Young adult responses

After church this past Sunday, one of our GPS members, Anne, met with Second members in the 20s and 30s age group and asked them some of our questions.

Here's what they had to say in response to the question of what Second is best at:

* Being a community. Everyone is accepted. Paul provides a great atmosphere that everyone can relate to. Tera and Paul make everyone feel involved.

* Welcoming new/potential members to the congregation. Second relates well to a young crowd.

* Accepting people

* Getting groups together to share similar interests. Getting involved.

* Second is best at making people who have already accepted Christ feel comfortable and included.

* Fellowship

* Meeting new people, events.

In response to the question of what Second needs to to or transform to survive and thrive, they said:

 

* Needs to make sure new members become involved right away. Needs to make sure we talk about our faith.

* Reach out to younger groups through social media tools.

* Get the younger generation involved.

* Bring more contemporary aspects into the church.

In response to the question of what potential roadblocks might keep Second from getting where we want to go, they said:

* Making us understand that this is more than just church. Members need to be involved in more than just one thing. Need to work on building costs.

* The economy and the difficulty of different schedules within the group.

* Tradition. Tradition is a great but a lot of younger students would like a contemporary worship service.

* Making non-members get baptized before joining. Why not allow them to join and learn more about the baptism process?

* Not enough youth attending.

In response to the question of what's the one thing you wish Second were doing that it's not doing or could do better, they said:

* Grabbing new members once they join and making sure they are involved. Challenge the young 20s and 30s people  to be more active and to contribute to the church in talent and skill.

* More opportunities to travel abroad

* The church needs a church-wide phone book with pictures to get to know everyone’s faces.

* More contemporary music or a contemporary worship service.

* More activities for holidays such as Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving. 

In response to the question of how we can find and develop resources to achieve our dreams, they said:

* Tap members for skills through mailers/emails. Make members feel involved in the process.

* Reach the college campus.

* Look to social media in order to reach out to other groups.

In response to the question of how we balance the risk of moving to aggressively with change against the risk of not moving quickly or far enough, they said:

* Get those who embrace change to move at first and then show those who resist that it can be done by implementation.

* Keep conversation channels open and constantly ask for suggestions.

* Simply move at a slow and steady pace so that people do not get overwhelmed.

* Take the risk and move aggressively - wait for the response and act accordingly. Know that some make not like it but change is necessary in most cases. 

Finally, in response to the question of how much weight we give to potential alienation of members who may feel that progress is not what they're after, they said:

* This should have great weight. What kind of progress is such that it doesn’t include our current members?

* Create a group for them to communicate with one another.

* Not too much weight since we have to progress to survive, evolve, adapt, grow.