Y&YA Ministry Session Four

Youth & Young Adult MinistriesSession Four

Late Adolescence/Emerging Adulthood & Worship

ADOLESCENT/YOUNG ADULT DEVELOPMENT

Late Adolescence (ages 18-22) Emerging Adulthood (18-26…27…28)

Physical Growth

• Achieves full physical development• Gains more assurance about body image• Engages in sexual activity; more likely to be

partnered• Learns to manage stress and maintain health

Cognitive, Intellectual Development

• Particularly open to learning; a time ripe for formal/informal education

• Expresses ideas with more linguistic skill• May see many points of view and may claim

multiple realities as the truth (relativism)• May claim self as a “producer” of knowledge

(not just a consumer)

Social, Affective Development

• Increases self-reliance• Develops sense of identity and intimacy• Expresses interest in vocational and personal life

choices• Brings to realization sexual identity of self• Makes choices (either explicitly or not) to claim

sexual identity• While relationships with peers are still

important, they do not define the self

Social, Affective Development

• May feel pressures to claim racial/ethnic identity in different spheres

• May reject alliances based solely on race• Negotiates more knowledgably racism as a

system of privilege and oppression• Needs involvement with diverse peers to

continue healthy racial and ethnic identity development

Moral Development

• Wrestles with personal morality and life choices

• Expresses interest in moral and philosophical thinking, for self and wider world

Spiritual, Religious, Faith Development

• Claims authority around issues of faith• Further develops spirituality as an important

part of self• Engages in “faith” beyond traditional

organized religion• Considers the role of faith in identity

Support for Late Adolescent Stage

• Continue providing information about safe sex and contraception

• Provide for self-care including stress management• Respect the privacy and intellect of the young adult• Provide complex problems and thick questions to

ponder• Tie activities to broader concepts or issues (i.e.

philosophical, existential, social activist lenses)

Support for Late Adolescent Stage

• Understand that intimacy and identity development are tied together and respect the young adult’s attention to this aspect of life

• Provide models and conversations about vocations and life choices

• Celebrate and channel the young adult’s moral idealism into action

• Celebrate the process of searching that is part of late adolescence

Youth Ministry in Late Adolescence

• They’re still adolescents!• They need a gentle shove into adulthood.

Youth workers must take careful note—in an age where adulthood is delayed and adolescence is lengthening—to help kids grow into people who know who they are and who take responsibility for their lives.

What Is Emerging Adulthood?

• It is the age of identity explorations, of trying out various possibilities, especially in love and work.

• It is the age of instability.• It is the most self-focused age of life.• It is the age of feeling in-between, in transition,

neither adolescent nor adult.• It is the age of possibilities, when hopes flourish,

when peoplehave an unparalleled opportunity to transform their lives.

Emerging Adulthood Development

• Developing intellectual, social and physical competence.

• Learning to manage emotions.• Moving through autonomy toward

interdependence.• Developing mature interpersonal relationships.

Emerging Adulthood Development

• Establishing identity.• Developing purpose.• Developing integrity.

Generational Faith Formation

• Builder Generation (1945 and earlier)• Baby Boom Generation (1946–1964)• Generation X (1965–1979)• Millennial Generation (1980–1999)• Generation 2000 or the iGeneration (2000–)

Millennial Generation

• introduction to technology, literally at birth• constant media diet• adeptness at multitasking• fervor for communication technologies• love of virtual social worlds and anything

internet-related• ability to use technology to create a vast array

of “content"

Millennial Generation

• unique learning style• need for constant motivation• closeness to family• confidence• openness to change• need for collective reflection• desire for immediacy

Millennial Generation

• Can we have that yesterday?• Our attention spans are shot.• We still haven't grown up.• We remember what it was like 'before'• We're all going to be famous. Briefly.

Millennial Generation

• We have multiple personalities.• After we die, we live on, online.• We care less about cars.• This will be on our permanent records.• We are expert multi-taskers.

YOUTH & YOUNG ADULT WORSHIP

Youth Worship

The "Coming of Age" worship experience helps late adolescents/emerging adults to:• learn more about Unitarian Universalism• have ways to articulate their own beliefs• A core CoA worship feature are the statements

of personal belief (credo statements)

Youth Worship

"Coming of Age" worship service participants:• experience worship that ministers to their

spiritual and social needs• develop skills and confidence in planning and

leading worship• grow in their capacity to take on

responsibilities in a group

Young Adult Worship

Myths About Worship For Young Adults• It is not a “dumbed-down” version of

traditional Sunday morning worship. • The message is just presented in a different

way•  A way that keeps people’s attention and

brings them to a deeper place

Young Adult Worship

• Another common misconception is that the phrase “spiritually vital and alive” means that somehow we must abandon all hope of a message that is rational.

•  Spirituality and reason can go hand in hand, and young adults do not ask for a religion that does not make sense to them based in their own experience.

Young Adult Worship

Emerging adults want worship• that speaks to their experiences in life• that challenges them to develop deeper

relationships• that connects them to things that are beyond

themselves—in human relationships, struggles for justice, or a connection with nature or God or any other profound mystery.

The Sermon Sandwich

A Contemporary Worship Platter