I want to share the story of a trailblazer -she didn’t see a path for her beyond youth group, so she made one.
I believe that emerging adults are not fully accepted within their churches because many adults do consider them as peers, but continue to treat them like children.
Katie’s story was different. She felt like an adult, and I wanted to know the reasons why. Here is her story…
Although I am only 21, I feel fully accepted as an adult when I am at my church. Although, I have to admit that I’m not exactly sure what it means to me to fully accepted as an adult, I’m still figuring it out exactly.
At our confirmation (when I was fourteen), I was told that I was becoming an adult. It was weird to be an adult at 14 because I was barely old enough to have a job. I couldn’t drive. I didn’t even have a cell phone, and yet the church was telling me I was an adult. Society drives into your head that 18 is a legal adult. At 21, they allow you to drink. You can’t do anything at 14. So how could I be an adult?
I found that hard to believe; however, I wanted to be involved so I joined our high school youth group. During my youth group years, we were told that we were adults. However, youth group was a funny stage in which we were still youth -but adults at the same time. Youth group was fun while it lasted, but after I graduated from high school, I didn’t know what to do or where I fit in. I didn’t feel “grown up” and I especially didn’t feel respected as an adult in the church.
But I was determined to change that.
I approached church leadership and asked what I could do to be active as an adult in the church. Jamie my youth director, suggested that I become a member of a board at the church. My first thoughts were, “How boring!” and how in the world would I stay awake during meetings. I then began to worry that no one would take me seriously. I decided to give it a shot, regardless of my worries. I joined the Faith Formation board, which works with anything related to youth and/or education in our church. I discovered that I was warmly welcomed to the team and my thoughts and ideas were respected and heard.
Through the actions of the members of my congregation, I was assured that if I put out the effort, I would be recognized as an adult in the church. I also took other roles at church through ushering, speaking, reading at church, voting at congregational meetings, and attending the synod assembly.
If I wasn’t so determined to blaze my own trail at my home church, I think I would have fallen away from my faith and lost a lot of my relationship with Christ.
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I wish that all emerging adults were like Katie. Katie is a trail-blazer. When there was no clear path ahead, she was determined to make one.
Katie is from West Fargo, North Dakota. She is a junior at Minnesota State University Moorhead double majoring in ASL & Deaf Studies and Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. She has a passion for working with kids and volunteering through my church in all kinds of things. Her ultimate goal in life is to work for some sort of nonprofit organization that helps kids with disabilities.
