2063 Youth & Young Adult Ministry
Sunday: Funding Our Vision
Development Dept, UUA
Rev. Terry Sweetser
Alison Miller
Jacob Larsen
Reannon Peterson
Speakers: Rev. Terry Sweetser & Alison Miller
What happens to UUs in that mysterious time between high school graduation and starting a family? All too often, during that time people leave our movement, and many never return. That's one of the concerns driving Youth and Young Adult Ministry Sunday, part of the Campaign for Unitarian Universalism capital campaign now underway.
Organizers of Youth and Young Adult Ministry Sunday hope that all member congregations and fellowships of the UUA join for a special fundraising Sunday to help fill the gap in our youth, young adult, and campus ministries. Alison Miller, a second-year seminarian who is the UUA's Youth and Young Adult Ministry Sunday coordinator, says that the project partners fundraising with raising awareness of the ways in which ministering to youth and young adults is different from ministering to older adults. The project's goal is to raise $2 million to fund programs, grants, training, and services to create a more spiritually nurturing environment for your youth and young adults.
Under the slogan, Mind the Gap, referring to the gap between youth and older adults in many of our congregations, the Youth and Young Adult Ministry Sunday looks to reverse a long-term trend. Terry Sweetser, Special Assistant to UUA President Bill Sinkford and coordinator of the capital campaign, says that the movement has historically underinvested in youth and young adults. "As a result, you find experiences like mine, where I'm the only person from my Sunday School first grade class who is still an active UU." Sweetser notes that only about 10 percent of UUs were raised in the faith, and that much of the attention in our congregations focuses on the needs of those who found UU as a refuge from other faiths. But a sad result is that those raised UU find church uninviting when they become young adults.
Jacob Larsen, a young adult UU from Toronto, says, "Young people - my friends and your children - are leaving because they have no choice. We are largely a religion of converts, and we must learn to recognize and enter into relation with the other. And in our religion the other are those of us who grew up UUs." Larsen recalls being approached by a youth who had just come of age, who asked Larsen, "Does this mean I'm done with church?" The solution, says Larsen, is "to do church a little differently, to make a spiritual home for young people."
Youth and Young Adult Ministry Sunday is intended to be intergenerational, says Miller. "This isn't a youth Sunday. This is intended to engage all members of the congregation and to involve all ages."
Reannon Peterson, a young adult from Madison, Wisconsin, points out that there is a large demand for a meaningful spiritual home among young adults, both life-long UUs and young adults who happen upon UU. Peterson hadn't heard of Unitarian Universalism two years ago, but discovered the movement through its social justice work. Peterson has since become a leader in a growing young adult group in Madison that has grown from barely a dozen members two years ago to more than 70 active members and a mailing list of 200.
Miller says that raising awareness is important, but it's not the end of the process. As part of the capital campaign, the project is intended to fund systematic programming that can be sustainable over time. "We're looking to raise an average of $50 from each member of each congregation."
In August each congregation will receive a detailed packet of information and resources that they can use to plan their Youth and Young Adult Ministry Sunday.
Additional information on Youth and Young Adult Ministry Sunday may be found at www.uua.org/Sunday2002.
Reporter Helio Fred Garcia; Web Designer Anna Belle Leiserson
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