It’s no coincidence that churches reaching young adults also involve them in meaningful work within the church.
By Scott McConnell
Admittedly some of the momentum of reaching young adults comes from having young adults. But it’s not a coincidence that churches reaching young adults also involve them in meaningful work within the church. Here are four things churches seeing God move in their ministry to young adults are emphasizing when it comes to serving.
1. Connecting service with relationships
Cory Daniels, young adult pastor at Liquid Church in Parsippany, New Jersey, describes why their young adults serve. “They serve because it’s a pathway to connect with more people. They want deeper, consistent, more valuable connection.”
To encourage that, Liquid Church advertises from the platform the next large serving opportunity, which is often an outreach activity. Each is introduced as “a great opportunity for you to serve, flex your gifts, see how you might fit into the kingdom of God, but also as a great connection piece. If we don’t create an opportunity for people to get even more connected, they won’t come.”
“Once we get people who come to those larger outreaches, then we try to push opportunities for individuals to serve on Sundays on a regular basis.”
Daniels met his wife as a young adult when she began to serve. He had been going to Liquid Church for three or four years, when she joined the guest connections team. If she had not been serving and decided to be consistent, they probably wouldn’t have met. But when she did, she had a reason to connect and meet and introduce herself to people.
“I tell people all the time, ‘If you’re struggling to connect, you need to be serving,’” said Daniels.
“If you’re struggling to connect, you need to be serving.” — Cory Daniels Share on X2. Pointing to needs that motivate a generation
Mosaic Christian Church in Elkridge, Maryland, plans an Impact Weekend every third month in which hundreds of volunteers serve at numerous local events. Jonathan Moynihan, their lead pastor, said, “Advocacy and activism are in the air. We try to create opportunities for them to step into the needs we see and make the barrier to entry super minimal. Sign up; get some friends; go do it.”
How they share the opportunities is important. Mosaic doesn’t just describe the work: for example, hand out water and referee football games. They speak to what motivates this generation and what breaks their heart. To do that they describe the ministry in West Baltimore they’ve partnered with for eight years.
“Join us in helping address some systemic problems that constantly leave young Black men without opportunity and without upward mobility. We’re going to help treat them as image bearers of God who are loved and seen, even if their dads aren’t around. Join us there.”
3. Creating the expectation that believers serve in church
“I wouldn’t say we do anything crazy to get young adults on serving teams,” said Moynihan. “We just say, ‘Hey, this is what it looks like to make Mosaic your church, and that’s going to involve serving.’”
“Maybe once a year I’ll do a sermon where the application is to get on a serving team,” said Moynihan. But encouragement to serve tends to come from peers at hangout events.
Emory Cothen, young adult pastor at Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, describes their young adult service on Tuesday nights as the top of the funnel. From there they encourage people to get involved in a Sunday morning life group, to attend a Sunday worship service, and to start serving.
Champion Forest publicly presents service opportunities, keeps them in front of young adults, and seeks to set the expectation that the calling of believers is to be “all in” and to use the gifts God has given them.
The church serves the community with a Community Ministry Center. Individuals with a passion for this kind of serving serve there every week. In addition, life groups sign up to serve together on a Saturday.
Young adults serve in other ministries within the church as well. “We were overjoyed that we were low in attendance last night, because we know many of our people were using the gifts God’s given them to serve the next generation,” said Cothen.
That particular week, young adults were serving at beach camp with the church’s high schoolers. The next week many were leaders at Vacation Bible School. “We just point them to all the opportunities we have in the church and make sure they know that it’s all of our responsibility and all of our calling to jump in with those things,” said Cothen.
4. Giving young adults practical help connecting to service opportunities
Jace Brandhorst, operations manager for the senior executive pastor at Christ Church in Gilbert, Arizona, says half of their congregation is students from Grand Canyon University, a Christian university near one of their campuses.
Like many churches, Christ Church offers a meeting for guests to get connected that’s effective with young adults as well. They call this meeting “Consider,” and it takes place during one of their worship services.
“There we’ll present opportunities to serve within the church and next steps they can take,” said Brandhorst. “We believe in the power of serving. God works through that to sanctify you and to help you look more like Christ as you serve sacrificially.”
“We believe in the power of serving. God works through that to sanctify you and to help you look more like Christ as you serve sacrificially.” — Jace Brandhorst Share on XChrist Church also has a place called “The Hub” in their lobby where leaders can help attendees with whatever their next step might be. When someone is ready to serve, these leaders know how to get them connected into a team.
A lot of young adults at Liquid Church go to the nearby beach in the summer and forget about church, so they planned Summer Serve to incentivize people to serve through the summer. If a young adult signs up to serve three times through the summer, they get a Liquid hat designed by one of their next-gen staffers.
Each of these churches has another time for young adults to regularly meet together. This allows them to step up and serve at other times throughout the week. While the encouragement is delivered in ways that fit this generation, the priority placed on serving is not unlike the encouragement that is given to the rest of the church.
For permission to republish this article, contact Marissa Postell Sullivan.
