Y ou might assume that all of this would have made it easier to write the sermon I'll preach this Easter morning. Instead, the widening gulf in my parishioners' approaches to religion makes reaching them harder than ever. But those words mean little to many of their fellow pew sitters - particularly teenagers and young adults. A good part of our staggering membership losses since the 1960s can be attributed to our failure to keep our children in church and attract other young people. And I think that may be because we're going about trying to attract them in the wrong way.
Young people like to be where the action is.
J ust look at the widespread popularity of summer youth mission projects. Teenagers spend a week in the summer building houses in Mexico, working with children in West Virginia or cleaning up flood damage in North Carolina - focusing more on Christian action than on Christian doctrine. My congregation's youth group, along with two neighboring groups, will be going to eastern North Carolina in July to assist with the recovery from Hurricane Floyd, and enthusiasm is very high. T his may be a key to the renewal of graying congregations and a benefit to a larger society that is looking for committed people to pick up some of the social service work once provided by government. T hey still are.