Pastor Devin Strong, Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church

For college students this semester’s exams are already in the books. High school students are cramming furiously because theirs begin shortly. It’s a busy and anxious time for all young people, but it’s also a season of grateful endings and wonderful new beginnings. It’s a good time to reflect on the larger church’s ministry with and for youth and young adults. Sadly, our track record is not great, but it’s not for lack of trying!

Every congregation I know would like to count more young people among its members. We plead, “Children are the future.” Still, we keep losing them. We fear that the talking heads of our worship services are no match for the high-production value of video and music that kids are used to today. The world offers more and better entertainment than the typical congregation can touch.

The old joke is that pastors are magicians. Baptize and confirm them, and our youth disappear forever!

I maintain that young people need exactly the same things from the church that older folks do—love and support. It’s just hard to find community in a congregation where few, if any, of the people there are within ten years of your age or your stage in life. We can’t blame young people for not hanging around when they don’t see anybody who looks like them, and from the congregation’s perspective, it’s hard to attract more young adults when you don’t have a core group to start with.

So what is the hungry church and its searching young people to do? The answers are not easy, but perhaps it begins by realizing how much we need each other. I don’t think that Millennials and Gen Zers come to church looking for rock-concert-quality music or 4K graphics. They can get get those other places, but they do want to see some radical passion. The younger generations are filled with hope and a passion to change the world, and many of them see Jesus as that hope. They need some experienced folks to walk beside them and help focus all that youthful idealism.

At the same time, we older folks need some young blood to revive our congregational passion. Young people can help remind us seasoned believers why we feel in love with Jesus in the first place.

In her book, Practicing Passion, Dr. Kenda Creasy-Dean, Professor of Youth Church and Culture at Princeton, argues that youth and young adults are looking for something worth dying for and something worth living for. Often, they recognize these high ideals in Jesus. They just don’t see these behaviors practiced in church!

So why get up early on Sunday mornings to hang around with a bunch of gray-hairs who are just playing at discipleship, anyway?!

One of the things that the church does best is bring together is bring together people of different backgrounds and talents. If we want to fulfill our baptismal promises to our high school and college students, if we want to re-energize our churches, we don’t necessarily need to buy a drum set, though I like drums as much as the next guy.

We need to get to know each other across the generations. We need to explore each other’s passions. We need to mentor each other. We need to live for Jesus.