A Message from Pastor Alexa

In worship on Sunday, we shared a video about a leadership acceleration cohort I am participating in this year. If we missed it, you can click this link to watch the video we shared. In the video, I mentioned that this story begins with a different initiative I worked on while at Garrett Seminary: the Young Adult Initiative. We researched the spiritual and religious longings and experiences of young adults, in order to equip churches to engage young adults better than they had been.

At the time, young adults were millennials, and as time goes on, Gen Z-ers are aging into Young Adult ministries. However, I think what we learned from our research holds for those on the tail end of young adulthood (people like me!), and offers wisdom for how to better engage young adults into the future. 

The research showed that young adults are longing for faith communities that are welcoming and accessible, have relevant and relatable leaders, cultivate relationships, connection, and community, support and encourage spiritual practices, are social justice oriented, are cognizant of and sensitive to their painful past experiences of church, and are understanding of their ambivalence about the ‘Christian’ label. 

As a church community, we are embracing curiosity that leads to love this Advent season. This spiritual practice, the practice of curiosity leading us to love, can guide us not only toward delight and closeness in our relationship with God and creation, but also with people from whom we feel disconnected, disappointed, or distant. 

‘Young Adult’ is a relatively new category of human development. Adolescence used to transition right into what we consider ‘adulthood,’ but in recent years, we have observed a different stage of human development emerging as society and its expectations & structures change. Young adults are often not seen as full adults by their adult peers, while also burdened with high expectations from their communities, mounting pressure from society, and limited resources. Though young adulthood is sometimes venerated as the height of life, characterized by beauty, vitality, and independence, it can also be a time of great powerlessness, poverty, and profound loneliness. 

I am convinced that curiosity will lead us to love.

I am convinced that when we get curious about one another, and in particular, the young adults in our midst, we will come to love them. And, I am hopeful that when young adults get curious about church, about us, we can be continually molded into a welcoming, accessible, relevant, relatable, relational, connecting, community committed to spiritual practice, social justice, and empathy for all, especially those who have been hurt by the church and are ambivalent about the Christian label.