The two pillars are effective for youth ministry. Ministry with young adults is a whole different ballgame, and the Church seems to try to use the same strategies for both. (Imagine Theology on Tap for teenagers. Wouldn't work, would it?) That's the problem with using youth strategies to reach young adults.

I don't think that having community service opportunities, nor being open minded can hurt. They are part of who we are. However, I doubt anyone will join because of our promoting them.

Any other ideas of what works with young adults? I am a young adult, and I have no idea.

As Amy Thompson Sevimli suggests, we could ask them.

http://digg.com/health/A_Lutheran_asks_people_why_they_don_t_come_to_church

I think we need to be who we are and not be ashamed about it or "spin" it to appeal to yet another demographic group. As a post-Young Adult (at 42) my biggest challenge is not crafting something special to appeal to GenXers, the biggest problem is precisely that even lifelong Episcopalians don't know what TEC believes, what our identity and core values are. Why would I want to join an organization that doesn't know itself? It isn't a question of not being open to all, but answering the question: "What does it mean to be an Episcopal Christian?" I'd say 90% of people in the pews can't answer that question.

If we offer nothing other than openness and a chance to help another person out, folks can get that without waking up early on Sunday morning. There HAS to be something about liturgy and sacramental life that we believe helps people connect with God in Jesus Christ. That transformational power is the key.

Oh, hockeysticks. Episcopalians do know what we believe; it's called the Nicene Creed and we say it every Sunday. The vast majority of us mean every word of it, despite what Sramek claims.

I'm also dubious about reports that such-and-such generation is "not particularly altruistic" or any other characteristic imputed to them. There are altruistic persons in every generation, including the much-maligned Baby Boomers.

If you want to reach teens and young adults, give them their own parish webpages, blogs and a camera to make videos. They'll tell you what they want and need; all you have to do is listen.

Matthew makes a strong point. The two tenets (social action and openness) are inviting for newborns- youth and new Christians of any age need to hear we love them unconditionally. But at some point, our people need to grow up. I want our people to learn to take responsibility for their own faith. What do *you* believe, *why* do you give and why not, why do you feel drawn to *here*? I want our young adults to think critically about their faith.

As a chaplain, I meet young adults every day who are intellectually engaged in Scripture, who pray, who feel connected to God and wish they could do more. These are average nurses and PCAs- when they talk to me about their faith, they speak of writing Christmas pageants, or supporting their daughter on a mission trip. They love engagement with their intellect. (Oddly, so do I!)

I think the mythical 18-35 crowd is ready to deal with the tough stuff. Our faith is no free or easy ride.

Quite frankly, I'd also love it if more priests would refuse to do more baptisms and decline more weddings: we've bent over backwards to accomodate the whims and photo-ops of our culture. Perhaps we made it so easy to be a part of the crowd that we just aren't interesting. Maybe our appeal as a church could lie in our standing up as counter-culture. We're the place where you come because the holy meets you in ways we can't even fully describe.

Elizabeth Tesi

The landmark study on spirituality in higher ed, done at UCLA, would differ with Briggs' findings, which indicated significant growth in "ethic of caring" among college students.

It's true that that doesn't necessarily translate into church attendance. I'm taken with the PB's recent comments about getting out of our churches and going to where people are. If we wait around for young people to find us, Briggs is right that they will find many other diversions along the way. Maybe it's time we go to them. AND ask them what they think!

I find that engaging young adults in genuine conversation about what they care about, taking seriously their ideas and not always trying to correct them, and sharing with them who I am and what I believe when opportunities present themselves, goes a long way toward increasing engagements. Though not in church attendance. I think we have to stop judging faith by church attendance. The world has changed too much. I like church and want people to come, but they aren't all going to and that shouldn't be a limit on whether or not the faith community has anything to offer or to gain from people.

Donna McNiel
University Multifaith Chaplain
University of the Pacific

We don't do social justice to seem hip to the younger set and hopefully attract them.

We do it because Jesus commanded us to do it in his gospel.

American Christianity seems to be stuck in a peculiar phase right now where it's all about "mass marketing" and "merchandising product" rather than authentic living under the cross, en route to resurrection.

The first Christians, a persecuted minority in a hostile social order, had no advertising campaigns, membership drives, specialty programs or marketing gimmicks. And yet their numbers grew. Why? Because the faith and hope evident in the way they lived and treated others drew newcomers into their ranks.

Gregory Orloff

Outreach and openness are descriptive of who we are, and of what distinguishes us from some others who also recite the creeds. Still, I hear and understand Tom Sramek's comments.

When I was in college, I spent some time with Campus Crusade for Christ. This was mostly because they were offering educational programs and the Episcopal Church wasn't. TEC has gotten into the habit of not expecting a lot of engagement from its parishioners. I suppose this is one area in which we resemble the Roman Catholics. Evangelical churches expect a lot from their members, and they usually get it.

I eventually parted ways with the evangelicals and discovered EFM, but I have found nothing further from TEC in the way of lay theological education. I often wonder why we send our priests to expensive seminaries when we don't ask them to pass that learning on to their parishioners. There are some of us (both young and not so young) who would appreciate some of it.

The first pillar highlighted don't work for bringing young adults or any adults into the church. As we hear every sunday in many of our collects, the first pillar is an important fruit of the gospel. But not the gospel and not the core of being and Episcopalian.

If you just focus on outreach, social justice, missions etc. you are no different than any non-profit altruistic organization. When people feel the power of forgiveness and restoration in their lives, they want to come back and they want to belong. And then they will be much more committed to outreach etc.

But putting the cart before the horse in terms of works and the gospel will not produce disciples of any age group.

Alex Large, 31

One critique I have of the article is that it's not clear to me who the population is he's trying to examine. The author refers to "youth" and "young adults" as if they are interchangeable terms.

As Kathy Staudt recently discussed more eloquently than I could in an Episcopal Cafe article, we should probably re-think ministry with post-college age (22+) folks not as a continuation of youth group or campus ministry but as the start of a different path in life.

I agree with the points above about the Episcopal Church needing to expand educational opportunities for lay people. This would benefit people of all ages and encourage inter-generational community.

There is also something powerful in church as inter-generational community in contrast to other organizations that draw 22-30+ folk.

Thank you for all the comments.

The excerpt I pulled emphasized what the author says doesn't work. I was interested in what you thought of those points.

As at least one commenter above implied there's more to the article to that. Comments on what he says does work would also be welcome.

More to discuss. Evangelicals are about 50% more likely to have a full time youth that are mainline Protestants. Discuss. (I guess mainline are more likely to have a second ordained person, part of whose duties may be youth and young adults.)

http://www.faithandleadership.com/blog/07-08-2010/mark-chaves-evangelicals-lose-fewer-youth-liberals

It continues to baffle me that we think attracting young people is done by aiming at them and not engaging with them. I agree that we need to meet them where they are. If we truly lived as a Christian community, we would be tied to more than just our church buildings on Sunday mornings and our authenticity would not seem so nebulous.

[Hello and welcome first time commenter. In the fine print above the comment box you'll see we require first and last name. Thanks! - ed.]