Evangelism, Justice, and Emerging Generations

Jeffrey Arnett advocates that emerging adults experience a prolonged period of exploration and instability in five areas: identity, instability in love and work, self-focus, feeling in-between, and possibilities/optimism.[1]

Christian Smith, in his study of emerging adults, describes the exceedingly individualistic approach to morality as “… not to judge anyone else on moral matters, since they are entitled to their own opinions, and not to let oneself be judged by anyone else.”[2] Smith’s comment raises the thought amongst emerging adults: “Do emerging adults want an individualistic morality as a unique individual? Or do they desire to see their identity within a safe community?”

To first address this thought, we must ask the right questions. Here are a few ideas to consider:

1. What are the potential benefits and detriments of religiousness and spirituality within emerging adults? Notably, both the challenges they encounter while defining identity and the opportunities to discover their identity should be nurtured together to create a flourishing environment.

2. Can a person’s uniqueness and sense of self be ascribed by others? An argument can be made that being a unique person in a community that either approves or disapproves of said identity is one form to be endorsed. Psychiatrist Roberta Gilbert describes the essential self as the individual who “is guided by well-thought-through principles…pseudoself is an individual who takes on self from another person.”[3]

3. Can a nexus be drawn between purpose and identity? Kendall Cotton Bronk and Rachel Baumsteiger provide the consensus definition of purpose as “a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once personally meaningful and at the same time leads to productive engagement in the world beyond the self.”[4]

Researchers Carolyn McNamara Barry and Mona M. Abo-Zena provide insight as to the religious, spiritual worldview of emerging adults. According to Barry and Abo-Zena, the “vast majority of emerging adults, the task to self-author their identities, worldviews, and communities leave them less tethered to tradition and more individually focused than at any other time in development”[5]. Therefore, the tendency for emerging adults to experience firsthand a religious environment entails an incarnational approach by the mentor. For emerging adults, religiousness is about finding oneself within a community.

A benefit of religiousness and spirituality for emerging adults is the “unique intergenerational environment in which they are not age-stratified with peers”[6] (as is typical in college); instead, they are in the company of a varied age range of persons. The purpose of finding self within a community provides emerging adults with exposure to a vast world of hindsight, which is needed when attempting to make the best decision in life. The fact that a community of different age ranges helps emerging adults promote health and wellbeing in their spiritual life as they glean from the older generation of believers.

Another impactful significant insight from Barry and Abo-Zena’s compilations of research is that “while active religious participation declines during emerging adulthood, religious and spiritual beliefs continue to be important.”[7] Mid-adolescence is a key phase for biblical teachings: they will hopefully be a foundation for the emerging adult phase. Although, Barry and Abo-Zena mentioned that “actual attendance in religious groups does not always correspond with the significance that emerging adults claim that religious or spiritual beliefs have in their lives.”[8]

One of the most central concepts in the process of evangelism and justice is the idea of “being seen” in the life of adolescents. A good mentor will not stop walking through the journey of life with the emerging adult simply because the emerging adult enters into a new life phase.

The importance of continual emotional and spiritual guide is just as valuable in emerging adults’ lives as it is in mid-adolescents. Consistency, dedication, and commitment are the tenets by which youth workers adhere to in the lives of adolescents.

It is vital to have individuals help emerging adults process the spirituality they experienced as adolescents in contrast with the life experiences of emerging adulthood and allow them to make sense of it all. Being present and visible are the first steps in making an impact in the lives of emerging adults. Are adults willing to be patient and committed to the lengthy process it takes to gain emerging adults’ trust to speak into their lives?

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[1] Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties, 2nd Edition. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014), 2–9.

[2] Christian Smith et al., Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 4.

[3] Roberta M. Gilbert, Extraordinary Leadership: Thinking Systems, Making a Difference (Falls Church, VA: Leading Systems Press, 2006), 72.

[4] Laura M. Padilla-Walker and Larry J. Nelson, eds., Flourishing in Emerging Adulthood: Positive Development During the Third Decade of Life, 1st Edition. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2017), 46.

[5] Carolyn McNamara Barry and Mona M. Abo-Zena, eds., Emerging Adults’ Religiousness and Spirituality: Meaning-Making in an Age of Transition, Emerging Adulthood (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014), 41.

[6] Ibid., 42.

[7] Ibid., 134.

[8] Ibid., 135.