Ok -- so, out of our meeting, one thing we pointed out about the young adult ministry is that its members are at the beginning of an unstructured life. They no longer structure their lives according to an academic calendar. This creates a strange effect on YA ministries: they don't have an official ending point. What I have seen is this: people join a small group and, like a waterfall, the years fly-by, as if without milestones or markers. Sometimes, this makes it difficult for people to leave the group. Often, when they do leave, the group lacks a sense of closure.
I thought, hell, here are some ideas:
(a) create a group that has regular re-evaluative milestones: give people a chance to leave. Or give the entire fellowship the chance to dissolve. This might be healthy. Dragging a good idea out leads to service in the name of tradition.
(b) and in the same vein: have official appreciation/send-offs once a year. After a member has been in the group for 2 years, celebrate what they have been to the group with an appreciation/send-off and they can decide to leave or not. Maybe this will give people the chance to leave.
(c) also, hand off the torch. Transition the leadership on a regular basis. This is probably healthy anyways for other reasons.
So that's my pitch for now. A fellowship that always says hello and good-bye, so that no one sneaks out with regrets... *shrug*
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3 comments:
(a) Don't really like the idea of essentially asking people to leave ... but I get what you mean. I think it's good to periodically evaluate where the group is at, even if it means dissolving (but it doesn't have to). I've seen it happen before, with my parents home fellowship, where they basically had to decide whether or not to continue the fellowship. It helps to refocus the group and also to get others to step up to take ownership of the group.
(b) I think we're over-concerning ourselves with this. It's not something that we really need to worry to much about, considering everything else that needs our attention.
(c) of course ... wouldn't want to have the leadership be like 40 years old, leading a group that's in their 20's.
(c) is one reason the JEMS Young Adult retreat had a several year break
Maybe we're already too old to lead this group... BJ I want you in!
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