When we first started attending the church we currently attend around three years ago, the bulletin mentioned that they had a Young Adults Ministry. It said the ministry was for adults ages 18 to 29. This sounded about right. When I was in my mid-twenties many years ago I was active in the Young Adults ministry at my church then. We would go to dinner as a group after the 5 PM service on Sunday, go to happy hour at a different bar every month, meet twice each month to discuss the weeks readings, visit a convalescent home, help out at a soup kitchen, and have annual outings to the beach for a barbecue and to the Hollywood Bowl. We had a great core group, through most of them were older than I, in their early 30’s. We didn’t have a specific range for the group but just said 20’s and 30’s. At least two of the others exceeded the range. But after a few years of doing things together most of us moved out of the area, and, in some cases, out of the country. I still keep in touch with some of them either through exchanging holiday cards or through social networking sites.
By the time we had started attending our current church I felt I had outgrown the Young Adult ministry and the age range of 18 to 29 confirmed this. However, last year they changed the range to 18 to 35. All of the sudden I was within the range, though close to the maximum. This also still seemed to make sense. I could accept that I was still a young adult, through I wouldn’t be for much longer. My active young adult years were long past and I could soon look forward to a mature adulthood.
However, this year they revised the range again to 18 to 39. My young adulthood has been extended several more years. I guess this is more in line with the group I was in, but to have an explicit range of over 21 years seems very broad. That range makes it possible to have two generations of young adults or to have a young adult that’s also a grandparent. Having the range span the 20’s and 30’s is not unusual but it is strange that the maximum would increase so much in less than two years. Are the group leaders aging? Do they want to attract more members? If they’re just trying to extend their young adulthood, more power to them.
By the time we had started attending our current church I felt I had outgrown the Young Adult ministry and the age range of 18 to 29 confirmed this. However, last year they changed the range to 18 to 35. All of the sudden I was within the range, though close to the maximum. This also still seemed to make sense. I could accept that I was still a young adult, through I wouldn’t be for much longer. My active young adult years were long past and I could soon look forward to a mature adulthood.
However, this year they revised the range again to 18 to 39. My young adulthood has been extended several more years. I guess this is more in line with the group I was in, but to have an explicit range of over 21 years seems very broad. That range makes it possible to have two generations of young adults or to have a young adult that’s also a grandparent. Having the range span the 20’s and 30’s is not unusual but it is strange that the maximum would increase so much in less than two years. Are the group leaders aging? Do they want to attract more members? If they’re just trying to extend their young adulthood, more power to them.
RSS Feed