I'm Starting A Young Adult Ministry - What's First?

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Where Do I Start?

“My pastor just asked me to lead the young adults at my church! I’m so excited! I’m also terrified. What do I do? Where do I start?” 

Over the last 20 years I’ve received this email numerous times. Others reach out and ask, “No one is reaching young adults at my church. I want to do it. What can I do?” 

Regardless of whether it was an assignment from leadership or motivation of the need, starting ministry to young adults can be daunting. Children and youth ministry are well documented. You can find hundreds of resources and models to pull from. Curriculum is easy to find. For young adult ministry, there isn’t as much. Let me suggest the following first steps to launching young adult ministry:

1. Make 5 Lists

Yep, get a piece of paper and a pen, then make some lists (OK, turn your laptop on nobody uses pens and paper anymore). They are simple:

List 1: Who are our young adults? 

Write down the names of all the young adults (17-30) currently in your church and in your influence. Your pastor may need to help you. The size of your church will determine this list. If you have a database system your church uses to record attendance, use it. Don’t worry about if they are connected, in ministry, only come every now and then. Just make the list. Include the people who used to go to your church who haven’t come since high school but their family is still connected and they are still local.

List 2: What is our church doing with young adults now? 

Don't write "nothing!" You might be surprised to learn you have young adults already doing ministry. Use the first list to do this. Are young adults from list one Sunday school teachers for kids? Youth sponsors? In the choir? Is there a small group for them? Maybe a class? Do the YA's go out to eat every Sunday after church - do they sit together in the sanctuary? Are they on the Sunday worship team? My guess is that at least 1 young adult is doing something somewhere at your church. This will help you better leverage them and others for future involvement and understand who is involved and who is a leader. You might have an organic group of YA's already together - you just need to connect with them and mobilize them.

List 3: What does your leadership want to see developed? 

This is critical. What is your assignment? Is it growing the church? Evangelizing young adults in the community? Keeping your current young adults? Providing fun activities only? Discipleship only? Starting a Sunday school class? Starting a special service? If the answer to all those questions is a "yes!" then narrow it down for what you want to accomplish in the first 3 months, first 6 months and then the first year. Set an agenda for what you both are wanting to do for the Kingdom. When you know your assignment, you'll know the direction to take to fulfill that assignment. Make sure you and the church leaders are on the same page. There is nothing worse than achieving your goal - only to find out it was the wrong goal. I’ve seen this happen over and over again. Make sure all your leaders are on the same page.

List 4: Who is on your team? 

You'll need several people, especially some young adults from list 1, to join you in launching this ministry. Young adults need to be ministered WITH, not necessarily ministered TO. Recruit some young adults and other people to help you do this and do this well. I'd say get as many as possible on this team. If possible, I like the number 5 (notice the 5 lists!). Five people is a good size team to manage and lead. What if we only have 5 young adults to start with....no problem, use the 5 of them as leaders to start your group. It is important to not overpromise or overcommit this group. This is what you are starting with, this is who you are going to dream with. Let them be involved in the development and don’t promise massive crowds and unlimited budget until you get it.

List 5: What is going to happen for the next 6 months? 

Once you have your team together and have talked with your leadership, build a 6-month game plan. The President of the United States maps the first 100 days in office. Most NFL football teams script the first quarter and even first half of football plays they are going to run. You do the same. Script what you'll do for the next 6 months, and then work your way backwards with planning, recruitment and involvement. Some weeks you'll have more than others, maybe even no scheduled events or activities, but do something every week to minister to young adults. By something, it could be just a social media post, a quick lunch after church, or send an email. Start small and build. Too many groups do a “bunch” of activities at the start, wear themselves out and then it is months before they do anything else. Sustained growth is better than a flurry of activity.

2. Change The Way You Eat (Spend Time With Young Adults)

This isn't diet advice, its ministry advice. Never eat alone. Every Sunday possible have a young adult over to your house for lunch or dinner. Go out to eat with young adults. Get coffee with them on campus. When you go shopping, take someone with you. Doing things together is how you build relationships. It will be tempting (and honestly faster) to do things on your own. DON’T! Include people with you. I can't think of the last time a week went by and I was not eating with a young adult.

3. Work With Your Church Leaders

It is essential your church leadership knows what you are doing. Don’t expect them to come to every activity, but they should know about every activity – in advance. If you are a volunteer, make sure you know your church’s policies for building use, church calendar, etc. An important word of caution: Never compete with other church events. Don’t schedule a retreat that pulls people out of the weekend service. Don’t have a big party on an important volunteer ministry night. Work together with the other areas of the church to complement, not compete. It is important to interface with youth ministry as much as possible. These students will form the base of your young adult ministry in the future. Make sure you are coordinating with your youth ministry to prepare for the transition.

4. Leverage Existing Opportunities

When you are starting out, make sure you leverage every opportunity. Use existing church activities to become “mini-young adult” events. At our annual Christmas events, young adults attend together, serve in the same ministry area together and turn it into an event. It’s creative re-branding of what the church is already doing. Ask yourself what is our church doing? Where can we leverage the need for young adults? What does our community do? What events are happening in our city, our denominational structure? Are there concerts coming where we can go together?

5. Have Fun & Learn About Jesus!

Over the years, I’ve seen groups binge on one of two extremes: having fun or spiritual development. Don’t get me wrong, they are both important and essential. However, make sure you have a healthy balance in your schedule. Usually, whatever the focus of the leaders, the group takes on that focus (John Maxwell says you attract who you are). If you love bible study and deep questions and theology like me, you’ll skew to this and neglect relational activities. If you are more of a “let’s have fun” person like my friend Michael, you’ll skew this way. It takes both. Don’t neglect one for the other.