Emerging Adulthood

One of the things that I enjoy about working with a new church staff is the amount of conceptual interaction that takes place between the two pastors and myself. Sometimes the amount of articles that get passed around can get overwhelming, especially since they seem to have saved a years worth for me when I arrived.

This weekend, I was reading through the current issue of Books & Culture, a great magazine that reviews a variety of books from a Christian perspective. The article the grabbed my attention the most was on the concept of "Emerging Adulthood." Just like the concept of a distinct period between childhood and adulthood emerged in the transition from the 19th to the 20th Century, what we now call adolescence, there seems to be a similar development taking place with folks in their twenties, even into the early thirties for some. A number of transition markers that used to welcome people more clearly into adulthood proper have been moving back later into life. Longer time in college, increasing numbers of people continuing in grad school, later first marriages, and later first children, have all contributed to this stage, called by some, "Emerging Adulthood."

I copied the article, knowing that both pastors would enjoy the read. The three of us had lunch today, where I found out that this is a topic that the two of them had been talking about in somewhat different terms. My senior pastor also had an article to share that covered similar ground. We are working on a Family Life Cycle focus of ministry for the church and are hoping to incorporate the research on this age group into our work.

To that end, I post this here seeking not merely to share office discussions, but to entreat input from other who find themselves in, know people in, or have recently emerged from this "Emerging Adulthood." If you skim through the complete article and have a thought on how a church can approach ministry with a mind and heart for "Emerging Adults" I would love to know what you think.