I would like to start a young adults group ages 18-35

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I’m a single, 27 years old male, and was asked by my parish priest to work on starting a young adults group at our parish along with two of my friends. What do you need to start a group for young adults at a parish? I’m new at this, but I also went to a Passionists retreat and found out that the age group that is falling away from the Catholic Church is my age group. I would love to help the Church in this department, even if just a little. Any suggestions or advice?

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Contact your diocese to see what type of resources and training they have for Young Adult ministry.

One of the best in the country that I know of is the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

archgh.org/youngacm/Young-Adults/

They have links to other resources on their website as well as what they do as a diocese and links to the parish sites.

When I was president of my of YAM we focused on 4 dimensions: spiritual, social, service, and sports.
 
To be honest why would a 35 year old want to hang out with 18 year olds? They are in a totally different stage of life.
 
Young people need mentors. People with experience. It’s hard to be 18 and not think you know it all or most of it. At 18, you’re not prepared. Especially for life after college or adulthood in general.

Peace,
Ed
 
triumphguy said:
To be honest why would a 35 year old want to hang out with 18 year olds? They are in a totally different stage of life.
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I kind of agree with this. I would keep the group more in the 22-35 range so that it’s mostly post-college-aged young adults. Or just advertise that it’s for young adults in their 20s and 30s. Usually when you do that, most of the people will be in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties anyway.
 
triumphguy said:
To be honest why would a 35 year old want to hang out with 18 year olds? They are in a totally different stage of life.
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It depends on where he is situated. If in an area where most people do not go to college or where there is no college, it may be that the priest wants to include all those who are no longer in “youth ministry”. In most cities or places where there are college campuses, those 18-21 will likely go to the Newman Center while those out of college will join parish based YAs.

There are many variables. Even though we advertised 18-39 for our YAs, we had very few come below 25 and even though “39” was the cut off, we had some older sometimes.
 
Hello all, I’m new here so hopefully I’m in the right place! 🙂 My pastor has been asking for ideas for good Catholic groups for young adults, specifically those adults about 18 - 35 or so. We had a group called POWER, which involved praise and worship (usually through singing hymns), a guest speaker (some of the topics included: different ways to praise, reconciliation, the priesthood, and the resurrection of Jesus), an hour of Eucharistic adoration (during which priests were available to hear confessions), and then we would have some snacks and hang out together.

The problem is that the small group who put it together is going in different directions and no one person alone can keep it afloat so it’s dying out. It was thought that there wasn’t enough emphasis put on the community aspect of POWER, so our pastor was looking for something that was both fulfilling in faith but allowed for people to grow together as a community as well. A young adult bible study was suggested, as well as a movie night, or even bowling with the pastor (I’m kind of hoping he wasn’t serious about that one 😛 ). I was thinking we might be able to do Theology On Tap perhaps, but I’m looking for other ideas as well.

Are there any programs for this age group in your parish or that you’ve heard of? How are they doing? Any other ideas on what would keep young adults active in their church communities? Thank you all! 🙂
 
The only suggestion I can come up with is balancing the activities between deepening faith, social and community. Some people are less interested in developing their faith but the social and or community activities will help keep them in the Church until they feel a need to learn more. Social and community events also enable people to discover and share their talents and form friendships.

What about trying a few socials e.g. a quiz or games night - nothing complicated and a bit silly. I would suggest not too often and making the evenings very different

On the community side, how about organising something for the rest of the parish? A tea and entertainment for the older parishioners, a teenager night or children’s games afternoon? Doing something for others can be appealing as it gives people a sense of fulfillment and brings the Group together. It also helps prevent a clique of people who only focus on one type of activity to the exclusion of what others would like.

It should as if you are more interested in developing your faith, but sometimes that has to be set aside (just a tiny bit) to help develop the community. If the Group are going off in different directions, it may bring them back together if they all get a chance to contribute in their own ways.

Just some ideas.
 
My temperament is a bit more reserved and I would feel exceedingly silly at a praise and worship sort of activity, so I’d rather just sit with 5 people and a priest and read Thomas Aquinas lol.
 
Jsaldar:

I helped start a young adult group when I was a few years out of college. We started with a Tuesday night meeting where we would read the Sunday readings and discuss them. While that was a good “icebreaker”, I later was an officer in another Young Adult group, and many of these recommendations (like Holy Hour and speaker topics) worked, so here are a few thoughts.

I’m thinking of things that would be a good start that are not “labor intensive” for a small group to set up, so I hope that helps you out. You can pick one of these ideas as an opener:
  1. Does your parish have Eucharistic Adoration? Take an evening and make plans to attend a Holy Hour together. You can pray the Rosary together as well. If a time is arranged such as 7 p.m., a few of you can go out to dinner afterward at a local restaurant. That way for most people, it would be after work on a weeknight.
  2. Does your parish have a Daily Mass one night a week between 5:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.? If so, maybe a few of you can meet for Daily Mass one night a week after work and go out to dinner. A bunch of us would meet for First Friday Mass at a local monastery at 7:30 p.m., and we would sometimes go out for dinner afterwards.
  3. Set up an evening to have a Catholic speaker come in on a particular topic, and invite Young Adults in their 20’s and 30’s. Many places have done this. This often works particularly if there is a parish at a central location where Young Adults can come after working all day.
  4. You could also play a Catholic DVD on a particular topic related to Church teaching one night during the week. The preparation time would involve just reserving a room at the parish, finding a DVD player, and selecting a DVD. The presentation can last about an hour, and you can either serve pizza from a delivery place or have a pot luck dinner.
  5. Ask a few Young Adults to come to the Sunday morning Mass at your parish, and then your group can go out for breakfast or lunch afterwards. It doesn’t have to be anything big, a few of you could head to the parish hall for something like a coffee and doughnut social, the Knights of Columbus Pancake Breakfast, or even a brunch served by the Hispanic Ministry. If your parish doesn’t have something like that already set up that week after Mass, then a group of you (say between four and eight people) can go to Denny’s, IHOP, or the local diner.
  6. If there are any Young Adults that are EMHC, Lectors, Choir Members or Ushers, feel free to invite them too.
Jsaldar, I do find that many Catholic Young Adults are looking for something faith oriented, which is why I have suggested things like Eucharistic Adoration, Mass, Rosary, and playing a Catholic DVD (maybe a Scott Hahn teaching tape, early Church fathers, a discussion on the Real Presence, or something else along the lines of what the Church teaches).

Young people also would like a “balance” between spiritual and social as well. If there is too much social (don’t get me wrong, social functions like going to the movies, a sporting event, a dance or a party are fine from time to time, but don’t make that the main focus), I find that too much social attracts “Catholics” who hardly attend Mass.

By the way Jsaldar, 27 or 28 is a good age. If you advertise “20’s and 30’s”, you will probably get a good cross section of the 24-36 age group, which is about right, and I think most people would feel comfortable coming.
 
triumphguy said:
To be honest why would a 35 year old want to hang out with 18 year olds? They are in a totally different stage of life.
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It’s okay for the leaders to be older, and to share their life experience with the younger ones. It’s also important to have supervision, so that the group stays on track; otherwise it can turn into a dating club.
 
exusultet said:
Hello all, I’m new here so hopefully I’m in the right place! 🙂 My pastor has been asking for ideas for good Catholic groups for young adults, specifically those adults about 18 - 35 or so. We had a group called POWER, which involved praise and worship (usually through singing hymns), a guest speaker (some of the topics included: different ways to praise, reconciliation, the priesthood, and the resurrection of Jesus), an hour of Eucharistic adoration (during which priests were available to hear confessions), and then we would have some snacks and hang out together.

The problem is that the small group who put it together is going in different directions and no one person alone can keep it afloat so it’s dying out. It was thought that there wasn’t enough emphasis put on the community aspect of POWER, so our pastor was looking for something that was both fulfilling in faith but allowed for people to grow together as a community as well. A young adult bible study was suggested, as well as a movie night, or even bowling with the pastor (I’m kind of hoping he wasn’t serious about that one 😛 ). I was thinking we might be able to do Theology On Tap perhaps, but I’m looking for other ideas as well.

Are there any programs for this age group in your parish or that you’ve heard of? How are they doing? Any other ideas on what would keep young adults active in their church communities? Thank you all! 🙂
Click to expand...
Rather than put all of this on one person, our young adult group has found it useful to have no set “leader” and make decisions on programming as a group. This allows everyone to see what the entire group’s needs are, and people who are enthusiastic about a particular idea will frequently agree to organize it when asked. Also, it may be useful to join forces with other parishes in your area on a regular basis if you are not doing so already.

Our group meets weekly and primarily uses social media to publicize events. Every few months, we dedicate an entire Tuesday night to planning the next few months as a group.

Keep us posted on how it goes!
 
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