Transcript Slide 1

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Insights for Healthy Models
of Reaching Young Adults
Oklahoma
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Study Overview
• Based on the desire to reach a new
generation with the gospel BGCO
commissioned LifeWay Research to
examine a cross-section of churches
in Oklahoma to obtain insights into
key principles for healthy models of
reaching young adults
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Methodology
• LifeWay Research and BGCO sought
to identify churches with exemplary
young adult ministries
• SBC churches were identified based
on young adult baptisms and
participation data and referrals
• Non-SBC churches were identified by
referral
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Methodology
• Other selection criteria:
– Minimum of 2 churches located in metro
areas
– Minimum of 2 churches located in rural areas
or small towns
– Maximum of 4 mega churches
• 79 interviews were conducted with staff
members, lay leaders, and young adults of
8 Southern Baptist and 9 Non-Southern
Baptist churches across Oklahoma
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Methodology
• Staff member most responsible for
young adult ministry was interviewed
• Staff member was also asked to
supply two leaders and two young
adults from their ministry to be
interviewed
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Church Vision
& Purpose
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• Establish a clear purpose and
mission for young adult ministry
– Chisholm Heights pastor Dave Bryan
took the church through a process to
refine the purpose and vision of the
entire church. This led to renewed
initiatives for reaching young adult
couples
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• Integrate your young adult ministry
with the identity, values and
expression of your church
– “Being in a college town, I see so many
college ministries that are . . . not under the
banner of a church. But we are under the
authority of Journey Church, which creates a
lot of buzz because we have students that’ll
come on Sunday who have never been to our
Tuesday night experience. And they’ll see that
our church is young and focused.”
-Tim Mannon, Journey Church
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• Be willing to try new things as you
look for more effective methods
– LifeChurch.tv attributes their ability to
stay relevant to a willingness to try new
things and a willingness to fail. “That
kind of innovation-type approach
involves transparency ...meaning we are
willing to say we made a mistake. This
is a characteristic that resonates with
the younger culture.”
-Bobby Gruenewald, LifeChurch.tv
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• Use the resources God has given
you
– Emmanuel Church created Refuge, a
new young adult service, which meets in
the multi-purpose area of the church on
Sunday mornings. Although set-up and
tear-down is required every week
because of the multiple uses of this
area, the leaders view it as a
stewardship opportunity and are
thankful the space was available.
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• Be bold enough to make the
necessary changes in order to
effectively reach young adults
– Church at Battlecreek purged the words
“singles ministry” from everything they do.
Most of their young adults are single and they
do address topics like relationships and sex
outside of marriage. “They want to be
identified for who they are, not their marital
status.”
• Chris Colvin, Church at Battlecreek
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Building Community &
Authentic Relationships
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• Consistently provide a place and
opportunities for young adults to
build relationships with others in
the church
– Emmanuel Church hosts a monthly
Friends Night. This Sunday evening
event is promoted to small groups and
Sunday School classes. They are
encouraged to gather together and have
fun. The church provides childcare for
those who need it.
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• Intentionally cross-pollinate
relationships from multiple
generations
– “The church members really incorporate
all of us into the service and into the
church every weekend. This gives the
young adults ownership of what is taking
place within the church walls and places
within them the desire to continue to
serve.”
• Young adult, Northview Community Church
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• Ensure your church’s physical
environment includes places that
are conducive to building
relationships
– At First Missionary Baptist Church, the
welcome area received a makeover designed
to create an inviting and casual atmosphere
for individuals as they arrived for Fusion
worship. The leaders of Fusion point to the
coffee bar as an invaluable and strategic
addition to their ministry.
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Small Groups
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• Offer a diverse menu of small
groups with a diverse time
schedule, meeting in multiple
venues
– At Emmanuel Baptist Church, an array
of small groups—Life Groups for single
young adults and Community groups for
young marrieds—meet every night of
the week.
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• Create an inviting environment in
your small groups that also
challenges participants to serve—
both will appeal to the unchurched.
– “We find that a young adult just coming
in off the street is more apt to come to a
home group than to a worship service.
We encourage home groups to do
mission projects, outreach, and other
ministries.”
• Jamie Austin, Lawton First Assembly of God
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• Establish goals for each small
group
– “We have three goals for our small
groups:
1) a place to belong
2) a place to change
3) a place to reach
We place emphasis on these 3 keys of
belonging, changing and reaching. In
order to have a healthy life group, all 3
of these principles must be used.”
• Kevin Choate, Emmanuel Church
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• Intentionally make small groups a
safe and secure environment
– “Young adults will begin to discuss their lives
and the Bible study if they feel safe and
secure in their environment. If they have a
problem, they know they can come to that
group for help. Whether the need is physical
or spiritual, they know the group will meet the
need. The group continues to call and talk to
one another after the class ends.
• Mike Gentry, a volunteer at Church of The Servant
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• Give young adults a sense of
ownership of their small groups
– “If someone wants to start a home
group, there are materials and
curriculum available from the church.
They pick the material and the night,
and host a home group for whatever
age group they choose.”
• Brent Jenkins, Eagle Heights Church
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Missions
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• Meet young adults’ expectations to
serve
– “Young adults have a higher awareness
than a lot of other age groups of what it
means to be missional. They want to
know when they give money to the
church where it is going and what it is
doing. We want to see our money and
our time spent helping and reaching
out.”
• Joey Carpenter, First Missionary Baptist Church
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• Strategically include missions as a
core expectation of small groups
– Bridgeway Church has organized their house
churches based on a missional focus rather
than age or social class. Each house church
targets a neighborhood they can help or a
network of single moms. “One of the most
effective things I have seen has been the
equipping and sending out of people to be
missional in their own lives and communities.”
• Zac Bottomly, Bridgeway Church
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• Present with passion service
activities and mission projects
– Service activities at the Church at
Battlecreek see a remarkable
involvement from young adults, due to
the church staff's passion as they
introduce missional opportunities.
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• Provide opportunities for young
adults to serve with multiple
generations of church members
– FBC of Madill has an ongoing local ministry
that adopts four or five homes in the
community to paint, roof, install siding, and
do other maintenance projects. These home
makeovers are great opportunities for
multiple generations within the church to
engage in missions, as well as to develop
cross-generational relationships.
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Worship
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• Create an environment that
celebrates the preferences and
style of the generation you are
seeking to reach
– The Refuge worship service is “full of
energy…the lights are dimmed and there
are strobe lights and the music is really,
really loud and people want to dance. But
at the same time the entire service is
focused on God.”
• Amy Zimmerman, Emmanuel
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• Don’t let the experience of
worship obscure the One who is
being worshiped
– “We are very Jesus-centric in our
preaching. If we finish writing a sermon
and it doesn’t help people meet Jesus,
then we have read the text wrong. We
tear it up and burn it and start all over
again and repent.”
• Ryan Abernathy, Journey Fellowship
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• Make the teaching relevant to
your audience
– Young adults who attend the Thursday
night service at First Assembly of God in
Lawton are described as “…a pool of
shallow and deep Christians and nonChristians. Therefore, the speaker must
present a message that is relevant and
applicable to people in all stages of life.
We are so careful not to use what we call
Christianese, or Christian lingo, at all.”
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• Consider specific worship
services for young adults
– At Asbury Church, the service most
young adults attend is called Venue 68, which takes place in a new youth
building with an 850-seat auditorium.
The senior pastor preaches to the
church via simulcast for this service.
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Outreach
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• Use relationships to spur outreach
– The People’s Church offers monthly
relational events or Connect Groups.
They serve to bridge the gap for young
adults from the worship service to small
groups. People’s Church’s four identical
Sunday morning services are well
attended by young adults. Connect
groups provide opportunities to build
relationships that help them get plugged
into community groups.
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• Encourage leaders to build
relationships with young adults
– “We need to figure out better ways of
attracting young people without having to
attract them. Mainly that would come
through relationships instead of ‘Here’s the
big show.’…It starts with leaders and the
relationships they have and how we can
build those with young people that don’t
know Jesus yet.”
• Zac Bottomly, Bridgeway Church
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• Train your young adults to reach
others
– “Most of the new young adults coming to
Church of the Servant are coming because
young adults involved in the ministry have
invited them to come. The young adult
members are going to be more effective
than any of the older adults when inviting
young adults to the church.”
• Mike Gentry, Church of the Servant
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• Think AUTHENTIC, SIMPLE,
AND PRACTICAL
– “We have found that free food is a
major draw for students. Nearly every
event involves food of some kind.”
• Jamie Austin, Lawton First Assembly
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• Think strategically by considering
the lifestyle patterns of young
adults
– “We go where people are.” This
includes having the men’s small group
meet in places where young adults are
found such as certain restaurants.
• Ryan Abernathy, The Journey Fellowship
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• Encourage consistency in
attendance
– “If we could increase the frequency at
which people connected with the
church, we could give them reasons to
come this weekend and reasons to
come next weekend, and that process
led to a higher degree of engagement
overall and the more likely they are to
invite other people.”
• Bobby Gruenewald, LifeChurch.tv
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Technology
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• Take advantage of technology for
communication
– Lawton First Assembly of God relies heavily
upon e-mail, phone calls, text-messages,
Facebook, video, and podcasts for
communicating with young adults. While
relationships start in person technology keeps
people connected:
• Soldiers to receive podcasts of services when
overseas,
• Volunteers receive email updates
• Facebook wall posts or a text message can ask if a
• Don’t underestimate the power of
technology to gain the attention of
young adults
–Technology is in some ways the backbone
of the young adult ministry at Asbury. The
sermon is given via simulcast, and digital
signs and televisions relay announcements.
Wide-screen televisions, high-definition
projectors, three plasma monitors, highdefinition big screens, lights, video imagery,
and more are built into the service to
enhance the appeal to young adults.
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• Use technology to enhance the
worship experience
– The People’s Church places a premium
on first impression. They utilize largescreen projection, theatrical lighting, and
creative video production to aid the
mood and emotions of the worship
service.
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Leadership
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• Look first to your own field as you
seek to recruit leadership for this
ministry
– Gerod Grigor was a member of Norman
Community Church for several months
before coming on staff. He loves being
on staff at the church where he was
attending. Greg said he doesn’t feel like
a “hired hand” because he was already
involved and embraces the vision of the
church.
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• Cast the vision for young adult
ministry passionately
– “Our pastor’s vision, specifically, is for the
next generation. In general, it would be to
lead people to be fully-devoted followers of
Christ. More specifically, it is for children
and teenagers. He has always had a heart
for young people. Our pastor is very
involved with us relationally. He is our
cheerleader.”
• Jamie Austin, Lawton First Assembly of God
• Tap older adults as leaders who
can also mentor
– “An incredible foundation has been laid by
the older generations in our church. Do not
try and avoid this foundation and lay
another for a younger generation. There
are many treasures to be discovered and
used from older generations because they
have lived through the same situations that
many young adults are experiencing in
their current lives.”
• Todd Craig, Asbury
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Discipleship
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• Discussion is a key component for
Bible studies with young adults
– “I think the most effective time during
our small groups are when the young
adults are the ones leading the
conversation by discussing the lesson
and their lives. Young adults share
when they know they are in a safe
place.”
• Mike Gentry, Church of the Servant
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• Provide mentoring programs to
disciple and to assimilate
newcomers
– Lawton First Assembly of God has
discovered that “young adults are looking
for any opportunity to get together and
hang out.” Realizing that, the staff has
taken the opportunity to provide fellowship
as well as discipleship. Austin said, “We
hold church sporting events that bring older
men together with our younger men.”
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Theological Issues
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• Discuss current trends in society
by speaking to the issues
– The young adults at Church of the
Servant had many diverse
conversations about the recent election.
As they discussed the subject, some
leaders were surprised at the diversity of
opinions that existed among the adults.
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• Jesus must be the ultimate focus.
Young adults need their faith
solidified
– “The ultimate thing is for young people
to know Jesus Christ. We give them
Jesus. That is the main thing. We really
take them right back to Scripture and
teach them why they believe the way
they do.”
• Jamie Austin, Lawton First Assembly of God
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• Teach issues that are relevant to
the young adults’ everyday life
– “Young adults have lost their identity. They
are transitioning from high school to college
and they are trying to figure life out. The
second is connection. It is important to get
connected with a community of people based
on Christ’s love….The last is fulfillment.
Relate to them that fulfillment is found, not in
advancement through your career, but in
service.”
• Chris Colvin, Battlecreek
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Insights for Healthy Models
of Reaching Young Adults
Oklahoma