Hello,

Someone far wiser than I, I am sure, has written about the developments that come with each stage of life. But here’s what I have come to see in my work as a Pastor. The first five years of life are extremely important, because one’s personality is pretty well set by the age of five (I read that somewhere in my psych books). And in one’s elementary school years, a person creates a world view that grounds the way they think. In adolescence a person is cascaded with hormones that hit them like a boat in a stormy sea, and their brains take on more traffic than they have seen since infancy. I suppose that it is appropriate for most teens to learn how to drive a car during these years, because learning how to stay on the road and afloat is a main accomplishment for teens. The next set of years, 18-35, are years that are full of decisions that will set the course for life. The years that follow, 35 to 65, are developing one’s course in life, gaining expertise, managing the bumps, blossoming where one is planted. And the last decades of life, the stage that I am in, are laced with thanks, exhaustion in trying to keep pace with the world, confusion as the world seems to turn in different directions, and an ever-increasing realization of one’s mortality.

In my experience, it seems that the church has made a great emphasis to be engaged in the lives of people in all of these stages, except one: the 18–35-year-olds. Churches welcome young families with children with open arms. They provide extensive Sunday school for children. Teenage ministries are commonplace. Older folks find comfort and stability in worship services that maintain the traditions of older members. Senior citizen groups and Bible studies during the day for retired folks are provided. But in my experience, 18-35 years old’s seem to be seldom the target for the Christian ministry that they need in their stage of life.

So, seeing that in the churches that I have served, I have tried to bring the presence of God’s grace into the lives of young adults. The Bungee Cord, which I started over 25 years ago, was begun as a missile (a writing, not a bomb) to 18–35-year old’s because I noticed their absence from church. I hoped to overcome their absence with a weekly word of Christ’s love brought to them. When I was writing my sermons, I tried to write listening to the life questions they were asking and facing. I would call them up and have a coke or cup of coffee with them. And to help them find a foothold in the community of God’s people, in one of my churches, I started a fellowship group reaching out to them. The group chose their name 4:12 (1 Tim. 4:12).

I brought a group of 12 of these folks together, some regular attenders and some who did not or rarely attend, in order to discern what kind of ministry was needed among them. So, I asked them a bunch of questions, of which one was, “What do you want most from this ministry?”

The answer that I received took me by surprise. “We want to know what is right and what is wrong.”

For many, that may have seemed like a logical answer to come from a bunch of young adults who had at least some connection with the church. After all, in the minds of many people, I think, that which they were seeking is the object of the Christian faith.

Although many may find it odd, I do not think that teaching right from wrong, and living that out is the object of the Christian faith. I say that because as I read the Bible, I find that the people that Jesus arm wrestled most often were the ones who were teaching that knowing right from wrong and living it out was the focus of one’s relationship with God. (for example: healing on the sabbath (Matt 12), the rich young ruler (Matt. 19), the woman at the well (john 4), the 10 lepers (Luke 17). As I have come to see, the object of the Christian faith is not to know right from wrong and live that out, but to be transformed and freed by the grace of God, and to live and die in that grace.

WHAT?????

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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