Groups for Young Adult Catholics 18-30?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Melodeonist
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Melodeonist

Guest
Parishes (at least in my area) seem to exclude young adults group wise. So we got youth groups that are exclusively for high school kids, groups for seniors, groups for men and women (mostly old folks), but nothing for young adults. Why is this?
 
Well, if I had to take a guess, the majority are in college and have their own Neumann centers.
 
Indeed, there are those. I’m actually the Vice President of my Community College’s Newman Club, but we actually have a protestant majority with only 3 Catholic members including myself.
 
Because life for 14-18yo’s is generally predictable.

Life for 55-80 yo’s is also fairly predictable–retired or quasi-retired, aches and pains, lots of time and not lots of money.

The difference between an 18yo and a 25yo can be huge. An 18yo is likely living at home and going to college. If they are employed it’s typically “under” employed. Typically the 18-22 crowd can date but it’s less than desirable and often fraught with issues.

But a 25yo? They are more likely to have a good job. They may have plenty of extra spending money. They are in a STABLE place to date. They are looking at buying a home, settling down and getting established in a career.

Closer to 30 you’re dealing with people with toddlers. As a young adult I was happy to deal with parents with toddlers and their limitations. However many 18-22yo’s were not. They wanted to work in soup kitchens and hike mountains, hike-in camp backwoods overnight, etc…not exactly family friendly. They tend to be available after 7pm–but that’s bedtime to those with kids.

It can be very hard to enforce the young adult Catholic part and not simply a singles/dating group. Too often great groups are fractured by love triangles, quadrangles and all sorts of dramatic nonsense. It is much easier to enforce no dating/discreet dating in teen groups.

So the answer?

Honestly, diocesan level events, greater support for 18-22yo college kids. Events aimed more at 23-40yo’s that are a mix of single/dating/young family events.

Young families often get the shaft, too, so this isn’t just a “singles” problem.
 
I’ve thought about doing just that. Wouldn’t be too hard I’d wager. After all, I’m graduating with my Associates and I’ll be pursuing Real Estate Certification afterwards so I’ll have plenty of time on my hands to setup such a club with my parish or perhaps several parishes in the area. Also, God blessed me to be an extremely extroverted person so I’d easily be able to gather a crew for the club with ease.
 
Last edited:
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
But a 25yo? They are more likely to have a good job. They may have plenty of extra spending money. They are in a STABLE place to date. They are looking at buying a home, settling down and getting established in a career.
Click to expand...
I wish… 😒
 
  1. Young adult Catholics tend to have very organized meeting groups at Catholic Colleges. For those 18-22
  2. After college 20s and 30s, do tend to have meeting groups depending on the church you visit in your city. Perhaps view your diocese website or sites such as meetup.com
 
Last edited:
Cruciferi said:
40.png
Xanthippe_Voorhees:
But a 25yo? They are more likely to have a good job. They may have plenty of extra spending money. They are in a STABLE place to date. They are looking at buying a home, settling down and getting established in a career.
Click to expand...
I wish… 😒
Click to expand...
I hope things get better for you. I’m speaking in generalities, of course.

The independent stability of a 25yo is typically far greater than that of a 20yo. Their lives and ability to do things are very different.

My biggest point is that the 12 years between 18-30 are probably the most fluctuating of one’s life. You go from dependant on parents, a student to living on one’s own, perhaps owning property and having a signifigant other and children.

On the same hand, a 25-30yo who is in a less stable point, who dosn’t have children or much money may not want to hang out with 18yo’s but also not want to hang out with parents and their toddlers.

So it’s very much not as easy as middle/high school ministries for 11-18yo’s or those for older persons.
 
ChunkMonk said:
40.png
Cruciferi:
I wish… 😒
Click to expand...
Right? Heck I’m well on the other side of 25 and I’m still broke and working dead-end.
Click to expand...
My point really has to do with who you’d want to hang out with. It would be a little odd for a 30yo to enjoy hanging out with 18yo’s. It could also be awkward for a single 30yo to only have options hanging out with people with toddlers.

In my young adult group, there were a couple people with kids…they pretty much ended up forming their own group. Then there was a single mom. She neither fit with most of the singles nor with the couples with kids. We actually hit it off…her child bonded with my dog and we spent a lot of time together. But I think that’s the exception rather than the rule. It was very difficult for quite a few of the single people to find things in common or adjust their life style to someone with a kid.
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
It would be a little odd for a 30yo to enjoy hanging out with 18yo’s.
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t mind dating an 18 year old.

Or hanging out desu. I mean, if I “hung out” at all. I don’t. But if I did, I’d be whatever. I hung out with late 20s people when I was 17-18-19. Though I guess I did have older brothers so maybe that made things different.
 
Last edited:
Start one.

You can contact NCYAMA (National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association) has many resources and an annual conference.

There are many dioceses and parishes that have thriving young adult ministry. But, of course YMMV.
 
ChunkMonk said:
40.png
Xanthippe_Voorhees:
It would be a little odd for a 30yo to enjoy hanging out with 18yo’s.
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t mind dating an 18 year old.

Or hanging out desu. I mean, if I “hung out” at all. I don’t. But if I did, I’d be whatever. I hung out with late 20s people when I was 17-18-19. Though I guess I did have older brothers so maybe that made things different.
Click to expand...
Yeah, at 18-20 if a 30-35 hit on me I’d not return to the group again. Way creepy. 18 is a lifetime different than 30.
 
Try the Diocesan website. I see various stuff there like Theology on Tap that I’d probably enjoy except I’m a few decades too old.
 
I briefly dated a 33-year-old when I was 21 and yeah it was creepy as heck. I was relieved when I moved away and had a good excuse to never see him again and go back to dating guys within 2 or 3 years of my own age.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Try the Diocesan website. I see various stuff there like Theology on Tap that I’d probably enjoy except I’m a few decades too old.
Click to expand...
They actually opened the TOT in our dioceses to all ages above 18. It was a great move. The bars love it. They actually now shut down to the public and host. People tend to group by their ages but often bond over common interests, like a lady with a lakehouse letting a young adult with a sunfish store her boat at the lake and teach her advanced skills in exchange for letting her use it. Many times YA oppurtunities came out of older people who had a skil, property or a need for help. Our group got connected to the retired priests becuase they needed celings painted and the knights didn’t feel safe doing it.
 
This is something that saddens me as well. Being now 24 and 2 years removed from college, I miss the community my local church has for the college aged. There seems to be little once you age out of that and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard sometimes. It’s also very obvious our age group seems to not only be missing from having its “place” within the parish, but is pretty absent from the parish in general. I don’t see many people mid to late 20s at mass. I go to adoration weekly and I haven’t seen anyone in this age group (except FOCUS missionaries) in quite some time. I see the college aged, 30 something young families, and then older adults, but only a handful who might be mid to late 20s.
 
I always put it down to low numbers. If I’d started a young adult group at my parish after university I would have been the only member. It was a pretty bitter pill to swallow at the time and I’m sure it’s why lots give up on going to church at this time.

In hindsight I wish the different churches in my area had got together to form a Christian young adult group so I could at least have had some support with practicing my faith in my new real world life.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top