want to remind readers that I don't speak for all young adults, I speak merely from my experiences at UPC and what I have observed through my own ministry here and through some of the relationships I have formed. There are a lot of stereotypes about the young adult age group that stand as a barrier to ministry and connection. To be fair, at times we have a hand in perpetuating them, but lets go ahead and lay some of them out on the table so that we can begin to move beyond them. 1. We only come to church to find a spouse. Young adults in the church are often equated with singles ministry. Convergence was not a singles ministry. While for many of us, marriage is a desire we have for our lives, it doesn't drive everything we do. Many of us come to church because we love God, and we are trying to become more like Christ. Further, we have value and can contribute to the congregation even in our single-hood. Getting married and having children does not give us our voice, Christ does. 2. We are transient and therefore not worth the extra time and energy. While it is true that this stage of life is often filled with changes and moves, it should not be a reason to disregard us as non-committal. It is precisely for this reason that we need a little extra TLC. Many of us are far away from our parents and families, trying to figure out what it means to be adults and functioning members of society, as well as trying to find and faithfully live into our call as Christians. This is hard. We need the input and encouragement from our elders who have walked these paths before us. 3. We don't invest in the church. While it may be said that we contribute less financially to the church, that is mostly due to our life stage (and sometimes due to lack of teaching about why we tithe). We make up for this in the way we serve in the church. Many of us are on staff, are small group leaders, teach Sunday School to the kids, or are youth sponsors. While we may not put up the $$ in the same way, we are certainly invested in the church. 4. We only care what the church can do for us. The scope and variety of forms of involvement on the part of young adults proves that we are not concerned only with our own needs. We care about families and children, we care about youth, we care about the older adults who have poured into this church for years. We just want others to value us in the same way, and for the ways we will be leading the church in the future. 5. We only care about contemporary rock music and fancy graphics and videos. I wont lie, music style and atmosphere can be cool and can draw people in. But many of us appreciate not only different styles of music, but also the tradition and liturgy that morning services offer. Participation in community, connection with the body of Christ, and equipping for being sent into the world are priorities of worship over and above music style. We have fallen into patterns as a congregation, and in order to move forward, some of these patterns need to be broken. Hopefully talking about some of these things will help us to do that. I want to continue this conversation with one final post about tangible ideas for loving young adults as a congregation. If you are interested, look for this post in the next day or so.