Faith Development In Young Adults
James Fowler, considered one of the leading figures in the field of Christian developmental psychology, identified seven unique stages of life where individuals develop and practice faith. Faith, for Fowler, is more than belief; it is the system of commitments, values, and images guiding a person’s life. In Becoming Adult Becoming Christian, Fowler observes not all stages are related to age groups, but his findings are typical.[1]
Fowler’s developmental stages identify predictable, uniform ways of faith expression. The important takeaway is this: individuals mature through predictable ways in relationship to faith. Fowler asserts that this faith development is uniform regardless of experiences or timeframe.
Fowler labels the transition from adolescence to adulthood as Stage Four: Individuative – Reflective faith. An individual is in this phase when they begin to critical distance themselves from external sources of authority in prior life stages (e.g., parents, pastors, and educators). During this Individuative-Reflective period, the individual self becomes the source of authority. As a young adult has begun to “own their faith,” they tend to separate, or distance from others. Fowler calls this the emergence of the executive ego (desire to be oneself and choose one’s path).[2] This is not necessarily a bad thing. The owning of one’s faith is an important step in the process of deep commitment. It is important to not immediately dismiss the questioning or doubts of young adults as rebellion or arrogance. It is more likely the natural progression from inherited faith to owned faith.
Stage four individuals go through two movements at creating individual, systemic unity: the grounding and orientation of the self from others; and the objectification and critical choosing of personal beliefs, values, and commitments.[3] Critical distancing takes place when one relocates authority away from established, external value systems to internal ones. While this sounds like a total abandonment of prior spiritual authority, the process begins with more a critical evaluation of beliefs and faith practice rather than wholesale abandonment.[4] A young adult desires to become their independent selves, but still be tethered to these influences in some way. When churches or parents react negatively to this separation, it reinforces the doubt of the young adult.
Despite the need to distance from previous authority structures, religious influences early in life are the building materials where new faith is constructed. Young adults migrating through ideological positions on culture, spirituality, and faith have doubts and questions as they become more self-aware. Leaders should shape the spiritual formation of young adults as they safely express doubts and critically distance through acceptance and understanding. Instructional methods built on top-down pedagogical models fail young adults. Articulating feelings about theology, justice, society, and sexuality enables refinement and implementation of those beliefs. As Sustainable Young Adult Ministry points out, “In a cohort or community marked by the authenticity of sharing doubts, failures, and hunches, we can begin looking at the right questions, the kind that will connect deeply with the faith of young adults today. We can listen and point to the ways that faith (and its unsettling sister, doubt) becomes real.”[5] Our elasticity testifies to the fact we can expand to the needs of those God has given us to guide, yet still maintain our integrity. A lack of openness to questions is one of the main reasons young adults walk away from church.[6] Church leaders who force their beliefs or silence divergent questions alienate young adults and subvert the awakening of their inert vocational abilities.
[1] James W. Fowler, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian: Adult Development and Christian Faith (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000), 45.
[2] James W. Fowler, Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1981), 179.
[3] Fowler, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian, 49.
[4] Carlton Johnstone, Embedded Faith: The Faith Journeys of Young Adults within Church Communities (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2013), 25
[5] DeVries and Pontier, Sustainable Young Adult Ministry,159.
[6] In the Barna Group’s research piece Faith that Lasts Project, five of the six reasons why young adults leave church are directly related to the church’s reticence to discussion.