Currents that shape your leadership
July 1, 2001
After an off-and-on, nine-year battle, my only sister finally succumbed to breast cancer at the age of 47. I received numerous sympathy cards from members of our congregation, but one is particularly noteworthy because I did not recognize a single name on it. It had been sent by one of our young adult weekly home Bible studies. Close to fifteen personally penned notes filled both of the inner flaps of the beautiful card, but I honestly could not put one face with any of the signatures. That's nothing for a pastor to brag about, but I share it with you so that you might better appreciate what has happened at my church in the past four years. When I was installed as the senior pastor, we had about 250 people. Our single young adult population was less than 20 percent of that. Today, about 650 people gather together on Sunday mornings and single young adults constitute more than 60 percent of our attendance. How is it that we're drawing Gen-Xers? The church is staffed by baby boomers. We don't offer a separate contemporary worship service. We don't have a pastor who is exclusively serving this population. (And I haven't sprouted a goatee!) Obviously, whatever is going on is God's doing. But we can take steps to reach more of the young adult population without having to be a Gen-X-only church. The most significant factor, I believe, is our willingness as leaders to share our lives openly with the congregation. We go out of our way to live out our new church motto, "Real People, Real Hope." Young people value authenticity. They have grown up at a time when countless institutions have failed or failed them, when ballyhooed products fell far short of their promises. They aren't clamoring for airtight arguments or picture-perfect people. ...
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