There is a need to create change in the way that church is approached. This seems to be a strong belief that rings true in the way that Community Covenant approaches the concept of church in the Massachusetts/Rhode Island area. I have been very impressed by all the ways I have witnessed this church strive to reach out, creating the atmosphere of “Changed lives on purpose.” Our current church and the American church as a whole is made up of mostly Baby Boomers and some of their children, and then the kids of America. Traditional youth ministry does not appear to be working anymore. According to different statistics of the Barna Research Group, only about 20% percent of kids that grow up in the church continue to attend through their twenties. Our concern needs to be on addressing how Community Covenant can respond appropriately to kids growing up in the church today, to ones that are turning away from church, and to parents of these children.
I would like to establish the reasons why it is completely necessary that something be done to increase and develop ministries for the high school, college and post college aged members of Community Covenant. Having already been recognized as a weakness in the church at large, I believe that making this change is imperative to the development and continuation of Community Covenant, and truly all churches today, as a church desiring to “change lives” in New England.
Over the last few years, I have been to a few different churches that have really been succeeding in the 20-30 something age group. I would like to take a minute and talk about different elements from some of the ones I know better than others that may be contributing to their success.
Because I attended XXXXX for a couple years, I will start with them. While I do not necessarily hold to the same philosophies, I greatly respect the things that they do in the surrounding area, and I especially appreciate their commitment to my generation. From the very first time I attended the church as a senior in high school, I was greeted and treated with respect as a potential contributing member of the church community. The pastor, the youth pastor, and some other adults in the church spoke with me and encouraged me to get involved in the church. By my second or third visit to the church and after some short talks with the youth pastor, I was asked to consider coming to a meeting about an internship they have for seniors and juniors in high school working with the junior high youth group. Instantly I felt valued, respected, and pushed to be a part of something bigger than myself. It was exciting to think of holding a real responsibility in the church.
As part of the internship program that allowed juniors and seniors in high school to be leaders in the junior high youth group, the interns would also write papers on theological issues, and then discuss them with each other and the other leaders of the youth group. For many in the program including myself, it was encouraging to be a part of the ministering to the younger members of the church. It gave us purpose. It allowed us to think about some difficult topics of faith. It was a really good experience for me and my peers. While I may not always have agreed with theological positions, I very much appreciated the discussion and consideration that was put into our meetings. A large part of my own spiritual growth occurred through discussions with my parents, who encouraged me to question what I believe and why I believe it.
As I continued to attend, I found that more and more people in the church tried to encourage me and others in my generation to feel a part in the leading of the church. More than anything else, the church had a heart for my generation. They even hired a young man, only 21 years old, to be their worship director. While not every church should do this, as a result they were able to incorporate worship that could be appreciated by many different age groups by having four different teams, all different styles and ages, to lead worship. Teens were encouraged to be a part of the worship team too, where they also became engaged, grew, and felt valued in the church. I was given some purpose in the church and felt that value and push to grow. Many other people my age were encouraged to do the same.
After graduating from high school I began attending the college group. While there was nothing particularly special about their 20-somethings group, there were 30-40 people each week attending and seeking to know God more. People were interested in the church because of their push to develop new leaders. The established progression from high school to college and Post College was present in the church. Obviously I have not continued to attend, but I did find the work that they did to encourage me has helped to keep me seeking a presence in the local church.
YYYYYY holds a Sunday night service geared to 20-somethings called ZZZZZZ. I have attended this service a few times this summer and a few things really stood out to me as to why they have success with younger audiences. I spoke with the lead teacher, who informed me that their philosophy is primarily that church not be just at their Sunday night meeting, but church be in everything they do as a community throughout the week. They desire a strong presence during the week from the people who attend. On both my first and second visit to the church, different people came up and talked to my cousin, my sister, and me. This was especially striking to me because at Community Covenant this has not happened often. But we can change this fairly easily.
ZZZZZZ has worship that appeals to a younger audience, reminiscent of Hillsong with strong vocal presence and an emphasis on the artistic use of instrument. They encourage and welcome visitors to join in the church and get involved with the ministries and small group that the church does to be a part of the spreading of God’s kingdom. They encourage small groups to be working in the city, working with foreign refugees coming to this country, or serving the poor. Just as Community Covenant does a lot of similar work, we can also push our younger members to be a part of the same ministries.
My concern with this ministry and others church groups like it, is that they do not entirely reach out to all age groups. In some respects ZZZZZZ does, as it welcomes all age groups to attend, but it does not have strong outreaches to children, or seniors, or many others in between. It is entirely a separate service to attend as part church YYYYYY Church, where YYYYYY Church is able to offer all of those other ministries. At a point in your life where you are married, have kids, or are young or elderly, then you will no longer have a church to attend. Because ZZZZZZZ is completely separate from the rest of the church, it is completely possible to attend ZZZZZZ without ever immersing oneself in the community of the rest of the church. So then once ZZZZZZ is no longer a practical place to attend church, it is becomes necessary to switch to YYYYYYY Church morning services, which is almost as different as trying an entirely new church. Thus the advantage is that there is some shared attendance between the two services and at least the same heart for acting out the gospel in the church. But I do not believe that creating an entirely separate church service for Generation Y is the answer at Community Covenant.
KKKKKK is a church I attended while at Gordon that had been very similar to ZZZZZZ, previously a night service connected to base church, Hope Christian Church in Winchester, MA. Similar worship, similar community based experiences, and similar success with 20-somethings, Genesis had to eventually separate to be its own Sunday morning service because the ministry grew to the point where it needed to establish its own building. KKKKKK turned into a church that had to recreate all of the ministries that were part of Hope Christian Church and missing before it separated. So they now have a Sunday morning meeting that strives to do church differently, but is also separate from everything they did to bless Hope Christian Church, and Hope Christian Church no longer has those members that were a part of KKKKKKK.
I spoke with the college pastor, John Prickett, at The Harbor Church in Beverly, MA, a church that also has a strong involvement of college students. I asked him why he believes his church has stood out as a church that draws in so many more college students then the other churches closely surrounding Gordon. The Harbor is three years old, and has drawn in hundreds of Gordon Students as well as many Salem State and Endicott College students. His conversations with those who have attended lead him to believe that it is the Harbor’s focus on both giving purpose to the students and valuing everyone who enter the doors. It is that the staff and members of the church really do seek to know the students who enter the doors. They host meetings on the different campuses, create real community outside of the Sunday meetings, and include students in regular acts of worship. They seek to discover student’s passions and dreams for the church, then address them and encourage the students to pursue those passions. These are the things that have been identified by students who have attended the church and commit to its work in the community.
Many of the positive elements from these churches appear to be similar to reasons why some of my friends have stayed with churches and some have not.
I have a friend from the area who attends a local church. We grew up in school together, taking many of the same classes, and he has always been committed to his faith. For the same reason I do, he vouches that a large reason for this was his parent’s commitment to him and his developing faith. But my friend has gone to school in Boston for three years, became part of a great Christian group on campus, yet he continues to be committed to his church at home. He told me, “I always could have gone to a great church in Boston, but my church has been great about keeping me involved. Where else would I have been able to speak and work with every ministry they do?” What kept him in his home church was the involvement he had as a college student. If people are going to continue going to Community Covenant, they need to be able to see the benefit of attending, not just because they were part of a youth group in high school.
I recently spoke with a girl who has some close relationships with members of the church and on occasion has attended Community Covenant. She had just visited the church with her boyfriend, someone I went to school with, and I am aware that he does not generally attend church. After the service was over, someone noticing she had not been there in an extended period of time asked, “What are you doing here?” It was the questioning of her presence that led both of them to tell me the incident was “just rude.” I felt bad that this was their only interaction with someone in the church that day. Regardless of how the woman spoke these words to them, it stuck with them and affected their perception of the church that day. My heart was saddened to hear that two college students attending the church were turned off from the idea of returning because of one woman’s response. This incident would not have been as big a deal if either person had also received a strong reception from other members of the church. But as they informed me, no one else in the church spoke a word to them. As soon as the service was over they rushed to their car and left the church. Because our church can be very good at welcoming people into the church, it seems to be extremely necessary to have this transferred to the college students as well.
As much as I really do love and appreciate the things that Community Covenant is doing and its involvement in the community, it has taken a while for me to feel welcome in the Sunday morning service. The staff here has been wonderful at welcoming me and making me feel a part of the church during my internship experience, but it has been almost entirely people I have met during my work here this summer that I now am able to talk to on Sunday mornings. Even in most of my volunteer experience, with the exception of a few, many people are not eager to meet or greet me. In the months that I came prior to this summer, I was almost never greeted in the morning. I have brought friends on Sunday mornings of whom still to this day, no one even acknowledges their presence. One friend sat a café table for fifteen minutes without one greeting.
I had the privilege of being a part of Sports Camp this summer. At the volunteer appreciation party, I spent a lot of time playing games and swimming with some of the kids that were a part of the camp. All I was doing was simply spending time with them. As the kids started to leave, a few of the adults still present told me how much they appreciated my willingness to be with the kids. How great it was for an older guy to be a role model for some of the kids. Their response to me reminded me of how deeply my college friends desire to be treated the same by church members who are older than them. Just as kids would want to be treated as a valuable person by a college student, the college student desires the same by an older adult. Whatever role the college student can play in a child’s life, the adult can do the same in a college student’s life.
After conversations with Dennis and Paul, it appears that this is something that is now being sought after. I only want to encourage you in this area, as it will be very difficult to have college age and post college aged visitors feel welcomed in any way, if no one is willing to talk to them. It is will be one of the greatest things to push people away if this is not changed. It is imperative in making a younger audience feel as though there is a reason to return to this church. It will be advantageous to have someone of an age closer to twenty something to be greeting and playing a role in this. Just as visiting 30 something’s are welcomed into the church, the same needs to be done for those a little younger but just as desperate for community.
With many of my peers I have talked to over the last few months, one of the things that stood out in their responses was the desire for strong relationships to develop between fellow believers within the body of the local church. We live in a culture where social networking has become one of the defining cultural trends of my culture. Recent research conducted by two Gordon College faculty members, Bryan C. Auday, professor of psychology, and Sybil Coleman, Professor of Social Work, shows that “one in every three says [they’re] spending 1-2 hours a day on the site; twelve percent report using it 2-4 hours each day and 2.8 percent report usage at 4-7 hours a day.”[1] This is a real issue in both Christian and secular colleges. Social networking and the false sense of community it creates is an issue becoming more and more prevalent in the new generations to come. As a church we can create the real community that Church is supposed to offer.
For example, looking at one of the most secular of sources, the crude show South Park recently aired an episode covering the phenomenon of social networking. In the episode the four main characters; fifth graders, have been pulled into the world of facebook. As the episode progresses, the characters are deceived by their lives on facebook. People stop communicating in person, and conversations take place between a father Randy and his son Stan, where Randy asks his son in person if they are still friends even though Stan has not yet accepted his father’s friend request on the Internet. While this little conversation appears to be comical at first glance, I believe it to be a fairly real and scary representation of the way in which community is being created via the Internet. The characters in the episode believe that they are involved in real relationships through the website and lose sight of everything that is real in their lives. The relationships they form online are meaningless as Stan becomes the most famous person on facebook with more “friends” then anyone else and yet finds it all pointless. Stan’s friends no longer want to hang out in real life. But people want to be liked and so people appreciate the “relationships” that are formed there.
Kids coming through middle and high school are connected more through the internet than I remember peers of mine only four or five years ago. More and more middle schoolers are devoting hours to facebook or other websites. And people behave differently on the Internet than they do in person as it creates a false sense of security. Hence why there are so many issues with Internet bullying, kids releasing too much information through their pages, and generally people losing touch with their sense of what is real or true.
In contemplating the idea of a post high school small group, it seems necessary that most connections be made in person as apposed to just internet conversations. It is not really possible to develop real community through the Internet despite what many in my generation may want to think. The church has the ability to offer something real and substantial through small groups that meet in person. My conversations with peers affirmed my thoughts that there was not a strong push for community to be sought online. Some people thought it could be effective to have an online community, and so it would seem beneficial that we would incorporate online tools like facebook to keep contact with people who are off at school or for organizational purposes like setting up meetings. Generation Y and Generation Z will use the Internet, but still need to have real personal interactions. Like the generations to come before us, we want strong relationships and want to be able to form them quickly.
I want to share with you the story of my friend I will call Joe. The first time I met Joe, he showed up at our Sunday school class at RRRRRRRR and was quoting his King James Bible and knowing all the answers to our discussion questions. As fifth graders, we thought this guy was probably a pretty strong Christian with a passion for God. Joe knew the whole story of Jesus’ death on a cross, his resurrection, and our need for Him in order to receive salvation. As time progressed, and high school became a reality, Joe and I kept in touch although Joe began getting into the “big three” high school sins of alcohol, drugs, and sex. Joe began drifting further and further away from God.
Towards the end of high school Joe really felt as though the church had little to offer him, but he was still enjoying youth group. He slowed down on his partying, and was at least in a committed relationship where he only had sex with one girl, but his church attendance was dwindling even more. Three years of college, struggle with depression, and even less church attendance, Joe’s faith really has continued to struggle. Without youth group, without all his friends still around for support, and with even less connection to a church family, Joe is at a point now where he does not know what to do. What is extremely sad about Joe is that his original passion for the Lord that I met him with, still is there deep down inside of him. I have been privileged to have hours of conversations with him about deep theological issues, that Joe looks forward to as well. It is the story of a formerly strong Christian guy, who started with so much promise, but because of a lack of connection, no means of application, and ultimately a complete separation from his church, he stands on the brink of a complete abandonment of his faith. Joe has told me he wants to go to church. He wants a place he can have community. He wants a place that will challenge him and even more so enabling him to serve God. Joe, like many other people my age, wrongly feels that the church has all the responsibility in strengthening his faith, but the church can do these things for him pretty easily. He is in desperate need of something more, the presence of God as an element of every aspect of his life.
Joe’s story is kind of the stereotypical story of a lot of people I have known since pre high school who fell away from their faith. The kids who fit the statistic of growing up in the church, finding other interest, and the church playing no role in bringing them back, are just finding themselves in that 70-80% who do not return to church. Turning away from God can be pretty common in high school and college. I believe that youth ministry needs to be doing two things amidst many others, but to make God real to youth and also to give them purpose.
We know that less than 30% of people who grow up in the church stay in the church. Because of my conversations this summer, I believe it is due to the ways in which kids are taught to approach their faith. In part there is often a lack of purpose given to most high school students. It becomes apparent as one is going through high school and into college, that the idea of getting “saved” from hell with no effect on the present other than responsibility to try and be good. It is an unfulfilling message with no effect on the present. So there appears to be little purpose in the faith that young believers see in their lives. So then if they have already finished the deed of getting “saved,” and are not heavily involved in the works of a local church, then they begin to care less about their church, they spend less and less time there, and eventually completely leave the church. Because Community Covenant teaches the present need for seeking, knowing, and serving God in daily life, this same purpose needs to be given to the high school age kids as they need to see faith as being real. As much as any other member, maybe more so, they need purpose in their lives too. Let them see that they are a vital part of the church community with purpose in the church and to their lives.
In my conversation with John Prickett, I discussed above, one thing he mentioned was how 20-somethings tend to be idealists. The Baptist Collegiate Ministries website agrees: “Students hate church because they are idealists. Many students' spiritual depth, capacity for faith, and risk for God far outshine church members. (Of course, this is not true in every case.) This generation of students has a strong desire to live out their lives in a way that is wholly pleasing to God. They have not yet been jaded by many of life’s disappointments. They still believe in fighting for what is right. Too often, we, as adults, have learned to compromise in order to live a more comfortable life.”[2] As a church I think we need to be using the idealism to its full potential. Lets get high school students involved in projects of the church or other works of spreading God’s kingdom. The college students can be involved and it will really push people my age to be challenged and appreciate church here. While my generation is made up of idealist, we are also in need of a strong pushing because we also become apathetic easily. Our church needs to push future leaders to be doing work.
So then Community Covenant needs to be present in the area of growing up new leaders. Within the raising of new leaders, we know that it needs to include giving purpose to kids, keeping them involved, and creating community for them. These seem to be in line with what Community Covenant does with its older members. Some of these things can be established through a small group meeting. The direction of this small group I will establish might be different from other small groups.
I have a friend from Gordon that I will refer to as Tom. Tom is someone who grew up in a charismatic church made up of mostly people significantly older than him. The church encouraged Tom to be a part of the different ministries of the church including being on the worship team as a high school student. When he went to college he really questioned a lot of his beliefs because he had been told so many things in high school as if they were absolute truths. Something significant about our generation is that the belief in “absolute truth” seems to be something that many people struggle with. Our world teaches that nothing is absolutely true so this needs to be recognized in dealing with students today. Tom decided that he could not attend his home church with the same commitment after two years of school so decided to search for a new church. He was committed to being a part of a church because of the ways in which he saw the fruits of his actions at the church, but his home church was not the church he could commit to. After two years of college he was able to find a place that welcomed him into their community. Tom is one of the only college students who attend his church, but he is embraced into the community where they are willing to discuss the issues of this world we live in. It has been an immensely powerful experience for him although he realizes the same was true for his time at his childhood church. Just as with adults, the 20-somethings need a group where people will discuss the things that are relevant to them with an understanding approach to absolute truth.
It is necessary that we as a church can teach more in the area of gray. For students to be able to discuss their own opinions, it could be very influential. Students are more and more likely to be seeking out the things that are significant to them through the Internet, where there are infinite different beliefs about every theological subject. Thus if we only talk about one perspective in meetings, both in youth groups and a potential college group, the people there may never have time to really question their own beliefs which could be in contrast to the opinions. Thus having a discussion element to meetings would give people the opportunity to hear apposing views, discuss them, think about their own perspectives, and hopefully come to a conclusion that is more in line with the plan that God would desire of them. If there were some way to even get kids to write their thoughts out maybe in a manner similar to the program that I participated in at Christ Community Church, though this was very structured. Lets encourage them to search through the gray, accept what needs to remain at least temporarily in the gray, and maybe come to a few more conclusions about what should be black or white.
Generation Y and Generation Z want a church to question and strengthen their own beliefs. In some of the education classes I have taken at Gordon, there is a lot of talk about how to incorporate dialogue into the teaching methods of public schools. I believe that it is essential the church head in this direction as well.
I grew up with many close friends that did not attend church. Interestingly, these same friends enjoyed long discussions about the world more than most of my Christian friends. They loved and continue to love discussing different worldviews, religions, and beliefs about God. It was always difficult for them to conform to any substantial opinion about God as a result of so many apposing views. Within the church, there are hundreds of opposing views on what Christianity is supposed to look like. As I went through high school, I had the privilege of talking to my parents about the many apposing views of Christianity. There are many elements of scripture that based on our current understanding in the postmodern world that lead us to question exactly what is meant by authors of the bible. We need to talk things out. I hold this element of church to be extremely significant, as I know that it has been one of the defining elements of my faith in challenging my own beliefs and discussing them with others. Let this element of discussion and questioning be part of our college/post college age group.
I have to say I was a little surprised to hear from a large portion of my friends that their faiths were not a result of their parents. In fact many of them were challenged by their parent’s beliefs, to the point where it made them question their own faith. This does not take away from the fact that many great parents have strong influences on their kids. Just as a single parent can do a great job in raising a kid alone, it can also easily create a lot of difficulties in trying to raise kids in a single parent home. In the same way, parents are not always the reason why a kids has a strong faith, but it can help lead them to that process. For the people whose parents were highly influential, it often occurred through their parents questioning and discussing of faith.
One friend I spoke with from Gordon said “I had to think about a lot of things when I got to college. It was a time where most elements of my faith challenged, and it was time for me to make a decision about what I believed.” These words really reminded me of the place that so many students at even a Christian college experience. The same friend told me that if it were not for being at a Christian college, she would probably never have been questioning her faith as deeply as she had. And yet it was the questioning of her faith that made it possible her to be as strong in her relationship with God.
It was interesting to me to hear that many of my friends did not care as much about specific theology of different churches. What stood out with most importance was the openness to the things that God called the church too, and the sense of community that would be encouraged. I think this is part of the reason why pastors like Francis Chan are so popular in the younger culture now. He is someone who despite not always appreciating his theology, people do appreciate the ways in which he is seeking God out in the world. His standards for the Christian are very high, but he appears to be genuine through the examples of God working in his life.
A few years ago in a 60 Minutes special titled “The "Millennials" Are Coming,” the topic of how to get Generation Y to be passionate is discussed. One of the common trends of their findings is that it is a culture that wants to be encouraged. Having been told by parents, clubs, and sports teams that every body is special, the continuation is needed in the workplace. Within the church I would argue that this carries over into the ways that people are encouraged to be a part of the church and encouraged in the things that they are doing for the Kingdom of God. In the same way that during services the really cool things that God is doing in the lives of many adults in the church, we should strive to make an effort of doing the same with kids in the youth group or potential college students that may attend. It both gives encouragement to other people the same age and encouragement to the person who has been behaving or acting a certain way. Yes the church cannot be a happy-say-nothing-negative-about-the-youth church, but it can celebrate the good. We are a generation who struggles with entitlement, and yes it is not good to always try to meet the needs of all students feeling entitled, we need to be aware of that because for people not wanting to attend here if there needs are not being met. Students will not stay and we need to be willing to meet their needs.
There are practical things that Community Covenant could do now to encourage the development and involvement of young adults in the church. The first thing is, as I mentioned before, make sure that anyone who comes in is greeted. We need to create an environment where the youth feel welcomed and a part of the church, not just an attendee, so lets start by increasing our efforts here. Potentially having someone who is in their twenties or thirties would be preferable as they might have a better means of quickly relating. Then upon introductions, it would also be helpful if there were some process of having multiple people meet young adults visiting. Potentially having high school and college students greeting high school students, college students and post college age greeting college students or post college as well. Using this as a method for beginning to develop community in the church is significant. The greeting can lead to introductions that lead to the relationships that Generation Y desires. If relationships are not being formed even if there is a great welcome, people will not be as likely to return. One friend, who began going to another church in the South Shore somewhat sporadically, appreciates the service yet attends because in the 20-somethings group he became a part of the church.
Thus we need some sort of meeting for 20-somethings. Without this meeting, it could potentially be more difficult to have people feel welcomed at the church. Even though it is not right, most research shows that Generation Y has grown up with an unjustified sense of entitlement. Thus it appears to the average Generation Y-er that if a church really appreciates them then they are willing to invest in a group. They wrongly feel entitled to this something, and if that something does not exist then the church appears to not appreciate them. While yes, the person who feels entitled to a group may be wrong, we can much more support the Generation Y visitor with a group.
As far as what this group should look like, I think it would be necessary to discuss this with those members of the church who would be participating. I think it is important that it incorporate discussion, service, studying, and growing together. The church can work through this group to influence high school kids and encourage them to be a stronger presence in the church. We want our own community but also want to be a part of the overall church community.
Something needs to be making 20-somethings want to attend. I think in seeking to give them purpose, it would be beneficial to have them work with either high school or junior as well. As Community Covenant is heavily involved with Haiti, does the prison ministry, and is learning more about human trafficking, let’s figure out a way to get both the youth groups and 20-somethings more involved in this area. They need incentive, and it would require a strong pushing, but I believe the fruits of their works would create more interest. Lets use their idealism in these areas and see what happens.
As worship is something that is very much appreciated on a person-to-person basis, it will always be difficult to create a worship team that will appeal to all age groups. I think it would be really cool to get more students involved with worship. In every person I talked to about their experiences with churches, being a part of worship teams was a very effective mechanism for keeping kids involved in the church. It creates purpose, and there have to be some talented musicians in the students at the church. I have heard of student worship teams that have been successful, but then the issues of finding good leadership and talent must be resolved. But having kids join the worship teams or doing special music for Sunday morning services would help a lot. The same can be said for getting people involved with any other Sunday morning ministry. Just as it increases the purpose for the adults who partake on Sunday mornings, it creates more interactions between the youth and the adults as well as a sense of purpose. Lets get more kids involved with kids church, greeting (although this would have to be a very particular type of student), or café services. They might not be as excited about the idea as some adults might be, but with enough encouragement it gives students the reinforcement to do so.
I have done research and spoken with many peers, and it has strengthened my conviction that without the inclusion of new ministries or the development of those people who belong to the Generation Y, they will see no reason to stay and only be encouraged to leave church. We can use these elements to reach both the high school and the college aged. Community Covenant can be a place where new leaders are raised, lives are changed, and the future of the global church is shifted by the work done in this building.
