Twenty the New ???

Carol Howard Merritt, a noted Presbyterian pastor, author and podcaster, spoke Friday, October 30 about how congregations can reach out to people in the 20s and 30s and create an intergerenerational church.  Donald Hanna attended the event and shares his thoughts.

This past Friday I attended a conference put on by Carol Howard Merritt about ministering to the “missing generation.” In large part, its focus was on connecting with each other across generations; concentrating on the things that have been important in the church since its beginnings: connection with God, connection with each other, and connection with the world. However, it is hard to connect to people who are largely absent from a given congregation. She pointed out several factors that have contributed to a dearth of twenty-somethings in the church.

Some of these factors are symptomatic of the world that we live in right now. Ms. Merritt pointed out that Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers have entered into independence at a time when housing prices have soared, college prices have soared (the average student leaves college with nearly $40,000 dollars in debt), work loads have increased, and wages have stagnated.

Job security is not what it was years ago either. Length of employment for the typical person in their twenties is 2.6 years. A third of this group goes without health insurance. And it is probably worth noting that the statistics that she gave us came from before the economy fell into shambles. The result of all of this is that people of this generation are less and less able to make long term commitments.

For instance, no one wants to get married when they are living in their parent’s basement, and it is hard to consider putting serious roots down in any organization when you don’t know where you’ll be working or living in a couple year’s time.

 

There are also some factors that contribute to this missing generation that come from within church walls. Ms. Merritt noted that committees often operate with an “invisible rule book,” that can confound or shutoff newcomers. Time constraints can also play an important role in keeping twenty somethings from being able to become fully engaged in church life. Three hour committee meetings can be an obstacle to someone working sixty hours each week (especially if some of the business seems like it could just as easily be conducted by e-mail or Facebook). Finally, often church programming has grown out of a model where people were getting married and having babies in their young twenties.

 What Ms. Merritt told us was that essentially people used to move from confirmation, very quickly to putting their own children in the church

nursery, and then plugging into other facets of church life. Now that people are waiting longer and longer to have children, there is a longer and longer gap where people aren’t finding a natural way to connect with the church; then after a decade outside the church they are less likely to come back.

So St. Luke, this is the challenge for all of us. How can we show care and minister to a group that is facing such a web of hardship? How can we open ourselves to be able to accept the gifts of a group of people who cannot promise any sort of commitment to our institution?

How might we structure our focus groups that will allow greater participation across generational lines? What kind of programming might we put in place to bridge the gap between confirmation and the rest of what we do now?

How might St. Luke be a place that ministers to and from all generations, even the “missing generation?”

Donald Hanna is the Director of Children, Youth and Family Programs at St. Luke Presbyterian Church in Minnetonka.  He is currently a candidate for ordination with the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area.

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