Now that you know who young adults are and what young adult ministry is, you’re ready to assess your own situation – to take a look at what you already have, and to determine what you still need to begin. As you know, “young adult” covers a large span of ages and life situations. One size does not fit all. Individuals have different interests and ministry needs. This section is a walkthrough of things to consider when starting young adult ministry, including who your young adults are, how to locate them, and what possible directions you might take as you begin.
Before we go too far: It’s important to be prepared and well-organized, but young adult ministry is about ministering to and with young adults. If young adults show up, get to know them. Invite them to get coffee after Mass. Train other leaders and other members of the young adult community to reach out to new people at Mass and invite them to coffee. These kinds of one-on-one interaction and investment are highly successful. Connect them to other young adults. Don’t miss ministry opportunities because you’re busy planning the ministry!
“Who Are Young Adults” explained who young adults are in general, but who are your young adults? The ones who are already connected in some way and the ones you have the potential to reach. When you think about starting ministry with young adults, who do you have in mind? Do you have a group of youth ministry “alumni” who are still hanging around? Are there several college-age singles who regularly show up at an evening Mass? Is your area a hotbed for young professionals? Are there places that young adults are already gathering to connect over social issues? Perhaps you rarely see young adults around, but there’s a wedding or baptism scheduled nearly every weekend. There are a plethora of options of where to find young adults in and around your community.
While it would be ideal to minister to all the young adults in your area, the reality is that it’s really challenging to meet the needs of everyone between the ages of 18 and 39. Figuring out exactly who your young adults are will help you to focus on particular needs to get started. You can always expand the ministry.
Be sure to be mindful of subsets of the young adult population, such as young adults within particular ethnicities or cultures or those who don’t seem to fit these categories. Don’t forget parents of school or parish religious education children and young adults coming for Sacramental preparation, such as marriage or infant baptism.
Age: For practical purposes, young adult ministry tends to fall into three groups: early young adulthood/college (approx. 18-23), first career/grad school (approx. 24-30), established but still growing (approx. 30-39). These are not necessarily hard and fast categories, but are still helpful.
Life situations: post-high school, college students, newly graduated, military, grad/law school, professionals, single, married, young couples with children, and so on.
The breadth of these categories may seem overwhelming at first, but don’t fret. These categories are there to help you understand what kind of young adults you have in your parish which will help you to determine what kind of events and outreach will work best for your community.
Where Do I Start Looking?
Stop and look around at your congregation, see who is already there, see who already knows each other.
Check the parish school or religious education program in addition to sacramental records for young adults who were recently married.
These will have general information on young adults in the vicinity of the parish.
These let you dig a little deeper and know what young adults in your area do, who they live with, and what education level they have.
Look to places like meetup.com for young adult events in your neighborhood, look to spaces where young adults gather and discuss local issues.
You might have a group of young adults already identified. Get started with those young adults, keeping in mind there are more young adults out there. As noted in “Who Are Young Adults” the young adults who are present in our parishes only represent about 13% of the Catholic young adult population, but ministering well to those who are present is a great way to attract those who are not.
If you’re literally starting from scratch, though, locating the young adults can be a little more difficult. Our Resource section gives some starting points for tracking down national trends for young adult ministry. Here are some places to gather data specific to your location:
Stop and look around at the pews before Mass, or even a quick glance before starting a homily. Take stock of the young adults already in your parish community, make an intentional effort to introduce yourself to them after Mass. Also see if they are seated with other young adults, if there are already natural small groups – those can help serve as a foundation for the larger group. This step, however, cannot be your last step; we always need to be looking further beyond the parish walls.
If your parish has a school or a religious education program, many of the parents of the children enrolled will be young adults. Also, check sacramental records for young adults who were recently married or who had a child baptized. It may also be worthwhile to just run through the regular registry, especially close to holidays or at the end of the academic year. It is often the case that young adults are still on their parents’ parish registration when they leave for college. (TIP: Parish administrative assistants can be great allies or great challenges. Many are highly protective of the parish register. If you don’t have a relationship with the parish secretary already, at this point, just ask nicely to get a report of the numbers. You can deal with contact information later.)
Dioceses keep records about all sorts of things – households within a certain proximity to parishes, number of Catholic marriages in particular parishes, and the overall number of Catholics in the diocese. Contact the chancery to see what kind of information they can give you and what you need to do to get it.
Local government records can provide a ton of insight not only into how many young adults are in your area, but also what they do, who they live with, what level of education they have, and more. Especially if you are hoping to evangelize young adults who are not already hanging around your parish or if you’re building completely from the ground up, this is a valuable source of information.
Look to spaces online where young adults are gathering. This can be harder given the international nature of many online spaces, but it can still help to know what young adults are concerned with. Look to websites like meetup.org to find out what events young adults are attending in your community. Consider going and introducing yourself at appropriate events, or tabling with your young adult leaders.
Don’t get overwhelmed by the statistics. The information gathering is only meant to give you an idea of who is out there and what they are looking for in ministry. If it starts to get overwhelming, take a deep breath and realize that God is in control of this. You are only one small part of a larger plan … and a big Church!
Use the data to prioritize your ministry. You will likely have young adults in a whole variety of ages and life situations. The information you’ve gathered will help you to determine where to start. Which segment is the largest? How are the different segments already being served? Which group would be simplest to get started with? More importantly, which group is most in need of ministry? Once you’ve gotten started, you can consider how to reach out to the remaining young adult demographics.
No, seriously. Where are young adults hanging out? First consider this within your parish. Is there one Mass that tends to draw a young adult crowd? Is there a group of young moms meeting in the cry room, or some college students who show up on holidays and during the summer? What about the teachers in the parish school? Who is showing up for marriage or baptism preparation? Don’t forget the friends of those being married or having their children baptized.
Next, consider where young adults hang out in your area. Are there bars or coffee shops that seem to be teeming with 20-somethings? What about the gyms, the laundromat, or the library? Is there a college campus nearby, especially a university with a large graduate student or commuter student population? Who employs young adults in the area?
It’s important to know where the young adults hang out so you know where to find them. An essential part of ministry to young adults is meeting them where they are, and that includes physically. The evangelizing mission of our Church requires that we engage in the world, so where the young adults are is where we should be also.
It’s also important to know what the young adults in your geographical area are concerned with and talking about. Just as with meeting young adults where they are, we are called to listen to them, hear their concerns, and support them in using their voices.
Additionally, it’s good to ask why the young adults hang out in these locations. What is it about the location that attracts a young adult crowd? Some locations may simply provide a service or fill a need. But others may be locations young adults intentionally choose. Typically, young adults are attracted to vibrant, open places. (Learn more about making your parish more young adult friendly in Strategies for Parishes.) Others have a particular interest that inclines them to gather with people who share that interest. Is there a way to build on where young adults are already gathering?
There are a number of different ways you can take stock of where you are and figure out where you want to be. We will lead you through one now called SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). It’s a good idea to gather a group of young adults, and work through this process together. You may want to include members of the parish staff or parish council in this process to broaden the view. If your parish has a handbook, calendar, or listing of ministries, have those as well as a month’s worth of bulletins on hand. These can serve as a reminder during the process of all the activities already going on in the parish that young adults might be able to connect with.
TIP: A common pitfall of this process is a tendency to get stuck on weaknesses and threats. If your group starts to get caught up here, help turn around their concerns by identifying what would be the opposite or favorable response to the weakness or threat.
These are internal factors that could be helpful to your efforts. What is it that you do well? Think about opportunities or attempts to minister specifically to young adults, as well as the parish community as a whole. Do you have someone on your parish staff with young adult or campus ministry experience? Do you have a great facility or a very welcoming community? Excellent preaching or great music?
These are the internal factors that could be harmful. What’s missing that is important for young adults? Identify programs and ministries that your parish may do well, but not necessarily for young adults. For example, your parish might have a very prayerful experience of Stations of the Cross during Lent, but it begins at 5 p.m. on Friday when many young adults are just leaving work.
These are external factors that could be helpful. Who are your potential partners? Opportunities could be events or programs that you can link into, or collaboration with neighboring parishes. Potential partners to consider: diocesan offices, nearby parishes, other denominations, campus ministries, young adult serving agencies, and college alumni networks. What needs are going unmet in your area that you might be able to address?
These are external factors that could be harmful. Is there competition for the time and attention of your young adults? Is your parish slated to close? Realistically, the challenges of young adulthood can all be considered threats to young adult ministry as well. What cultural shifts might impact your efforts?
If you are working with a team you may want to give them some time individually to fill out a grid and then record responses on a sheet of newsprint for each category (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). Hang onto the results so you can use the information when you get to “Making A Plan.”
If you are able, you might try repeating the SWOT process with a few different groups: parish staff, parish council, your young adult team, or the parish committee heads. Not only will you glean more information, the process helps raise the awareness of those who may not have given much thought to the needs of young adults or opportunities to reach out to them. Another way to complete this process would be to gather input ahead of time (paper or online surveys) and then meet to analyze the results.
As you assess your situation, consider the following areas and place them in the proper categories – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
As you assess your situation, consider the following areas and place them in the proper categories – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Arenas of parish life and opportunities for listening:
While there are plenty of ways to do low-cost ministry, it’s important to know how much, if any, money you have at your disposal.
When you’re starting out, it’s especially important to be realistic about how much time you (and your team, if you have one) have to dedicate to young adult ministry. Recognizing how much time you have to spend on ministry will allow you to set reasonable goals and manageable expectations – and hopefully avoid disappointment and burnout! It’s important to also recognize and honor the time that young adults have and can set aside. Approximately 57% of young adults say they don’t go to Mass weekly simply because they don’t have time (Gaunt, pg 75).
Of course, you should never use people or value them only for what they can give you. But if your ministry is really going to take off, you’re going to need some help. When determining your “resource” people, consider young adults who can take on leadership roles, individuals who can assist you in providing good ministry, and those who can mentor you and/or help you navigate through parish procedures, such as reserving space. If you think of people who can provide particular aspects of ministry for young adults – someone who might be willing to give cooking lessons or a CPA who could offer some tax consulting time – keep a list of those people, too. You’ll need it later.
What type of space do you have for people to gather? Remember that, as you learn what your young adults are interested in, you may offer some programs that require different spaces. Obviously it’s great to have a comfortable meeting space with tables and chairs or sofas, but keep in mind that a kitchen, gym, or athletic courts may also be useful.
