4051 Theme 2: Congregational Hospitality: Growth By Young Adults: Worship, Programs and Outreach

Theme 2: Congregational Hospitality
Growth By Young Adults: Worship, Programs and Outreach
Dr. Michael Tino, Director of the UU Young Adult Network and Campus Ministry

In this highly audience-participatory workshop, Dr. Michael Tino, Director of the Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Network and Campus Ministry. The workshop was given as a PowerPoint presentation which is available here

In 2002, the UUA launched the Mind the Gap campaign which brought awareness to the missing generation of young adults – not just in our movement, but in all denominations around the country. This is an important age group (18 to 35) where a lot of transitions are taking place and there is a great need for spirituality and community support for these life-changing transitions.

Who are these young adults? What are their strengths? What do they need? Why are they not in our churches and congregations? What can we do to bring them in? When they do show up, are there programs already in place in our churches that would make them stay? How do we reach out to them? How do we keep them?

Workshop participants are challenged to look at these issues and more.

Young adults need other young adults, so it's good to start with some sort of social gathering. However, without other programs, such as contemporary worship, classes, and workshops geared towards their needs – programs that engage them fully (rather than just "doing the dishes") and other spiritually-enriching programs – they are not likely to stay. Covenant groups of mixed ages and covenant groups solely for young adults are also ways to assimilate them into our congregational life.

Tino compared the traditional UU service to a sandwich with the "chunk of sermon" in the middle. Young adults, on the other hand, prefer contemporary services that are likened to an Ethiopian dinner where everything is served in a round platter or bread basket and participants share the meal by breaking off pieces of the basket. A long sermon of 20 minutes, for instance, could be broken down into three short homilies separated by musical interludes or a short drama and still get the message across.

Multimedia and audio-visual aides, including overheads, slides, and photographic projection, are used more often in contemporary services which also use more music – and not all pieces of music are by dead white guys.

Young adults tend to gather in coffee shops, campuses, daycare centers, schools, bars, and places with live music, so bulletin boards in these areas would be good places to post events to attract them to our programs.

UUA resources include several curricula for young adults, such as a new one, "Finding Your Path" by Michael Tino. Other resources are email lists and an online database.

Reported by Kok Heong McNaughton; edited by Joyce Holmen

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