National Youth Young Adults Ministry

 

Tribal Church

TRIBAL CHURCH: MINISTERING TO THE MISSION GENERATIONS by Carol Merritt

(review by Louise Johnson, http://missionresourcing.blogspot.com)

I'm halfway through a borrowed book: and I can't put it down. It's the most hopeful writing about church I've read for ages. Written by a thirty-something year old woman, a pastor, whose point is that many younger adults are looking for spiritual community in small to medium traditional churches. Not just any churches but churches who have developed a capacity for understanding and reaching out to the nomadic culture of young adults.

'When a young person walks into a church, it's a significant moment, because no-one expects her to go and nothing pressures her to attend; instead, she enters the church looking for something. She searches for connection in her displacement: connection with God through spiritual practices, connection with her neighbours through an inter-generational community, and connection with the world through social justice outreach'.

Churches can make an effort to understand the contexts of young adults, particularly the isolation caused by generational divisions and economic instability, and intentionally make a welcoming place for them. For a start, something as obvious yet often overlooked or misunderstood, young adults want the same care as older adults. to be followed up when they are absent, invited home for meals, given rides to doctor's appointments when they are ill or picked up from the airport when they have been on holiday.

Tribes, says Merritt, tend the basic needs of one another and the tribal church pays attention to everyone's well being. They also treat people as individuals and not as categories or age groups. Merritt says that young adults don't want to be a target audience or labelled as 'Generation X'. Instead, many adults in their 30's are looking for spiritual depth, affirming traditions, liturgical forms of worship, welcoming spaces, shared leadership and 'unambiguous inclusion'.

Citing philosopher Hannah Arendt, Merritt draws the reader's attention to a very significant tension that occurs between generations: if you consider life span in a linear fashion then people at the beginning tend to look forward while those at the end of the line tend to look backwards. Merritt says that while there are many exceptions to this, younger people tend to be planners, older people, historians. The danger for churches whose leadership is mostly made up of older people is that they may become trapped in a pattern where it is the past that is desired.

I highly recommend this book to all who seek to foster vibrant church communities. It makes sense - name some of the 'elephants in the room' but offer strategies to help make our churches places where the 'missing generations' can once again feel welcomed, valued and included.

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