Wuthnow, After Boomers Reflection

September 15, 2008

Thinking About Young Adults in Congregations, Help from Robert Wuthnow

Recently, I had the opportunity to read Robert Wuthnow, After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty-Somethings and Thirty-Somethings are Shaping the Future of American Religion. (Princeton: University Press, 2007). Wuthnow hesitates to use some of the labels applied recently to Americans between 21 and 45 (and specifically in the years between 1998 and 2002) because he does not locate a defining moment or issue for them equivalent to those defining “Boomers.” Rather he prefers simply “Young Adults.”

Wuthnow reminds us of what those of us with family in that age range know all too well- the tendency of many to to “Come of Age” at about 40 years old, as distinguished from coming of age at about 21 previously. He likewise laments that almost all the “caretaker institutions” that assist families in bringing children to adulthood cease their work generally when the person is just beginning life as a “Young Adult.” Congregations that are youth-friendly give many young adults important bonds and guidance, but most congregations are not youth-friendly. Vice versa, most young adults are not congregation-friendly.

Young adults he finds to be “tinkerers.” “A tinkerer puts together a life from whatever skills, ideas, and resources that are readily at hand.”(13) I remember “tinkerers” best among the missionaries and indigenous Christian leaders who served in Congo when Carolyn and I were there in the 1960s. They could make a car work with just about any tools available, make a school “work” with whomever could be made into a teacher, and made churches “work” without any of the so-called resources we expect in congregations in the US. Actually, the work of the Holy Spirit was particularly apparent in missionary ministries and those of indigenous Christian leaders. Well, the newer young adults make do as well, mostly in a positive sense, with the ideas and possibilities they confront in an uncertain world.

Wuthnow explores the changing world of young adults-how they delay marriage, have fewer children, cobble careers with multiple jobs, enjoy a higher percent of highly educated, live in looser relationships, are more “globalized,” and filter an overload of information. They attend church less regularly, especially mainline Protestants. Of course, he states that in previous generations, that cohort was not the most churches either. But the diminution is real compared with previous times. All the factors named affect the culture to inhibit joining churches.

Excellent sections on spiritual practices, marriage and family, and culture would help anyone seeking to create a more friendly and receptive church for young adults. He also delves nicely into “hot-button issues” and emerging trends.

The final chapters deal with the virtual church and vital congregations-required reading for those seeking to address in congregations the issues of young adult and provide heuristic communities of faith. Particularly insightful in my opinion were the admonitions to involve young adults in mission trips and other international opportunities.

This is not a “mainline Protestant gloom and doom book.” It says that the question is not whether congregations will exist, but rather what kinds of congregations will there be in the future.

Posted in Uncategorized