The Lost Sheep Bringing Our Young Adults Back To Church?

It seems many churches are having issues keeping the 18 to 23 year old population participating in weekly Mass. It also seems that once they leave the Church, it is harder to bring them back. So what is the Church supposed to do?

It is interesting that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops lists various challenges with this age group. The most interesting item on the list is the young adults find the Catholic Church to be a "threatening environment". This is concerning. I can see how some churches are more welcoming to the flocks of people that come through its doors than other churches. Yet, no one wants to address the issues that are truly causing our young people to leave their faith. The major reason is not one single parish truly knows the reasons why they have young people leaving the Church. The parishes would need the manpower to do a survey with the young people to see how they could bring them back to the Church. Of course, most parishes do not have that manpower.

While visiting a parish in the Mid-Atlantic region, I was amazed to find that they have a mentorship program with their young adults in the youth group program and their young adults in the 20 to 35 year old range. I found it interesting to see that the two groups meet together monthly to pray and have Mass together. It was interesting to hear from the young adults that the program was based off the Big Brother Big Sister Program for disadvantaged children. It is a program that the four priests stationed at the parish have to take an active role in.

The young adults were seen as the lost sheep who needed to be brought back to the main flock. Each flock of lost sheep had to give their reasons for leaving the Catholic Church and what they needed from the Church. Some of reasons were not going to be met by the parish, but the priests knew of other parishes in the area that offered the programs the young adults wanted. The young adults had to be in the concept of mind that no Catholic Church was going to be perfect, but that each had its strengths and weaknesses. Once the young adults started to find that the Church was not a threatening environment and that the priests were humans just like them, the program really started to grow.

Their program has close to one hundred young adults involved every year. Not only does the program allow the young adults to take an active role in the community, it also allows for the community to continue to grow. We need to work together to have people come together. Jesus would rather see us practicing our faith, than being cranky about where the young people are going for Mass.

It is all about where you are going to be inspired to plant the seed of faith. If the seed is going to be planted by the parish three miles down, then why can't we go to that parish? If the seed is planted by a certain priest, then why can't that priest be the beacon of hope to other young adults? Why not allow young adults to have a more active role in the parish community? As Catholics we need to come up with ways to create a non-threatening environment. I have seen some Catholic Churches where there was a threatening environment and no matter how much I smiled and tried to be happy, I felt uncomfortable.

As Catholics we need to make the environment of the Catholic Church more non-threatening, and we need to be more welcoming to the lost sheep. When we do those things, than maybe the young people will come to Mass more often. Maybe the young people will find that the Catholic Church is just the safe haven that they needed to come home to, and the flock will all be accounted for.