So I was talking with a friend the other day, and he asked me what I was working on. “Oh, I am just writing a blog on young adult ministry,” I replied. “That’s kind of cool,” my friend mused, “Who is that for?” I looked up from my computer and told him that I was writing a few blog posts for the General Church because they just started a new blog for young adult ministry for the whole church. “Oh, that’s cool,” he said with a tinge of hesitation, “So what’s the blog supposed to do? I mean, why did they want to do a blog?”

Wow. That definitely caught my attention and stopped me in my tracks. We now have a blog about young adult ministry for the Church of the Nazarene. But… why?

Not that we should not have one, but I think it is valuable to review why we are doing this. I mean, why do we have a young adult ministry blog? Why am I writing this? Why are you reading this? Basically – why are we doing this?

No doubt there is more than one reason to do a young adult ministry blog, so perhaps focusing on just one aspect of this situation will help guide our conversation a little better. Question: What do we hope is the outcome of this young adult ministry blog?

Outcomes dictate actions; the outcome is the thing that you hope to see at the end of whatever it is you are doing. So because of this young adult ministry blog, we hope that what will happen? Again, why are we doing this?

I would like to submit that the outcome of this blog and one of the overall purposes of this blog is simply this: Show that the Church of the Nazarene loves her young adults and believes that they are important. This is a great place to start for this blog, and it is something that we can build upon. Will these blog posts encourage and exhort people? Sure. Will they offer great perspective and insight? Definitely. Will they be a steady voice and a constant companion on this journey of young adult ministry? Without a doubt. But at the very heart of this young adult blog is this simple message: The Church of the Nazarene loves her young adults and believes that they are important. This blog is just one way that the Church can show this love.

Actually, the Church is providing a great example of young adult ministry through this blog. Let’s take this from a global level and bring it home to our local churches. Think about it: What is your church doing to show your young adults that you love them? What is your church doing to show your young adults that they are important?

Every single local church should take the time to answer these two questions honestly, objectively, and with feedback from actual young adults. If you are new to young adult ministry and your church is just digging in– this is an excellent place to start. Even if you are a veteran of young adult ministry and your church already has tons of stuff – this is an excellent point of evaluation.

Hopefully if nothing else this blog can show that the Church of the Nazarene loves her young adults and believes they are important.

And hopefully you can begin to think about what your local church does to love young adults and show that they are important.

…because loving young adults and believing that they are important is a great place to start.