A. ALLAN MARTIN

All you need to have an effective young adult ministry is an identification card, an extension cord, and silly putty.

OK, I will admit it, there are times that I am very guilty of coveting. When I go to a concert I confess to envying those who have an “all access pass.” I have this fantasy about being in the middle of all the action instead of being in the audience. Even if it was something as relatively unimportant as stocking the artists with bottled water or carrying away mike stands, I would still relish being identified with the performers. To be able to flash my ID pass and have security let me through with a hint of familiarity—to kid around with the stars, to have a part in the performance—OK, so it’s wishful thinking.

But in my view, it’s not a dream. Christ has given young adults an identity. No, it isn’t a badge or a little plastic sleeve on a string. It is something internal (Eph. 3:16), something metaphysical that gives us supernatural abilities to believe (Eph. 3:17), to love (Eph. 4:1-3), and to dream (Acts 2:17, 18).

In this world it’s no small task to believe. With all the broken promises, fallen role models, and superficial frauds/clones, it’s no wonder our generation is skeptical. But I believe that Jesus has empowered Christian young adults to exhibit faith, and faith really sticks out in our world. A belief in the midst of unbelief is powerful. I feel God has called young adults to be true believers. Beyond knowledge, our belief is based on something far more existential, more at the core of us. So instead of looking at a badge for our identity, people can look into our eyes.

And in our eyes they will see love. Love that we don’t even understand. All right, so it sounds a little goofy, but authentic love is scarce these days. Sure, there’s lots of utilitarian love and sexual love and hedonistic love. But you’ll be hard pressed to find Christlike love among our peers. Christ has, however, given us an identity that is characterized by an ability to love. To love the unlovely. To love the enemy. To love the lonely. To love ourselves. It is a love that is both noun and verb. Young adults whose eyes exude love have hearts that act on it. People are drawn not only to our eyes but also to our actions.

In our actions we can reveal our dreams. I am convinced that Acts 2:17, 18 is talking about us. Christ has called our generation to dream the dreams and envision the visions that will bring about His return. Not only prophetic dreams; Christ is using our creative dreams, our holy ambitions, and our powerful visions to transform our world. A revolution is happening. Not like a political campaign, this movement is spiritual, and I get the keenest sense of this when I chat with young adults. God is molding our dreams, and I am taken back by how powerful and parallel these visions are. In local, regional, national, and global ways Jesus is using young adult dreams and visions to change our world and bring about the next.

I believe that young adult ministry is like an extension cord. Christ is the power that surges through us; every bit of our wiring is filled with His Spirit. Our ministry is to be a conduit by which others are empowered by His love. Paul says that Christians (I take that to mean all believers, not just pastor types) are new creatures who are given the ministry of reconciliation

(2 Cor. 5:17-19). So to translate liberally, in the same way Christ plugged in to God and served as our extension cord to God Paul is saying we are extension cord ministers, connecting others to Christ. This is key. God is not opting to do this thing called ministry without us. He is doing it “through” us. And to me that makes lots of sense.

As good as some of our churches are, I feel very few young adults will step into a church without someone they know and trust going with them. As eloquent as some of our preachers are, I feel very few in our generation respond to a talking head as well as they relate to a personal relationship with you or me. As sound as our doctrines are, I feel very few of my seeking friends and associates are convinced about Adventist Christianity unless they see what my beliefs are doing to make my life attractively different. God’s approach makes a lot of sense. In the same way He used Christ to connect with you and me, He is calling us to connect with our peers, allowing His powerful love to surge through us.

So young adult ministry as I see it is based on the power of relationship. Creating relationships of integrity not only with believers but also with seekers is something that young adults do every day. It’s reality. The other reality is that sometimes Christian young adults opt to disconnect from the Power Source during the workweek so as not to be spiritually “live” in their secular circles. But my sense is that our ministry is based on the idea of empowering ourselves to be who we have been called to be—extension cords. To be connected 24/7. I, like my peers, am drawn to people and places where I feel connected, where I feel safe to be vulnerable, where I can sense there is a power bigger than myself. That was what was so magnetic about Jesus Christ. And Christ is what is so attractive in Christian young adults and the communities we create.

I like to think of the Christian community created by young adult ministers (that’s you and me) as being made of Silly Putty. Some may have thought of the church at one time being like a wooden Peg-Board that only certain-shaped pegs had rigid slots to fill. Only square-shaped pegs could fit in, only certain forms of ministry, only certain types of roles.

Not our church. Ours is one in which each believer is able to take their unique shape, stick themselves into our Silly Putty church, and find a perfect fit. Our Christian community is able to lift even those with comic-strip-like gifts right off the page and into our church. Silly Putty can do that. Paul talks about a variety of spiritual gifts, ministries, effects, but the same Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4-7). In my mind, the Holy Spirit is the Silly Putty of our church that, even with the diversity of our gifts, is the unifying common denominator that embraces us all.

So we embrace our diversity and welcome every form and shape of spiritual ability. Why?  Because we need it. Paul’s metaphor of the body is so on target (1 Cor. 12:14-27). Who wants a body of all noses?

But further, we embrace each other because, like a body, we need each other. The living out of our Christianity is not an act of isolation; it is an act of communion, an act of relationship, an act of interdependence. It is community. Young adult ministry, in my view, is the admission on our part that we need each other and are willing by His Spirit to be the church. Our worship happens not only between the opening and closing hymn, but in the midst of our lives. In our fragmented and divorced world I want to be part of a Silly Putty community that sticks together. I want to be where I fit in. I want to be where I am needed. I want to be where I can relate. I want to be lifted right off the page. Silly Putty can do that.

MacGyver View of Young Adult Ministry
I never watched faithfully, but in the midst of my channel surfing I was always amused by the show MacGyver. In a space of little less than an hour he could foil any criminal plot by rigging up a piece of chewing gum, a staple, and three Mentos. Between commercials it was fun to see him take what he had in hand and put it to use to save the day.

OK. So you have an ID card, an extension cord, and Silly Putty. What are you going to do with them? That’s the synergy question of young adult ministry. This spiritual revolution is not about some big religious program or some great event. It is not about a dramatic change in some organized religious institution or the election of some visionary young adult to regional office. It is about you and me deciding to take what God has given us—an identity, a mission/ministry, and each other—and live it out 24 hours, seven days.

I am convinced that your role in young adult ministry is vital and just as important as anyone else’s (1 Cor. 12:22-25). You know your own struggles to love yourself as Christ loves you. You know someone who doesn’t know Christ who may see Him only through your eyes. You know a Christian sibling who is hurting and needs your support. And if I were a gambling man, I would be willing to bet that no pastor, no church program, no religious tract can address these issues better than you. So I would consider you indispensable to young adult ministry in this regard. God gives you the power; Christ gives you the call; the Holy Spirit gives you the support. Card, cord, and putty?  Go ahead. Save the day.

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A. Allan Martin is cofounder of dre.am VISION ministries, a parachurch agency dedicated to empowering and nurturing young people in Christian lifestyle and leadership. Visit dVm’s Web site, http://www.tagnet.org/dvm.

Recommended Reading:
1. T. Hershey, Young Adult Ministry (Loveland, Colo.: Group Books, 1986).
2. H. R. Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (New York: Harper and Row, 1951).
3. M. Senter, The Coming Revolution in Youth Ministry: And Its Radical Impact on the Church (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992).