11 June 2008
the gathering…featured in the news sentinel
Posted by Erik under: Uncategorized .
Lisa Qualman, 24, returns the volleyball during a casual game organized by Fellowship Church’s The Gathering, a group for young adults. The game is held weekly at Greenbrier Ridge Apartments.
Church Ministries respond to Young Adults’ need for community, support after College
By Joy Fethe, jfethe@gmail.com
Knoxville News Sentinel
Saturday, June 7, 2008
When she got out of college, Lesley Swann found herself blindsided by the difficulty of the change.
The worst part of the transition, she says, was the feeling of being cut off from the social network she had before. From living with hundreds of friends in a dorm and always having someone to call when she wanted to hang out, she went to being almost alone in a workplace where most people were much older than she.
Adding to this was the difficulty of finding a church with people her age. Though she lived in Anderson County, she ended up driving to Knoxville each week to attend a church that did have a group for her age.
Though she’s now past this transition, Swann wanted to minister to people who were going through the same struggle that she did. She is beginning a ministry at First Baptist Church in Clinton for people in their 20s. Open to people from all churches in the area, it will help, she hopes, to fill the community gap many of them are experiencing right now.
While the Quarterlife Ministry may be the first of its kind in Anderson County, many Knoxville churches are also paying closer attention to this demographic. Traditionally, many churches have offered singles groups that serve recent college graduates along with people in their 40s or 50s, some of whom may have children or be divorced. But those types of groups may not appeal to the younger participants, who are looking primarily for support from their peers.
John Shim, who attends The Gathering at Fellowship Evangelical Free Church, said the fact the group is composed of people in his age group was “really important” to its appeal.
“It definitely gave you a sense that people understood what you were going through, being out of college, getting adjusted to the corporate world,” he says.
Sara Brown, who participates in the ministry and helped start it about a year and a half ago, says some people have been drawn to Fellowship solely because of the group. “We needed something for our ages, not college and not 35 or older,” she says. As part of the college group, she found herself increasingly in a mentoring role and wanted to find people who would help her grow spiritually as well.
Also, people in their 20s have different needs than those older or younger. For recent graduates, things like paying bills, paying off loans, and a host of other adult responsibilities may seem overwhelming at first. Brown says The Gathering has offered classes on finance, support that may ease the transition for twentysomethings who, she says, may be a little afraid of growing up.
“I think deep down we’re all really scared to be older, because that means you’re an adult, and that means you’re on your own,” she said. Beyond spiritual training and life support, most ministries have a wide range of social activities planned as well. The list of upcoming summer events for different young singles ministries across Knoxville is long and varied: cookouts, hikes, dinners, and volleyball are only a handful of the kinds of things these ministries are finding to do.
Not all groups for twentysomethings are for singles only. Cedar Springs Presbyterian offers a group for both single and married twentysomethings. Leader Steve Moldrup says they chose not to separate the two demographics because he didn’t want a singles class to become a “stigmatized kind of Christian meat-market,” and because many of the younger single and married church members were friends. This group meets weekly for dinner and fellowship at Moldrup’s house.
A house meeting also fulfills part of what many singles are looking for: a home away from home. One of the main draws for young churchgoers across the board is the relationships that may be formed in small group ministries. Brown says many twentysomethings she knows are in the stage where they’re looking for “lifelong friends.”
“This has become, for us, our family,” she said.