A few months ago, I approached one of the pastors at my church about meeting to discuss a personal matter. We had met many times before over lunch and coffee to talk about men’s ministry, which he helps to oversee, but since this was a personal issue, I suggested we meet at the church office.
When I arrived at the office, he escorted me upstairs and into a conference room, which I had never been in.
I made a remark about how I liked the glass plates on the wall that functioned as dry erase boards and even the conference table had the same glass plates with notes and ideas from a previous meeting scrawled on its surface.
In response, my pastor shared how, just prior to our meeting, he had been in that conference room brainstorming with a Young Adult about men’s discipleship within the Young Adult ministry.
My antenna immediately perked up. Did he say “Young Adult ministry?”
If you’ve followed our ministry with Young Adults for the past 10 years, you probably know about the challenges we’ve experienced in ministering to this audience.
Young Adults are the largest population group in America, and yet, they are the least churched. There are a number of reasons why Young Adults are not active in church, some of which I’ve outlined in previous blog posts. To learn more, check out some of our prior newsletters and blog posts:
Young Adults are leaving the church in droves and most churches simply do not minister well to this demographic.
For the past several years, I’ve talked to a number of pastors at our church, wondering where the Young adults are at and whether Saddleback church has a ministry dedicated to this specific audience.
The response was always the same. The pastor was unaware of any specific Young Adult ministry, but maybe if I talked to “so-and-so”, they might know.
I learned more than I wanted to about the history of Young Adult ministry at Saddleback – how it had once been a thriving ministry but was not currently active.
So when my pastor friend casually mentioned that he had just had a meeting with a Young adult about the Young adult ministry, I was naturally curious.
Before diving into the issue which I wanted to discuss, I asked him some questions about the meeting he had. He knows that I work with Cru and that our ministry focus is Young Adults so I asked him if he would connect me with the young man with whom he had just met.
He agreed to reach out to the person and see if they would be willing to connect with me. He sent a quick text before we moved on to talking about my personal issue.
When our time was ending, he noticed that the Young adult had already texted him back and said that he would definitely be interested in meeting. So I got his contact information and I sent him an email later that afternoon.
A few days later, Logan got back with me and we arranged to meet up for breakfast.
When we met, I asked Logan a few questions to get to know him better. I learned that he grew up really close to me and he had recently graduated from Cal Baptist University.
I was curious where Logan went to high school. It turns out, he went to the same high school as our boys.
I asked him what year he graduated and I learned that he graduated the same year my boys graduated.
I told him I had twin boys who went to his high school and I wondered if he knew them.
That’s when the light bulb went off.
He said, “Wait! Your last name is Lowe? I know your boys. We were in the same Life group together in high school. I didn’t make that connection when you reached out to me.”
Logan is on staff with Saddleback, serving at the Brea campus. But he also helps to lead the fledgling Young Adult ministry that started up last year.
As I shared with Logan our vision for Young Adults and the resources we provide, particularly in helping Young Adults grow and mature in their leadership and their ability to become multiplying disciples, I could see his eyes light up.
I’m constantly amazed at how God works to orchestrate opportunities and open doors. In all the times I initiated with various pastors at our church to inquire about Young Adult ministry, it went nowhere. Then when I initiated to talk about something completely unrelated to Young adult ministry, the door suddenly and unexpectedly opened to connect with a key Young adult leader.
I’m not sure where this might lead but we’re excited about the potential of mentoring and coaching these young leaders who are working to create a community where Young Adults can thrive spiritually and live with purpose.
Our vision is not just to coach and mentor Young Adults, but to coach and mentor others, whether Young Adults or older adults, who can help to lead and mentor Young adults in church communities everywhere.
The Lowedown 