Need Advice for Our Young Adult Ministry

[YEARNING4TRUTH]

Hi guys, I just wanted to ask for some advice. We’re trying to come up with some ways to draw in new people into our YA ministry. Any thoughts?

 

[pianistclare]

It’s arguably the HARDEST type group to get going.

The singles aren’t comfortable with the marrieds, and the marrieds are wary of the singles.


I would start with a purpose that is not necessarily defined by their age group.
In other words…put out the call your 20’somethings to get on board with a common service project in your community.
Then let the relationships, the catechesis, and the Catholic bonds build from there, organically.
If you start out with just them being associated with each other simply by age…they won’t gel. We’ve tried it over and over. But until we got them involved in a community garden…they just were not consistent. Now that they are feeding the hungry…conversations start, hobbies bring people together, people share recipes, lifestyles, family stories.
I wish you much success in this. It’s a very worthy endeavor. God bless!

 

[Trident_H]

Just make sure you have time for fun.

 

[phil19034]

Theology on Tap works well in Philly. You have events at a local bar, with guest speakers or video presentations. One time, Archbishop Chaput was a guest speaker and then he enjoyed a beer with the young adults.

In Texas, they used the Symbolon program (part of FORMED.org) and played the Last Things episode about death at a local bar. They called the event “For Heaven’s Sake, What the Hell is Purgatory?” They had over 100 people show up and then had over 200 the next time

 

[stanncie]

I belonged to a young adult group for years. I have belonged to many church groups but this group still holds the most fondest memories for me. Like someone else said service and activities that involve getting involved in the community are very important. We used to feed the homeless once a month, were assigned to clean the outside of the church as well. Our parish is very service oriented and all groups are expected to fully participate. Our group was assigned one mass on Sunday in which we were ushers, lectors, etc. We were also in charge of the parish cafeteria and flea market several times a year. The bottom line is we had big responsibilities and the pastor expected we fulfill them and most of the time we did.

Having said all that, there is nothing that compares with well structured meetings. We were very lucky that our director was awesome. He had been a former seminarian and was just very knowledgeable and knew how to engage us. Our small group of 15 to 20 had its own chorus which was one guy playing the guitar and 3 or 4 others singing. Our meetings consisted of first of all vocalized prayer adoration first, thanksgiving, repentance, invoking the holy spirit. Each prayer was then followed by an appropriate song. In the beginning the director did them but slowly started assigning them to different people and helping them. In the end most of us learned how to pray spontaneously.

We did a lot of ice breakers to get to know each other and we usually had a ‘theme’ every week that we covered. Again at first the director did all the lectures but then started assigning them to members and helping them prepare them. We celebrated members’ b-day once a month with a cake at the end of the meeting. We all became very close and to this day a large part of the original group is still serving in the parish in different ministries.

For me this group cemented my faith as an adult and I am very thankful for it. So yes, young adult ministry is hard but if done well it can be awesome. Good luck to you OP

 

[pianistclare]

I belonged to a young adult group for years. I have belonged to many church groups but this group still holds the most fondest memories for me. Like someone else said service and activities that involve getting involved in the community are very important. We used to feed the homeless once a month, were assigned to clean the outside of the church as well. Our parish is very service oriented and all groups are expected to fully participate. Our group was assigned one mass on Sunday in which we were ushers, lectors, etc. We were also in charge of the parish cafeteria and flea market several times a year. The bottom line is we had big responsibilities and the pastor expected we fulfill them and most of the time we did.

Having said all that, there is nothing that compares with well structured meetings. We were very lucky that our director was awesome. He had been a former seminarian and was just very knowledgeable and knew how to engage us. Our small group of 15 to 20 had its own chorus which was one guy playing the guitar and 3 or 4 others singing. Our meetings consisted of first of all vocalized prayer adoration first, thanksgiving, repentance, invoking the holy spirit. Each prayer was then followed by an appropriate song. In the beginning the director did them but slowly started assigning them to different people and helping them. In the end most of us learned how to pray spontaneously.

We did a lot of ice breakers to get to know each other and we usually had a ‘theme’ every week that we covered. Again at first the director did all the lectures but then started assigning them to members and helping them prepare them. We celebrated members’ b-day once a month with a cake at the end of the meeting. We all became very close and to this day a large part of the original group is still serving in the parish in different ministries.

For me this group cemented my faith as an adult and I am very thankful for it. So yes, young adult ministry is hard but if done well it can be awesome. Good luck to you OP

Sounds great!