Blueprint for Young Married Couples in the Church
by Wayne Stiffen
Y ou are y o u n g a d u l t s . You are interested in a church group for your age and interest level. What are your reasons? You are married, on your own, on your way. You have a family, or you may be planning one. You may be a college graduate. Or you may have started on a job after high school, which may or may not be your lifetime vocation. Or you have completed your tour of duty in the Armed Forces and are perhaps still in the reserves. Or you have finally begun your profession as a doctor, lawyer, engineer, scientist, teacher, accountant, or businessman. “What’s My Line?” is no TV program to you. It’s your bread and butter, maybe your house and car. It’s more than that. It is what gives you a sense of importance, of belonging. You are satisfied that your work is important, that your effort is worthwhile. All, or at least several, of these things put you into the category of “ young adults.” Most of your friends are people very much like you. Perhaps you even live in a “ planned community,” where your neighbors are pre-selected for you for congeniality from the same age and economic bracket. You never stopped to analyze just why your friends are friends. It happened quite naturally. You worked to gether, lived in the same neighborhood, had the same problems and interests. You did not plot the cultivation of your friendships. They just happened naturally—out of a common interest. What happened is that you found yourselves in a very homogeneous group. Your friends are of the same age and same family status, have the same hobbies, same neighborhood, same pursuits—and are probably not of the same church. This last statement might jar you a bit. Just how many really close personal ties do you have with people from your church? How many with church people of the same age, same interests, same problems? Even to think of it offhand may make you feel that this would be a forced, unnatural grouping and association. Sure, you have friends at church, some of them close. But are they really among your best friends? Perhaps the very suggestion makes you bristle a bit, as if the church were intruding upon your very personal affairs, as though the church had to do something to make friends for you. Come to think of it, “Why doesn’t the church do some thing for its young adults?” You have heard the questim put by others. Maybe you have asked it yourself. It sometimes seems that the church is more concerned about young people who kill, steal, rob, kidnap, mug, and forni
cate than it is about those who come to church every Sunday and who are trying to live Christian lives. What does the church have to offer its young adults? The roster of organizations looks impressive. But how does it look to the average young adults? The youth group? They’re too young. Men’s Club? Ladies’ Aid? They’re too old. Young adults would not dream of say ing this out loud when asked to join these groups, but this is the underlying reason for their polite refusals and excuses. Later on they change their minds, when they discover that “ youth is a state of mind.” But “ later” is not “now.” Sunday school? What is there to learn after that? They know the Bible stories. What new ones are there? Bible class? It sounds good, but in most churches it is made up of older people. It often does not deal with questions young adults ask. Voters’ assemblies? They’re often run by the “ Old Guard.” Council? You’ve got to get elected first. Choir? Fine for those who can sing. There may even be a fellowship club for Married Cou ples. Some are alive. Some are dead. Most are struggling. You may feel that these have failed to reach and hold your kind of people. At any rate, there seems little left to do but to go to church on Sundays. Thank God for that! At least here there are no barriers. People of all ages, classes, and races go to church and worship together as one body. There is a warm feeling of identification with this group. But suddenly the young adult loses his feeling of identification with the church. For the congregation dis perses after the service. A few greetings at the door, and then the church is empty, the streets deserted. The church will not meet until it is called together again next Sunday. Each member goes his own way until then and follows his own interests. There ought to be some way of keeping your group together, of bringing them together more often in more informal and intimate association, of getting them to know more and care more about each other. What the young adult misses and what he is searching for is komonia, the. fellowship which was characteristic of the early church. According to the second chapter of Acts it was common for Christians to meet daily in one another’s homes. They had a real sense of belonging. Young adults need the church as the community in which they find their life and express it. And the church needs her young adults. In no other group is there such latent talent, drive, genius, ambition, devotion, initiative, creativity, eagerness to learn and apply, readiness of action. The problem is to get these powerhouses linked
THE KING'S BUSINESS
14
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker