Improve Young Adult Ministry at Your Congregation

By Annie Gonzalez Milliken

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Tool Box

A New Tool for Building Great Ministry

Why am I the only person in their 20s at coffee hour? How can my fellowship support the students who meet for lunch after the service? What can this church do to make young parents feel more welcome? How do we get a new generation of leaders on our Board? If finding answers to any of these questions sounds good to you, then check out the UUA's new Young Adult Ministry Self-Assessment for congregations! Whether your congregation rarely has anyone under 40 come in the door, or whether you've got several exciting young adult ministries that you want to improve, this is a tool that can help you on your journey toward growing and enriching your ministry to young adults. This tool, designed by and for Unitarian Universalists, is easy to use. It starts with a twelve question assessment that can be taken by a young adult leader, a staff person, small group, lay volunteer or anyone else from your congregation. The tool was created using a developmental model of young adult ministry, with the awareness that each congregation is different and that young adult involvement in congregations varies: young families, people in the workplace and young professionals, new converts to the faith, young adults who grew up UU, seekers, theists and more. The results of the assessment will help you understand where your congregation is now and, based on that information, offer strategies and resources for moving toward a stronger and more integrated young adult presence. Click here to take the self-assessment, and please let us know how you experienced it! Your feedback will help us make this new tool even more useful. Feel free to contact me with your comments and questions at agonzalez@uua.org, or paste them in the comment section below.