The Lead

Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook's essay for the Alban Institute features the work of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts:

The fact that nearly every major denomination is aging and losing members has been a concern for the last thirty years, yet institutional efforts to reverse these trends and to capture the religious imagination of young adults have been limited. Mainline denominations, historically and culturally self-conscious about evangelism, are further challenged to proclaim the good news in today's religiously pluralistic nation and world. What then is the role of evangelism with young adults today? What are some of the ways that the Christian church can better respond to the spiritual questions of young adults in a religiously pluralistic age? How might congregations better respond to the gifts and skills young adults have to offer?
"One of the reasons many churches don't do evangelism well is that their motivation is self-serving," says Tom Brackett, church planting specialist for the Episcopal Church. Brackett believes that a focus on evangelism primarily as a church growth strategy is counterproductive, especially with young adults, and at a time when the world is longing for evidence that God is with us. A more positive approach to evangelism for many, he suggests, lies "in pointing out the ways that God is already active, transforming lives, and connecting us to each other."

One judicatory that is intentionally reaching out to young adults is the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. In 2008, the diocese initiated the Relational Evangelism Pilot Project, a ministry designed to find out what young adults ages 18 to 30 value deeply, how they experience their faith journeys, and their perspectives on faith, spirituality, and the church. The project defines relational evangelism as "a life-long spiritual practice that is the ministry of all to recognize the power of God in Christ to transform our lives and communities, and then being willing to share those stories of God's grace in others." The project came about as a result of multiple gatherings around the Boston area of young adult clergy and others who were already engaged in young adult ministry. Arrington Chambliss, the director of the project, comes to it with a long history of engagement with young people through faith-based and community organizations. Interested in young adult ministry that "truly listens first," Chambliss says that the Relational Evangelism Pilot Project is about engagement, not conversion. "It is God who does the converting," she says, "relational evangelism is about us having a deep enough relationship that others want to join with us."

Comments (6)

I don't think we should do "evangelism" at all. That word is owned by aggressive, pandering and corrupt televangelists and their local counterparts at (declining) megachurches. But faith-listening, faith-sharing, we absolutely must do. Where, how? In person and online.

To do my job with the Daily Office I look at thousands of parish and diocesan websites. Do you know, there isn't one site I've found yet with a link to Facebook? Nor is there a single parish website where young adults create and control their own content: "Come join us Friday night at Brewski's Burger Pub!"

Blogs have comments where faith-listening and faith-sharing can happen, but nearly all our blogs (including mine) are run by middle-aged people. Any number of clergy have blogs, some well-attended, some not; where is the parish where anyone can have a blog? We can do a lot more.

Parish websites need to be interactive hubs, so communication doesn't just flow from the top down. Imagine the choir blog, the wardens' blog, the Sunday School blog, the youth group (run by youth!), the singles, young parents, the book club, Daughters of the King, the men's group and whoever else we've got. Where's the freakin' grandkids' blog? You don't think that would be popular?

I applaud DioMass's efforts. I know we can do more and better. I'm asking God to show us how.

Posted by Josh Thomas | July 19, 2010 12:20 PM

@Josh,

Mostly I think you're on target in this comment, but surely not on this line: "To do my job with the Daily Office I look at thousands of parish and diocesan websites. Do you know, there isn't one site I've found yet with a link to Facebook?"

Many have Facebook links. What might be true is they are underutilized and/or they don't know how to leverage them, and/or Facebook isn't the best tool for this application.

What do others think?

Posted by John B. Chilton | July 19, 2010 4:33 PM

Here's one that does have a link to Facebook:

http://thefallschurch-episcopal.org/

Facebook can be useful for sharing events/news with the congregation. I don't know that people will necessarily spend time conversing via Facebook or that it's a recruitment/evangelism tool.

The website, however, is absolutely an essential evangelism tool. I found the church I started attending when I was 28 because of their website.

When are we going to have "yelp" for churches?

Posted by Margret Hjalmarson | July 19, 2010 5:34 PM

We have at least two churches in Albuquerque on Facebook. I'm inclined to view it as an experiment at this point, but I'm interested in hearing other opinions and experiences.

Posted by Paul Martin | July 19, 2010 11:25 PM

Another church (Episcopal/Lutheran) with a facebook page.

http://elcm.stanford.edu/unichu

(admittedly given that Facebook's headquarters is in the next block...)

-a lurking atheist

Posted by Emma Pease | July 19, 2010 11:57 PM

St. Luke in the Fields uses it a fair amount. I'd guess about a third of the parish belongs.

http://stlukeinthefields.org/web/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Posted by Mary O'Shaughnessy | July 20, 2010 9:54 AM

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