Category: faith

Four things young adults want in church

LifeWay Research conducted a survey among people age 18 to 34 that discovered a major factor causing young adults to leave the church is the church’s inability to minister to them in their transition stage.
Among Young Adults:

  • 73% of churchgoers & 47% of non-churchgoers indicated that community with other young people is extremely important in their lives.
  • 71% of churchgoers said they want to participate in small-group meetings to discuss life application of Scripture.
  • 68% of churchgoers & 45% of non-churchgoers said that in small group settings they can find “advice from individuals with similar experiences.”
  • 66% of churchgoers & 47% of non-churchgoers agree that meeting the needs of others is also an essential element to this generation.

    Jim Johnston of LifeWay Christian Resources identifies four needs among young adults:
    1. Relationship
    2. Biblical Community
    3. Social Action
    4. Genuine Church

    Do you agree with the results? Do you think your church is meeting these needs?

    Here are two responses from those surveyed:
    “Young adults are in the middle – not married, not old enough, not in high school; [we’re] in this ‘ugh’ stage,” said one survey respondent in the latest LifeWay Research report.

    “After graduation, they (the church) give you a pat on the back and say, ‘when you start a family, we’ll be here for you,'” said another respondent.

    —
    “The church’s responsibility is to reach every generation with the love of Jesus Christ,” stated Jim Johnston, director of young adult ministry at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, in the report. “It just so happens that this generation’s biggest need is relationship. The church ought to be the author and purveyor of the best, deepest, most loving friendships around.”

    “The lost and the saved in this age group are looking for just what the church can provide in Biblical community,” said Johnston. “They want absolute truth but they embrace the struggle of finding it themselves. They don’t want it to be spoon-fed to them.”

    “Young adults gravitate to churches that are making an impact,” Johnston noted. “This age group is embracing service, social action and missions. They will embrace the church with a cause as well.”

    “They (young adults) want to embrace church, but only the genuine, earth-shaking, Christ-powered New Testament church. For some churches, that’s going to mean changing methodology – but not the message of the Bible.”

    • Add a Bible search to Firefox

    I was looking up a Bible passage for my last post and found this great list of plug-ins for Firefox.
    As you may know, Firefox has a pull down menu for searching right from the tool bar. A number of search engines have already been installed.
    But now you can also add searches from Biblegateway.com. You can do a generic search with your default Bible translation, or you can choose from nine other versions including the NIV, The Message, King Jimmy, New King Jimmy and others.
    Super easy and very handy.
    install your preferred Bible search

    Help Wanted: Man seeking adventure in life. Tired of ho-hum working conditions.

    I thought this was a very interesting Meta thread: How do I get over my laziness, procrastination, and foot-dragging in my office job?

    I have fallen into an embarrassingly lazy state. I turn things in at the last minute or late. I have come to regard almost all deadlines as fuzzy. I still make the major deadlines, and I’m still doing my job, but I tend not to complete non-essential job duties unless someone chases me.
    I’ve always been an over achiever in the past I am horrified to realize that I’ve become mediocre in my job rather than excellent. It’s making me feel awful about myself, and I really don’t want to be the slacker everybody hates working with.

    There are lots of interesting ideas in the responses — from setting a 15-20 minute timer to keeping a personal journal.
    One of the challenges we discussed Wednesday morning at our men’s breakfast was “overcoming the mundane or the routine.”
    John Eldredge writes a lot about that in wild at heart and suggests that men really need adventure in their life. Men need a battle to fight, a beauty to rescue and an adventure to love.
    I wish I had underlined more points that stood out to me in the book. For some reason the only one I did underline really doesn’t have much to do with this topic. But the more I think about the book after reading it the more the truths seem to resonate within me.
    “The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.” – Albert Schweitzer
    Eldredge talks a lot about our “inner man” that we all strive to be as young boys and how somewhere along the way we lose that. We end up working an 8 to 5 job in a cubicle dreaming of the world outside.
    I think about Wilson and how he’s 150% boy at almost the age of 3. He’s got his trucks, tractors, Star Wars toys and he’s always out seeking adventure.
    He’s constantly flipping over the couch, running through the house, jumping on the trampoline, or maybe even climbing ladders on to the roof of his second story home.
    I think most boys are like that. Maybe not to that extreme but we all dream of being John Wayne, Wyatt Earp, the Lone Ranger or Buzz Lightyear. We want to be the hero.

    Yet somewhere along the line we lose that.
    Somewhere we lose our desire to be William Wallace and take the “safe alternative.”
    Eldredge suggests we’re wired to take on a fight and be a hero because we’re made in the image of God.

    Now — is Jesus more like Mother Teresa or William Wallace? The answer is… it depends. If you’re a leper, an outcast, a pariah of society whom no one has ever touched because you are “unclean,” if all you ever longed for was just one kind word, then Christ is the incarnation of tender mercy. He reaches out and touches you. On the other hand, if you’re a Pharisee, one of those self-appointed doctrine police… watch out. On more than one occasion Jesus “picks a fight” with those notorious hypocrites.

    Look at Luke 13. The Pharisees try to accuse Jesus of being sinful because he healed a leper on the Sabbath.
    Does Jesus simply turn the other cheek? No — Jesus doesn’t walk away.

    But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?”
    When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and redfaced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on. (Luke 13:15-17)

    Jesus draws the enemy out, exposes him and then shames him. He puts up a fight.
    Eldredge also suggests that if you doubt God loves wildness, spend a night in the wilderness… alone.

    Take a walk out in a thunderstorm. Go for a swim with a pod of killer whales. Get a bull moose mad at you. Whose idea was this, anyway? Most of the earth is not safe, but it’s good.

    God made all of this and pronounced it good. Eldredge says it’s His way of letting us know He prefers adventure, danger, risk, the element of surprise.
    I think I’ve written long enough — for now.
    But here’s to adventure and here’s to finding your passion groove in life.
    What are you doing to find your passion groove?