Emerging Adulthood & Religion

This is a really good essay.
Getting a Life -The challenge of emerging adulthood, by Christian Smith -Christianity Today
I forwarded it in an email along with my comments to a few friends at church. When I was on church council we did spend time discussing a 5-year plan and how to help the church grow. So I definitely thought this was relevant to our smallest (!) demographic at our medium-sized church.

My email:
Hi All : I just had a chance to run across this article online http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/006/2.10.html (RTWT)and it really raised some very good "food for thought" so (even though I'm not on council anymore!) I thought I would pass it along....

" How does or should American Christianity speak to emerging adults as people and emerging adulthood as a cultural fact? How can the church faithfully speak the gospel to 18- to 30-year-olds? The answer is surely not for the church to fall all over itself to quickly reconstruct its message and practices to somehow become more "relevant" to emerging adults. But oblivious disregard for emerging adulthood and the larger meanings and challenges it raises for church and culture surely won't do either. For starters, American Christians—parents, pastors, seminary professors, counselors, educators, and more—can simply become better informed about the emerging adulthood phenomenon. Most people probably have at least a vague sense that something has changed on the road to full adulthood. But more clearly grasping the social forces generating emerging adulthood, its typical characteristics and concerns, and their implications for a faithful church will require sustained effort"
....

" Finally, in considering the challenge of emerging adulthood, another approach that will not do is to project sole blame onto emerging adults themselves or "the culture" as some amorphous Other. If anything, the challenge of emerging adulthood raises hard questions about the extent to which American Christians have bought into the values and commitments of the larger world. How different, really, are American Christians when it comes to assumptions and practices around personal autonomy, money, lifestyle consumerism, self-gratification, and relational commitments? I am not suggesting there are clear and easy answers here. But it is worth remembering that a church that is not much different from the larger culture is going to have little distinctive or helpful to offer that culture when it comes to issues such as those posed by emerging adulthood. By grappling with emerging adulthood, then, we face the opportunity not so much for criticizing and lamenting others as for some good, hard, self-critical reflection and discussion. "

I can only say from my experience that this 18-30 phase of life was an "epoch" of time for me personally (compared to the last 10 years) and it certainly felt that much longer because it was the FARTHEST distance I ever felt away from my faith ( It certainly didn't help that I was away from Holy Cross, away from my family, living in CA, financially strapped, starting a career, and dating & then married to a 'non-believer'... but that's another long story for a rainy day ;~) and boy am I glad that phase of my life is O-V-E-R. Yeah! thank you God!) But this article really rings true to me that this can be THE most challenging time of one's life as a Christian. And it raises the point I think that we can't really consider our evangelism/discipleship ministries "well-rounded" if we measure this by having a well-attended "successful" sunday school, high-school, or "adult-ed" program, when very often its the after-college transition time that falls through the cracks when the challenges of living as a Christian are absolutely the most challenging of all! Although a solid background in Sunday school/confirmation and friends in Youth Group will certainly help, THIS "emerging adulthood" era can make-or-break whether or not one EVER returns to church or a relationship with God ( and ergo.. instill those values and faith in your future kids and generations to come!). Anyway I just wanted to put this forward as something we should raise up and pray and think about in our growth plans/strategy. I know we can't be every church to every body, but I don't think that means either that we should focus on appealing mostly to married couples in their 30's with 2.3 kids and a minivan either ;~) My two cents...(and two more from experience!)