The world itself has changed. People have changed. And so must our leadership. As we lead the next generation, I see a few themes of dynamics that we would do well to adjust our approach if we desire to serve them well! 

I believe this with every fiber of my being that the faith of the next generation is worth everything. Worth living for. Worth dying for. Worth giving your life to. Why? For at least three reasons. I think I will eventually come back and add to them, but for now – I want to start with three:

We recently had this question come in from a Lead Pastor who was wondering what the best way to structure and staff the young adult ministry for his congregation. Naturally, every church and community have different needs, but here’s a few things we think are places to start:

Whether you are a younger leader trying to better understand the generations that have gone before us, or you’re a more experienced leader attempting to engage with the next generation, it’s easy to become intimidated or threatened by those who are in other generations. Here’s nine questions that have the potential to bring intergenerational insight to your leadership:

A GENERATION IS ASKING QUESTIONS THE CHURCH ISN’T ANSWERING. . . AND OFTEN TIMES THE CHURCH IS ANSWERING QUESTIONS THAT AREN’T BEING ASKED!

My bold prayer for the next generation is that their faith in Jesus would continue as they go off to college! Mark Batterson says: “bold prayers honor God and God honors bold prayers.” So I trust that while I pray God is working.

Especially coming out of the past year and a half of pandemic and moving towards endemic, everyone is craving community! So how do you cultivate contagious community? Where do you find those relationships we all long for? Let’s face it: we weren’t made to do life by ourselves! I actually don’t think you can live fully alive on your own or without others! Here’s a handful of thoughts on the type of life-giving friendships we all need:

It’s been said that everyone wins when a leader gets better. That begs the question “how does a leader get better?” The place to start is with discovering and developing a healthy framework for leadership. Here is a 4 part leadership framework I’ve been using for my own reflection and sharing with others who are wanting to become stronger leaders:

Next generation leaders have the opportunity to cast great vision, instruct in identity, share the gospel, impact the world around us, lead young people purposefully, and offer a much greater plan than anything the world has to offer!

The next generation is longing for friendship, mentoring, leadership, and discipleship…

My heart is to provide helpful resources that are useful for leaders, rallying points that can be catalytic for teams, and networking opportunities which can open up doors of relationships that can last a lifetime! In fact, the reason youngadultstoday exists is because other resources do not. With that being said I will say that this generation is studied and researched to an extent far greater than actual intergenerational relationships are being pursued and happening! I am going to recommend a list of books and podcasts, but I think that resources come second to relationships.

Some thoughts and findings about Millennials + Gen Z…

One of the greatest challenges facing the church today is the missing generation of college students and young adults. They grow up in our youth groups and by their early twenties they are walking away from their church involvement, their communities and their faith. We can’t stay here any longer. No more empty buildings. No more missing an entire generation. We must reach the next!

I don’t know everything and also these aren’t the only downfalls. A popular/trending article I wrote a while back covers 10 steps to building a successful young adult ministry. Recently, a reader reached out and said; those are so helpful to know what to do — do you have any thoughts on what not to do? Here are those thoughts: