Essentials

Evaluate What You Already Do

The Process

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...
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SWOT Worksheet

SWOT Worksheet

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:
  • Hospitality -- Including Sunday mornings, receptivity of the staff, and what happens when someone calls the office with a question or request.
  • Mass -- Does our liturgy meet the needs and speak to the hearts of young adults? Consider especially music and preaching, these two elements are most frequently cited by young adults as what attracts them to (or repels them from) a parish...
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Principles of Young Adult Friendly Parishes

We’re hardly unfriendly to young adults most of the time. The typical experience is that we’re just friendly enough to keep our distance. Young adults don’t necessarily have an ax to grind against the church but often there’s a lack of engagement and commitment. There’s much we can do to bridge that gap of polite distance and welcome the young adults who come our way into vibrant engagement with our community.
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Considering the Possibilities

Preparing the Parish To Begin Young Adult Ministry

Young adults have many gifts and talents that can fit right in with what your parish is already doing. Gathering the heads of the committees and ministries that already exist and asking them to take inventory of those ministries to see how many people under the age of 40 are presently involved is a great way to begin. Talk about a desire to reach out to people in their 20s and 30s in the parish announcements and even in homilies...
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Principles of Leadership in Young Adult Ministry

Build a Diverse Team

Your Leadership Team will be one of the main factors in the stability of your ministry, in the success of your events, and in the appeal of your programs. Before any events or programs are planned, take the time to create a team with members who are diverse in their skills, represent the different groups of young adults you hope to reach with your ministry, and who have a circle of influence that is large enough to help draw other young adults to this new ministry...
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Starting Your Leadership Team

Starting Your Leadership Team

  • Create a list of potential young adults to invite into leadership.
    • Names on this list can come from the various organizations within your parish where young adults are already involved, such as youth ministry programs, religious education programs, parents of religious education students, lectors, Eucharistic ministers, service organizations, small faith communities, etc.
    • Include individual young adults you know personally...
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Rising Above Common Pitfalls

Overcoming Transitions of Young Adults

One of the most common problems in creating a long-term young adult ministry program is dealing with the constant transition of those in their 20s and 30s. Young adults’ lives can be full of change that comes in the form of moving for their job, getting married, starting a family, and more. It is very important to think about this when you create your leadership team. For ministry beyond the first transition, it is helpful to create a team of those who are in various stages of life, including a mixture of ages, a mixture of married and single, a mixture of parents and non-parents, and mixture of college and graduate school students and professionals...
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