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Terry Mattingly

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Religious leaders struggle to reach ’emerging adults’

Religious leaders struggle to reach ’emerging adults’

Last updated on: July 14, 2014 at 7:20 am by tmatt

Religious leaders struggle to reach ’emerging adults’ 2014-07-09T12:00:08-04:00 tmatt

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When leaders of traditional faith groups think about reaching out to Millennials, religious seekers, unaffiliated “Nones” and other postmodern young Americans, this is the voice that many keep hearing in their heads.

“Morality is how I feel too, because in my heart, I could feel it,” said one person interviewed in the National Study of Youth and Religion. “You could feel what’s right and wrong in your heart as well as your mind. Most of the time, I always felt, I feel it in my heart and it makes it easier for me to morally decide what’s right and wrong. Because if I feel about doing something, I’m going to feel it in my heart, and if it feels good, I’m going to do it.”

Seconds later, young people caught up in what experts now call “emerging adulthood” may stress that they are open to attending multigenerational congregations that offer roots, tradition and mentors. But how will they know when they have found the right spiritual home?

Right. When they feel it.

That’s a hard target to hit, said Naomi Schaefer Riley, author of “Got Religion? How Churches, Mosques and Synagogues Can Bring Young People Back.” Many religious leaders are struggling to find a “sweet spot between deep religious messages that sound cool” and faith that “seems like it comes from a sappy self-help book,” she noted.

In light of current trends, it’s also hard for clergy to take comfort in the trend seen in previous generations, which is that young people who abandon the pews usually return when they are married and have children. Trouble is, increasing numbers of Americans between 20 and 40 are delaying marriage, family and any community ties that bind. Some are opting out of marriage altogether.

This creates strong moral tensions.

“This is the metaphor you keep hearing,” said Riley, in a telephone interview. For an increasing number of young adults “religion is like a jacket. You have to take it off whenever you are doing something that you know violates the teachings of your church.

“So you throw that jacket in the corner. … Then you drift further and further away until there is some part of you that just doesn’t fit anymore. In your head, you’re saying, ‘I haven’t been behaving the way that I should, so I shouldn’t go to church, or to Shabbat, or to the mosque.’ Then you say that week after week. … You lose your religious habits.”

Rather than offering fake fixes, Riley said the goal of her book was to show examples of Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Mormon and Muslim attempts to address these issues. The result is a guided tour through crucial paradoxes in the lives of many young Americans, especially the Millennials born between 1981 and 1996. For example:

*** Many young adults** say that they don’t want to be seen as mere “religious consumers,” yet it’s clear they are seeking congregations with worship, music, sermons and special events that click for them.

*** Young people are tired** of being pursued through a barrage of social media, yet these online connections are obviously at the heart of the networks that shape their lives. Religious leaders must be careful when crossing digital lines.

*** On the marriage issue**, young Americans are not seeking congregations that feel like holy singles clubs. Nevertheless, they do want to see lots of young people in the pews around them — members of their own urban tribes — to help them feel at home.

*** Many young people** say they are seeking a faith with beauty, depth and history, yet probably not one with firm doctrines — especially on sexuality — that make them feel uncomfortable or judged.

During this “emerging adulthood” stage, stressed Riley, most young people are living in a state of flux, moving to new places, making new friends, adjusting to new jobs, living with new roommates, dating new people and trying to accept new financial responsibilities. Meanwhile, religious leaders are asking them to make commitments and to keep them.

“Religious leaders are really caught in a bind here,” she said. “You want these young people to step forward and maybe even to become leaders.” At the same time, she added, it’s crucial that “the church or the temple or the mosque doesn’t become like almost everything else in their lives — something else that’s just temporary.”

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