I think there needs to be MANY More young adult groups!

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AnotherSonofGod

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Many churches have youth groups till age 18 or so but what about from age 18 till getting
married!?

I think when youths leave a youth group at 18 they should be redirected into the nearest Young Adult group but there are not that many!

From 18 till marriage there are many more bars and clubs than there are Young Adult Groups which make going into that culture more readily available etccc…

We really need more Young Adult Groups to give us real fun times!
 
I did …it is kinda slow starting off because I also work but it really is alot of fun and keeps me out of trouble.

Also I think maybe we should encourage the priests to take a leap of faith and suggest to the young adult parishoners that some of them need to get together and start one up at their churches also.
 
You have to look at the model used in the Mormon church
The LDS church has whole “wards” which is their version of a parish; designated for young adults. They gather and worship in their " Steak" which is their version of a diocese.
These steaks; have 2 or 3 young adult wards, in the community. If a young adult ministry is to be successful in a Catholic church is must be focused on a dioceses not on one parish,
I can’t for the life of me understand why their is not a parish which holds mass for young adults to fellowship and meet and greet on a weekly basis. Its such a double negative one of the reasons why I find myself fellow-shipping with the Mormons and becoming less Catholic every month.
But at the same time, if you marry someone who isn’t catholic, you forfeit your grace to take communion. Yet, the church has no community for young adults to socialize and worship together while emphasizing the masculine and feminine roles of family life.
I honestly would not be catholic at this point in my life if it was not for the internet. I would be a full fledged LDS Member, due to the lack of Catholic socialization of people my own age.
 
Hi Jessup,

If you pardon me from pointing out a couple of problems with what you have said (apologies to OP for getting off track). First, if you marry someone who is non-Catholic you certainly do not “forfeit your grace to take communion”. Do you mind if I ask where you got that from? See the catechism 1633-1637.

Second, the Truth of a certain religion is what should drive your membership of it, not superficial (though undoubtedly important) issues like how well they cater for young adults. I would encourage you to examine the truth claims and believability of both the Catholic Church and the LDS - this consideration is what should lead your choice about membership.

May God bless you.

AnotherSonofGod, how did you go about starting your young adult group? We have nothing like that in our parish and I would like to know how you kick one off effectively.
 
AndyT_81 said:
Hi Jessup,
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Hey,
I got my information from EWTN radio station 920 in Brevard county Florida during an interview where a woman called into one of the shows speaking about how her fellow Catholics told her she chose a man over God and was no longer allowed to take communion the church in which the host was confirming this. However, I do not recall which radio show that was playing at the time.
Code: 
 I don't really know any Catholic woman or young men in the real world. 
  I personally don't want to marry a drunk or pill head, so I'll probably marry a Mormon who respects marriage and doesn't prefer to go drinking after work every night, but this is because the Catholic church has no community of young adults to be together.Thus does not put very much emphasize on marriage and family either As I was stating earlier, the only reason I'm Catholic right now is because of the internet. This problem of young adults having no fellowship isn't unique to North America, its world wide according to people I've chatted with in other countries from Catholic Match, or Avamariasingles.  I find it disturbing that I have to pay 74.00 for a 6 month membership to Catholic Match, if I want to talk to someone who is my age and a Catholic.
But yet the church bulletin has no problem being sponsored by the local bar and grill down the street.
I didn’t want to over post that response, so I cut a lot out of it.
Cheers! and God bless,

If you pardon me from pointing out a couple of problems with what you have said (apologies to OP for getting off track). First, if you marry someone who is non-Catholic you certainly do not “forfeit your grace to take communion”. Do you mind if I ask where you got that from? See the catechism 1633-1637.

Second, the Truth of a certain religion is what should drive your membership of it, not superficial (though undoubtedly important) issues like how well they cater for young adults. I would encourage you to examine the truth claims and believability of both the Catholic Church and the LDS - this consideration is what should lead your choice about membership.

May God bless you.

AnotherSonofGod, how did you go about starting your young adult group? We have nothing like that in our parish and I would like to know how you kick one off effectively.
 
Personally, I live in a College town where a lot of the young Catholic interaction is done at the Newman Center. Due to that, there aren’t a whole lot of active young Catholic groups (to the extent of my knowledge) in the area. However, I wholeheartedly agree. The more the merrier!
 
AndyT_81 said:
AnotherSonofGod, how did you go about starting your young adult group? We have nothing like that in our parish and I would like to know how you kick one off effectively.
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Basically the pastor of the church has the ability to decide to have a young adult group at your parish and anyone interested should talk to their pastor about encouraging it.

Our group is still very new to this but we have decided to start a monthly newsletter that we will make stacks of to distribute to all the local diocese parishes that have youth groups.
(Distribute to the youth group)

That way the members of the youth groups are aware of the fact that ther is something for them to transition into after they turn 18 rather for them to turn to a counter culture scene or bars and clubs and drinking parties etc…

Also we are encouraging our group members to give a few Newsletters to their friends or even just some people they see walking down the street.

Also we plan on going to local shops and places to search for interested sponsors to add to the news letters so we can put up a store front window newsletter and have funds to make enough sponsored newsletters to distribute. (sponsors should not be bars or grills)

Most of all I think it is important to have a healthy prayer life, because without prayer the group would perhaps not do as well…

So with the group we have a date and time and we start off with prayer so that if someone is running late we will be praying for them as the rest of attendees are arriving.

Then it is important to just have some on topic discussions of what the group really needs socially and prayerfully etc…

There are different ways to run the group but whoever is making the effort necessary will figure out what ways are best for the group and where there is a will there is a way.

There is also on EWTN (I think …or somewhere online) information on how to run a group, but basically it is to be considerate to all and make every meeting as fun and purposfull as possible.

Also sometimes when starting off there may be sometimes when it feels like it is not easy and it is not going well, but that may be normal sometimes and as you get the hang of it that will all change. But do remember to pray before you go to the meeting so that all goes as well as possible.

It may be important for the diocese to be involved in the idea of having emphasis on young adult groups, also perhaps your pastor or assisting pastor may be fired up about the idea and may know a group of parishioners who will help out and that will make things easier, but if that doesn’t happen…either way don’t give up!

If necessary just keep it simple …start off in prayer…do something nice…end in prayer.

If all goes well more young adults will join and then that could lead to the world will becoming a better place.
 
I 100% agree with this! One of the things that drew me to the church that I currently attend was the youth activities and seeing that there were people my age who were actively involved in their faith. Most of them are a bit younger than I am (the student ministry is geared towards college-aged students, and I am a graduate student), but it’s still a very rewarding experience to gather together and connect with other people!
 
Yea I noticed there is a shortage of young adults at my parish. I’m thinking of just going to an evangelical church on Sunday evenings just to meet other young people of faith.
 
I feel that the church is in error being that you have to go to the evangelical church down the road to meet other Christians. It is in error because it is not organized. I’m just saying in the 2000 years the church has been around. At one point a Bishop or Pope, or someone some that has church authority, would have noticed that the parishes are only filed with senior citizens. I often wonder why I bother going on Sundays being that I have no ambition to sit forth with a bunch of people 3 times my age . When I can go to the LDS church and have the opportunity for a family life, and Christian friends my own age, that I can hang out with and enjoy living life with.
 
A lot of young adult Catholics find themselves in bigger cities such as NYC, D.C., CHI, and BOS. In urban areas where a lot of young adults reside, there are often many young aduly activities in the larger urban churches and masses in some cities for young adult Catholics.

You really need to go where the people are. It could be that your area just simply doesnt have that many Catholics to begin with or it has a high number of young Catholics that move away.

In recent years, young adults are trending more to urban living than suburban. That does hurt those young adult Catholics that prefer to live in a more rural or suburban setting.

One thing that may help is that in general young Catholic women go to college and study either liberal arts, teaching and nursing. Cities where those type of jobs are available in large numbers will have a high concentration of young adult ladies.

I do agree with you that Catholic dating sites such as CM, AMS are a bit of a scam. For what you pay, you dont get a lot of benefits in return. On CM, you have no ability to search out specifics by looking for keywords in profiles. Instead, you have to look at a certain area and religiosity and go profile by profile to see if someone may have what you are looking for. On AMS, there wasnt any instant messenger service that allowed one on one chat. The number of people on that site was limited as well due to costs meaning you had to strike gold with the few you thought had any chance with. Im reality, on AMS there are likely few within driving distance and a LDR only works with some people. I think either that the costs need to come down or more benefits be added to justify spending that much.
 
Well I don’t think its anything to leave the church over, the old people are nice I’m just saying I’m going to hit up a nondom up the street to meet other people my age. It would be nice to not be the only unwed man in the building. I would stay away from the mormon church if I was you. I hear they are good at converting people.
 
nothingclever said:
Well I don’t think its anything to leave the church over, the old people are nice I’m just saying I’m going to hit up a nondom up the street to meet other people my age. It would be nice to not be the only unwed man in the building. I would stay away from the mormon church if I was you. I hear they are good at converting people.
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There pretty good at converting people who don’t have any control over themselves. Most of them know me and call me the unconvertable because I’ve been going on and off wtih them to events, meetings, and the conferences since about 2009 or so
 
I have the same problem. I live in the Sodom and Gomorrah Bay Area (more commonly known as the San Francisco Bay Area), and there are almost no Catholics between 18 and 40 around here, except those with kids. Even those who attend Mass are Catholic in name only. I know a conservative Baptist who says his church has the same problem.

But socialization is not what existence is about. God is. So I decided to forget the whole thing. If it’s that hard to find others your age, maybe it’s just not God’s will. I think God is calling us to evangelize rather than stick to our own kind.
 
1ke said:
Great, then start one.
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This. The priest can encourage a young adult group, but its not his job to run one. Complaining that the Church should do more, exactly who do you think is the Church? You are. So do something about it, start a group wherever you are. Its not anyboy else’s job to do it for you if you see a need and can do something about it.
 
mathematoons said:
I have the same problem. I live in the Sodom and Gomorrah Bay Area (more commonly known as the San Francisco Bay Area), and there are almost no Catholics between 18 and 40 around here, except those with kids. Even those who attend Mass are Catholic in name only. I know a conservative Baptist who says his church has the same problem.

But socialization is not what existence is about. God is. So I decided to forget the whole thing. If it’s that hard to find others your age, maybe it’s just not God’s will. I think God is calling us to evangelize rather than stick to our own kind.
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Mathematoons, isn’t there a Singles for Christ and Couples for Christ chapter there in your area, since your in a large enough area to have those ministries. I’ve recently discovered the chapters myself, here in the Orlando area. You should Google the names in your city.
 
If it seems like there aren’t many young adult Catholics maybe we have to try to give them a good reason to be a part of the church again.

It may not be the easiest thing to do ,…but having a good fun time within the church is possible and I think we need to let everyone see that!

I think we need to evangelize to the everyone especially the young adults who will be starting families soon!

I am going to continue with this young adult group and communicate with neighboring parishes.
 
Jessup said:
Mathematoons, isn’t there a Singles for Christ and Couples for Christ chapter there in your area, since your in a large enough area to have those ministries. I’ve recently discovered the chapters myself, here in the Orlando area. You should Google the names in your city.
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I’ve tried looking for groups like that, but they’re all about dating. I’m not called to marriage, so I’m just looking for other Catholics my age. My priest says the reason we don’t have groups for young Catholics is because there are so few young Catholics around here.

I’m going to look into the Knights of Columbus soon to see if I’m called to that kind of thing.
 
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