Not Safe for Church: Ten Commandments for Reaching New Generations
Reaching a new generation requires a new conversation. Congregations say they want to reach new and younger people, many of whom are simply turned off…
Browsing: Reaching Younger People
Articles
Create New Entry Points
Churches have long assumed that new people would engage their congregations by first attending worship. When they are not growing and attracting new people, people…
Reaching the Millennial Generation
Churches must become more innovative and diverse on a variety of fronts, but less doctrinaire and institutionally rigid, if they want to reach millennials. This…
Best Practices for Reaching Young Adults
The emerging consensus of research regarding young adults shows a growing percentage of this age group is not connected with any religion, although many younger…
Millennials, Social Media, and the Church
Millennials — everybody wants them but no one seems to know how to get them. That’s the major take-away from a newly-released study by Pew…
Are Young Singles Invisible in Church?
St. Bartholomew’s is a friendly congregation. It has always perceived and represented itself as a warm and caring community and is the home to some…
Lessons on Engaging Young Adults Effectively
How can a congregation effectively engage younger adults? The Faith Communities Today (FACT) study provides some clues. As part of the largest ongoing religious research…
Shifting Entry Points
Traditionally, worship has been regarded as the primary venue through which individuals enter the life of a congregation. In The Inviting Church (Alban, 1987, 74-75),…
Worshiping at Two Vital Congregations
Readers of Leading Ideas are familiar with the Lewis Center’s focus on the church’s challenge to “reach more people, younger people, and more diverse people.”…
Expanding Your Prayer Ministry through Twitter
People in your community — many unknown to you — have prayer needs each day. Many of them share their prayer concerns using Twitter, the…
Reaching More Disciples
The first decade of the 21st century was one of highs and lows for U.S. congregations. In the wake of the tragedy of 9/11, many…
Generation Rising: A Future with Hope for the United Methodist Church
Twelve United Methodists from Generation X have teamed up to write a practical book of theology for the United Methodist Church. The authors invite the…
From Where Did All These Young Adults Come?
I visited a new church a couple of weeks ago. I periodically do this partially because of my own natural curiosity about how different churches…
Mission as the Emerging Entry Point for New People
It is intriguing that the first connection people have with a congregation tends to change from time to time. For churches with struggling adult Sunday…
Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry in a New Generation
Many church leaders bemoan the absence of younger people from their pews without bothering to consider the contextual factors that must define ministry with new…
When Christians Get It Wrong
For several decades now, many have watched in amazement as churches grew far larger than had been the norm previously in the United States. While…
Leaders Stay Young
What are the qualities of a good leader? Fortunately, Jesus defined leadership: A dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to…
Two Myths Relevant to Reaching Younger and More Diverse People
Each Sunday The Washington Post has a feature in the opinion section dealing with common myths about a particular topic. Noted demographer William H. Frey…
Keeping Campus Ministry Graduates Connected to Church
For many students, campus ministry becomes a community of friends, a home away from home, a kind of extended family. It is a body of…
Helping Youth Discern God’s Call
Two months ago, a group from my church attended the Leadership Institute held at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. Pastor…
Why I Believe in the Next Generation
I work with young adults. That is to say, when I employ them on my staff, my goal is for them to work with me, not…
A Generation of Tinkerers
Robert Wuthnow’s book After the Baby Boomers (Princeton University Press, 2007) is about younger adults — a group he defines as persons from 18-45 years…
17 Ways to Welcome College Students
Your church can make a big difference in the life of a college student! Here are some fun and easy ways to welcome college students…
Why We are Losing Ground with Young Adults
I have the amazing privilege of working with spiritually sensitive and passionate young adults from across the southeast. I am also charged with understanding why…
The Crisis of Younger Clergy
The Crisis of Younger Clergy explores the reasons why having a proportionate number of young persons entering ordained ministry is so vital to the future…
Serving Our Young Adults
Many churches are interested in developing programs for young adults to help their congregations grow. However, there is another equally compelling reason for churches to…
Young Adults and the Future of the Church
How are twenty-and thirty-somethings shaping the future of American religion? Robert Wuthnow, a noted sociologist of religion, considers this question in After the Baby Boomers (Princeton University…
Ministering to the Missing Generation
When I began as a twenty-seven-year-old pastor of a small rural church, ministering to young adults seemed like an impossible task. Newspapers and magazines often…
A Single Voice
I had been attending a new church for a little over two months, when something changed. I was active in this church, attending Sunday school…
Is Outreach to Young Families with Children Still Enough?
“What we really need is more young families with children.” How many times have we heard those familiar words spoken in churches? The image of…
