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UNIDENTIFIED | BELIEVE | SPIRITUAL | TOLERANT/SUBJECTIVE INTERESTED IN LEARNING | LACK RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

RELIGIOUSLY LONELY | UNINVOLVED | NON-LITURGICAL | BUSY

WANT LANDING PLACE & EVENING MASSES

PERSONAL INVITATION | MUSCULAR AND MULTIPLE WEB PRESENCE

FIND COMMUNITY | TO LEARN | TO SERVE | NORMAL EVENTS

Answer the question: Why would Young Adults want to be members of our community?

Getting on the Same Page

Who Are Young Adults

What do you hope to take away

from this session today?

Young adults are persons in their late teens, twenties, and thirties

who represent diverse cultural, racial, ethnic, education, vocational, social, political, and spiritual backgrounds. They are college and university students, workers, and professionals; they are persons in military service; they are single, married, divorced, or widowed; they are with or without children; the are newcomers in search of a better life.

-National Directory for Catechesis

Young Adults and Religion

What do Millennial Catholics Believe?

What do our parish communities need to do differently to engage and support Young Adults?

Young Adults (18-39) make up around 30% of the American population (44% of Washington, DC, 46% of San Francisco, CA)

Yet Nationally 1/3 of all YA are "religiously unaffiliated" ...and that number is growing

20% of all millennials identify as Catholic (down 7% from earlier HS age)

85% of Millennial Catholics believe in God

64% of Millennial Catholics agree with the statement that they are spiritual but not religious

61% of Millennial Catholics believe that it is okay to practice more than one religion

Over 60% of Millennial Catholics would like to learn more about their religion

Only 29% of Millennial Catholics have participated in retreat, mission trip, service project, etc. compared to 37% of all Americans

Studies/Perspectives on Young Adults

  • “It’s always been done this way.”
  • “Been there-done that!”
  • “That doesn’t work here.”
  • “We don’t do things that way.”
  • “This person has ALWAYS done that here.”
  • “We don’t have any Young Adults here.”
  • Other favorites...?

Religious Generalizations of Emerging Adults

Theories about Root Causes

of the Rise of the Unaffiliated

What To Do From Here?

Where to start?

Case Study:

Ministering With

Young Adults in SF

What do you see as the challenges to Young Adult engagement in Faith in our parish communities?

Checking the Young Adult Pulse: Alive in the Spirit

'Nones' on the Rise, Pew Research Forum, October 2012

Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, 2009

Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood, 2011

American Millennials: Generations Apart, Knights of Colombus/Marist Poll, 2010

Young Adult Survey Results, St. Dominic's Catholic Church in San Francisco, 2009

Membership Survey, St. Vincent dePaul Catholic Church in San Francisco, 2011

Why They Left, Survey of ex-Catholics by the Catholic Diocese of Trenton, NJ, 2012

Jonathan Lewis

15% Committed Traditionalists -embrace a strong religious faith and can articulate the beliefs they practice

30% Selective adherents –believe and perform certain aspects of their religious tradition but ignore others

25% Religiously Indifferent –don’t care either way

15% Spiritually Open –not personally committed but open to spiritual and religious matters

5% Religiously Disconnected –no exposure to religious people or practices

10% Irreligious –skeptical of religion, anti-religious

Questions?

Reflections to share?

Theory 1:

Political Backlash

Theory 2:

Delays in Marriage

Theory 3:

Broad Social Disengagement

Theory 4:

Secularization

Talk to Young Adults in your parish/community

Ask Young Adults what they want/need

What do you see as the opportunities for Young Adult engagement in Faith in our parish communties?

“If traditions and communities of religious faith

want better to foster ways that more of their own emerging adults can engage in lives of serious religious faith and practice, they, too, will have to come to terms with the social, cultural, and institutional structures and forces that govern emerging adulthood and shape religion and spirituality during this phase of life”

-Lost in Transition

St. Dominic's Church in Pacific Heights includes...

...older single YAs (24% are 26-30, 29% are 31-35 and 30% are 35-39)

...who will travel (28% from East Bay or Peninsula)

...coming only a few times a year (38%) [though nearly 24% come 2-3x month and 8% come weekly]

...and participate regularly in Sunday Mass (50% attend Mass once a week)

...assuming Mass is offered in the evenings (50% go to the 5:30pm Sunday Mass and nearly as many go to the 9:00pm as the 11:30am Mass)

Coordinator of Evangelization

and Young Adult Initiatives

Archdiocese of Washington

What do Millennial Catholics Believe?

What do our parish communities need to do differently to engage and support Young Adults?

Other Terms:

-Young Adults

-Emerging Adults

-Millennials

Make it easy for YA to find you (online)

Keep your church open

Introduce yourself to new YA at Mass

Millennial Catholics say that only 13% of their friends are involved in the same religious group (below US average)

Millennial Catholics have the lowest percentage of their friends who respondents talk with about matters of religious belief and experience (40%) compared to non-religious who identify 38% and the national average 50%

Only 8% of Millennial Catholics (compared to 15% nationally and 5% of non-religious) say they are involved in an organized religious group

Only 15% of Millennial Catholics attend mass weekly (down from 41% in HS)

About 1/3 who ARE religiously affiliated don’t attend services more because they are too busy or working

-Do the basic things well

-Know who your Young Adults are

-Overwhelming hospitality and welcoming

-Give YAs visible leadership roles in the Church

-Mark the life-moments of YAs

-Pray for Young Adults in Mass

-Form small faith communities

-Apprentice every parish volunteer position

-Invest financial resources into technology

Case Study:

Ministering With

Young Adults in SF

Getting on the Same Page

What is a Ministry with Young Adults?

Connect YA to

intergenerational community

Connect YA to mentors

and role models

Host networking opportunities

Empower parents to continue to talk about faith and to grow in their own faith

Provide mentoring

Young Adult Ministry is an intentional ministry and outreach to those in their late teens, twenties, and thirties, with the goals of connecting young adults with Jesus Christ, the Church, the mission of the Church in the world, and a peer community in which their faith is

nurtured and strengthened.

-Adapted from Sons & Daughters of the Light

First heard about the group through...

...friend or family member 40% (Jesus method)

...parish website 20% (decision to participate based on website)

...Mass announcement 20% (YA gets up to speak)

...Bulletin 7%

Primarily Recieve Ongoing Communication through...

...Weekly email 71%

...YA group website 14%

...Bulletin 6%

Case Study:

Ministering With

Young Adults in SF

Initial reasons for participating...

55% “meet new people/friends” (remains significant)

17% “better understand/grow in my faith (rises to 39% after becomming involved)

10% Find a boyfriend/girlfriend (decreases to 4% after becomming involved)

6% Events that looked fun (rises to 14% after becomming involved)

*Through survey added: Monthly Happy Hour, Service events and Monthly Hike

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