does your church have a young adult program/activities?

[lynetteSC]

Hi guys! I have been "nominated" for a new comittee at church to help organize some events/programs for young adults. I suppose they are thinking perhaps age group of college to maybe 30ish? Because this is a new thing, there are no guidelines/ages/etc ....

I just was wondering if anyone has anything special that their church does that would perhaps help me out?!?!? Is there anything you would like to see your church offer?

We have our 1st mtg soon and just was looking for ideas!
Thanks for any advice!!!!

 

[lynetteSC]

bumping up for the nighttime DIS'ers

 

[niks81]

Yes, it does. There is a youth group, which is for 14-18 and then there is an "older" version of a youth group for ages 18-25 or so. I'm not sure if you mean programs/events that are just for fun, or those for charity type of things?

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Its not at our church but actually at another one that kind of combines all the people in that age group since no one church around here has alot to make up their own group. They do things in more of a coffeehouse/music get together in the church basement/fellowship hall type thing. Sad to say but most everyone around here that age is totally wrapped up in themselves and they have forgotten THE most important person in their life. My sons christian school teacher goes to it, she is single but has a boyfriend.

 

[Otto's Doll]

Bumping again (we have a Youth Group with the Methodist church - we are a Presbyterian church - for grades 6 - 12, but nothing for young adults).

 

[FroggyinArk]

our church has taken the young adult sunday school class and turned it into a active group, age range 19 to 40+ if you feel young its your call..lol.. we have pool parties, cook outs had a hay ride with our kids last halloween, and a fall festival we put on for the kids at church, we actively particippate in our churches drama activities as a group, we put on a live nativity, and this year we started a live version of the passion, we have a wed night discussion group and study that is seperate and often held at a local restaurant and ice cream place instead of a class room, Our young adults take over bible school, and just actively try and have good clean fun in a loving christian atmosphere. Its really a great way to bring this group together because the young adults of today are the church eldars of tommorrow and if they are bonded together in freindship and weekly fellowships they are likely to be in a wonderful position to take up the burden when they are asked to step up into more active leadership roles at church. for starters try getting thre group together for a fellowship breakfast and coffee prior toi church one sunday as a interest builder/gauge, believe me, if they getting fed,, and free coffee the young adults will even get to church early,,lol,, or host it at a local breakfgast bar if your fellowship hall isnt available, and believe me its a group that will build on itself. my wife and i seldom are able to attend the organized things going on, we owna home repair service and after my acident in oct i am unable to get out so she taking my slack and is always worn out, buyt we were both in the passion,, and we had over 400 ppl turn up ,, even ppl we all know are actively non christians, and they were all toiuched by the fact that that many ppl in that age group were together presenting that story and that actively presenting the word. pray about it, call the folks up and get going, you will have a great time. great fellowship, and a much more active christain life. thanks for listening,, Froggy

 

[Aimeedyan]

Young adult is such a broad term... some 50 yo's consider themselves to be young adults.

Couple of random thoughts:

College age is different than young adult... trying to mix these groups is often hard because life exp's are worlds apart, and the two groups have diff thoughts as to what fun is =) I was in a very active college group, and we always knew when someone was growing into the young adult group because they wouldnt be interested in going out every night, spending time with tons of people all the time, etc etc. They enjoyed staying home, smaller groups, etc. We used to call them fuddy-duddies until we reached that age. Then we understood =) If you want to design a college program, the coffee-house worship environment is really popular and pretty successful. College age students usually love a great praise and worship exp, with socalization, food, and a dynamic Bible study experience. they also want OWNERSHIP. You can design and plan things all day long, but they won't buy into anything you do unless THEY are planning and hosting the things... We had a college minister come in and take over things, and he lost 80% of his program because the students had no ownership anymore. He didn't value their opinions and priorities. THEY know what htey want. If you want to target this age, grab your most faithful attenders and get them involved in planning things... if they're not already.

Same goes for young adults - they want ownership. They dont want someone always planning their activities for them. Young adults, in my mind, are post college - young 30's. Many are newly married, starting families, and some are single and career minded. Thats a big group! Its important to find a common ground for them to meet... you can say their faith is common ground, and that works for awhile, but at a point they need something more than their relationship with God to help them bond. Small group BIble studies are great - we really enjoy those and they are very successful. Find a couple of leaders to moderate and lead discussion, choose a good study, plan it for a home environment, and provide light food and drinks - people usually come. Be sure to keep it relatively small (less then 12 usually), have time for socializing, and let the group take it where they want it. We are in a small group now and we plan social activities and charity activities on our own... the only thing the church "programmed" was the leader, place and time, and studybook to get us started. We were turned loose and have been growing ever since.

Ownership is key. Its diff to provide activities for children, but adults want to be a part of things. Every group of people are diff and just because the church up the road is having success with a coffeehouse environment, doesnt necessarily mean y'alls will... your church may not be interested in that. Meet the people where they're at. And also define WHAT age you're targeting... young adults is too broad, you need to figure out if you're thinking college age, single adults, young families, early thirties, etc. Focus on one group at a time instead of taking on an entire decade or two =)

Good luck!

 

[disykat]

I think Bible Study is key. I had a wonderful group I was part of that wasn't actually affiliated with my church. Since we were the only people of that demographic in our church, my roommates and I started a group. We invited a few friends that went to other churches in the area and told them to spread the word. We met at our apartment for Bible study each week and became a family. We socialized, went hiking and camping, spent holidays together if we had no family around, did volunteer work together, but the glue was our weekly Bible study. We planned a Bible Study and it naturally progressed to much more as we became close.

 

[Cindy B]

Again, define your terms.

College age and 40 year olds are worlds apart.

Where I go to church they have a college age "youth group". I think its all the college students get together and do things when they are on break.

Younger adults are very job focused. You may have to do an "easier" activity or a sports activity to gain interest. Maybe non competitive volley ball, or something not too competititive so you can get dual genders. (Not saying women aren't competitive, but if you organized a basketball or football game, in my mind that would be a MAN activity). Even a picnic would work.

Then you have older adults with careers and possibly children. This would be maybe from 25 on. (I had my children early so adjust accordingly). IF you have kids , you are busy with them. Parents of infants have a hard time getting out inbetween feedings and naps. Parents of toddlers/preschoolers are dealing with activities/and also naps. Parents of kindergarteners are dealing with that dreaded half day schedule (at least in my area), and possibly another infant. Mind you if the parents are working and kids, they are wiped out! Remember trying to keep up work responsibilities and baby chores is very tiring.

Then you have older parents.. I would say 30 / 35 and up. These parents have children in elementaryschool and established careers. Our church has many separate youth groups established for each grade style. For example the k-1st grader have one, 2-4th, 5-6th, 7-8th , and high schoolers all have thier own.

But for the parents, there are some activities. I'm not too familiar with them though. There seems to be several ladies groups depending on interest and age group. There is a mens group as well.

There is also a young followers group for adults 20-30-s. I am in my 30's but my husband is not (he's 41!) so that could be awkward.

It gets diffulcult for me because I am in college most nights as well.

Our church is starting a coffeehouse meeting at nights soon. I may decide to check that out on a non school night.

 

[Talking Hands]

We have small groups for Bible Study that also serve the purpose you describe. College Group, Single adults to age 30. single adults above age 30, young married. They all have social events going on at least once a month. We also have a deaf group that has socials once a month and travels together to several conferences a year.

 

[winniedapooh]

At our church we have a fairly active youth group which does a variety of activities and volunteer work. We have a young couples group which does a lot of more family things as well as couple things. We also have a slightly older young couples group.....the people that seem to gravitate towards that group have children that are almost grown up or are on their own. It is weird but both of the latter groups seem to intermingle depending on the activity.

 

[believe]

We have a young adult Sunday School Class that is college to 35, or whenever you feel you are ready to move on. There have been no issues with those who are 18 coming into the class, they seem to enjoy the change and are ready for higher level thinking/questioning. We work with our youth, but we also get together for progressive dinners a few times a year. Most of our young adults are so active with other church activities that it is hard to do more. Some do homeless mission work, some work closer with the youth groups, some are Gideons...and some are working and trying to go to school, so don't have a lot of extra time. We have talked about a weekly study group, but it is very difficult since some have kids and we don't have the capacity for babysitting at this time.

 

[FroggyinArk]

As for baby sitting,, try getting some of the older youth to take the kids and use the church nursery, or let one couple host the baby sitting wioth the older youth assisting,, and r otaet that through your group.. again,, with rthe age thing,, let teh individuals decide,, at our church the young adults in clud eseveral age groups,, but then again,, the adult male class contains guys from 18 to 80,, the senior adult class from 40 to 90 the youngf adults from 18 to 41 adult ladies from 18 to 85.. so we have a varied age range in all our groups.. We feel like if the individual is comfortable with the group,, then the more the merrier..

 

[petula]

We have a humongous 20s & 30s group who all manage to mingle fine with each other. Single or married doesn't matter, but most of the people are single, since there's also a married couples group in the church. At the moment there's also a 30s & 40s group, which is very small, and also confusing for some of the mid-30s who aren't sure whether they have to "graduate" from the younger group (which is a lot more active. ). Many are now calling for the groups to be combined.

Bible studies, philanthropy projects, weekly meetings to talk about the sermon, retreats, friday dinners, happy hours, painting ceramics at the craft studio, movies, ball games, camping trips, scavenger hunts in the park, game nights, and holiday parties are some of the things the group does. There's enough going on that you can always find something you'd like to participate in, no matter whether you're still in that staying-out-all-night mode or more of a small-group, calmer activity sort of person--which doesn't necessarily depend on age, I might add. The fact is that people who enjoy each other's company will hang out together no matter the gap in their ages.

 

[WDWAurora]

Don't eliminate the college students in this group, as I feel is being suggested here by certain posts...During this formative time, that can turn people off from church in general just because they don't feel welcome....When I was at home for the first two years of school during breaks, I never went to my church because I had no group to belong to...Now we have a group that is a "young adult group" (the young adult Sunday school class is actually full of people my parents' age and older, so we don't call ourselves the young adult class) and has college students, hs graduates that aren't in college, as well as young married couples, etc....It has been a wonderful experience. I'm getting married soon, within the next year, and being around couples that have just experienced the things I'm going through has been so beneficial. I don't think I'm so below them mentally (again, as it's being suggested) that they feel too superior...And we do have some 40+ year olds in there-single, working, etc...They fit in better there. And I think you can define it simply as a young adult class and people can decide for themselves if it's for them.

Please excuse me for being so defensive about this, but I graduate in a little over a week from now, and I don't feel like I'll be smarter just because I'm going to have a piece of paper in my hand on the 15th...UGH Stereotypes, my big issue...But I'll also be in school for 3 more years for my Master's, so should I be stuck with the high school kids for all of that time? I have much more in common with the young adults than kids who are in high school, especially considering I'm on my own, etc.

 

[lynetteSC]

Thanks guys! You all have very good ideas! I will be able to talk like I know what I am doing in our meeting! I knew the DIS would have some good adviced from some experienced people! Thanks bunches!