2019 YARN REPORT

Renewing Young Adult Ministry.

A passionate team of pastors, leaders and volunteers worked together to create a powerful experience where dozens of young adults and their leaders came together to reaffirm the best practices that need to be shared and expanded across Young Adult ministries if we are going to see renewal come to this Ministry area. This report provides a summary of this YARN conference, Renew 2019, with links to further information. Get excited about Young Adults and their importance to your church

Data compiled by Jervis Djokoto

Edited by Deb Stratas

Two out of three Canadian young adults have stopped attending Church

They now identify as; “spiritual but not religious,” “no religion,” “atheist,” or “agnostic.”

Combatting a Faith Crises Amongst Young adults in North America.

Young Adult Ministry in North America is in crisis. Only 20% of children who attended Catholic/ Protestant churches in the 1980’s/90’s still go to church today! Research now shows that most drop their religious affiliation in their Young Adult years. Pastors and leaders working with Young Adults sometimes look around the room at YA meetings with feelings of dismay and perhaps even helplessness as the cultural ethos that YA’s face today is unprecedented.

How do we drive attendance and genuine engagement with this key audience, whilst also enabling them to deepen their relationship with God and each other? What do we need to do differently to capture their hearts and commitment? How can we learn from each other what works so we can leverage best practices across borders in the GTA/Ontario – geographical, evangelical and cultural? These were the questions that brewed beneath the surface as we sought to gather in May. In consultation with many Pastors and Leaders across the GTA/Ontario, the concept of the YARN Conference was born – to create a gathering place for young adults, leaders and pastors to network, share stories of renewal and invite Jesus to be the centre of Young Adult Ministry in Canada.

The YARN CONFERENCE 2019

This effort was fuelled by a common desire to create a refreshing gathering space for Young Adults and Pastors to explore spiritual renewal in their contexts. Over a number of months, a team of volunteers cheerfully donated their time, ideas and energy to create a powerful experience combining networking, art, music and prayer. Eight Team Leaders with their team members coordinated and ultimately delivered the 1.5-day program on May 3-4, 2019 and we are grateful for their efforts.

Friday night was our Young Adult leader’s session. Besides discussing the alarming stats of Young Adult faith decline in Canada, attendees were able to engage in discussions around tables on – what is working in YA ministry across our churches, how is God moving? How can we enhance that? Divided by geography, this could be possible.

Amidst lots of music, spoken-word poetry and live painting, the morning session of Saturday focused on the Centrality of Christ in bringing renewal to His Church. The final afternoon session was dedicated to challenging young adults to be outward-facing, always embracing the other and engaging in mission.