Can you imagine doing ministry last 500 yrs. & saying "I don't do books"? Imagine ministry next 50 yrs saying, "I don't do social media"
--Leonard Sweet, Tweeted May 11, 2012, 10:14am
One day last week, a friend dropped the kids home from school (my office currently is located in the church parsonage). My wife had to run on an errand, and asked that I fix them a snack. "What do you want them to have?" I asked. "Do something easy today. Get them a granola bar and let them eat it on the deck."
I love specific instructions because it takes the guess work out of things, or so I thought. I opened the pantry and looked in the place where we keep the granola bars; the shelf was empty! I called my wife back and told her that we didn't have any. She said, "Yes we do, they are on the shelf where they belong."
I looked throughout the pantry thinking that maybe I misunderstood which shelf. I knew that there were granola bars in the house, but for the life of me I could not find them. I gave up looking and fixed another snack. When my wife returned home, I told her that we were, in fact, out of granola bars (I love being right, even when I'm not). "James," she said,"don't you remember that we moved the granola bars to the pantry shelf in the laundry room? They are not in this pantry anymore. You can't find them if you are not looking in the right place."
For years, I have known just where to look for granola bars in the house, but things have changed. If that's what I want, I now have to look where the bars are, not where I want them to be. It struck me that the church and young adults have a lot in common with me and granola bars.
For years we have known where to find them. Yes, they might have disappeared during their college years, but eventually young adults would want to get married. Of course, they would want to get married in a church. Our plan for young adults was to try and hook them as they planned for wedded bliss. Unfortunately, this didn't always work; so, we had a back-up plan - Baptism! Obviously, when they have children shortly after getting married, they will want them to be baptized. Babies are baptized (or dedicated/christened) in CHURCH! All we had to do is wait once more for the young adults to come home, and we would be fine.
Except we are not.
After decades of being able to do the same thing over and over with predictable results, something has changed. Young adults are getting married later in life. It's not unusual to have couples wait until their 30s to get married. Many of them are looking for alternate venues to get married, or they have no problem getting married in a church with which they have no connection. What about having their kids baptized soon after marriage? Young adults are waiting longer after getting married to have children. By the time they have children, they have moved beyond the age of 'young' adult, and the church has missed 15 years in their lives.
I think that it's because we are looking for the granola bars in the same place we always expected them to be, but they have moved. We cannot find them if we are looking in the wrong place. What we "long-timers" in the church have failed to recognize is the major shift that has taken place in the world; the young adults have moved into a world in which few of us are comfortable -- the TGIF world.
I cannot take credit for this insight, it belongs to Leonard Sweet from his book entitled Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival. Young adults are living in the world of
Twitter
Google
iPhone
Facebook
The sooner we recognize this fact, the faster we can re-connect with them. Young adults are actually quite engaged in their faith. They are seeking to put it into action and to incorporate it into their relationships. Yes, their relationships are real; however, they are unconventional for people who grew up loving a cup of coffee and a good paperback book.
I believe that the way to reach young adults is to simply go where they are. In doing my part, I am wrestling with modern technology to incorporate it into my ministry. I just married a couple in April where most of their premarital counseling sessions were done via Google+. Why? because he lived in Alaska and she in Alabama. As I transition from one appointment to the next in the United Methodist system, I have been able to connect the pastor who will follow me to 45 church members in 2 days on Facebook with just a few mouse clicks (more should follow).
But I find myself barely on the threshold of the social networking in which many young adults are engaged. I don't do Tumblr or Pinterest. I haven't explored LinkedIn or Flickr and have barely scratched the surface of Foursquare and Twitter. I appreciate people like Leonard Sweet who are challenging me to look beyond my comfort zone into the place where young adults are extremely comfortable.
I pray that we will all accept the challenge of holding fast to the Good News even as we share it in new and exciting ways.
Grace and Peace,
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