Previously, I blogged about Liquid: Live at Five, a curriculum that really connected with the young adults that I serve. Overall, Liquid is great curriculum–well written and practical. While I found Live at Five great for young adults, the second one that I tried, Liquid: Fork in the Road is a good curriculum, but not for young adults. The video and questions seem better suited for an older crowd, such as adults with kids in their late teens. I’d still recommend the curriculum; but I would recommend it for an older age group–not young adults. Tomorrow we’ll begin Liquid: Mirror Image. From the video and participant guide, I expect that it will really connect with the young adults.

I just got back from coffee with a few friends (20-somethings) to talk about plans for the young adults on Sunday nights. Although several of us currently go to the evening service at our church, we’re looking at doing a small group(s) in order to connect with more young adults.

We have a few small groups for our young adult ministry that meet regularly, but we could definitely use more. One thing I am certain of, especially after The Interview Project, is the need for small groups in young adult ministry. The churches we interviewed may do groups differently, but ALL of them do small groups. To effectively reach and teach young adults, groups are essential. To get some young adults connected in small groups, I’ve been asking young adults who don’t normally go weekly:

• Why don’t you go to night church? Do you like the current way (Worship, Brief Sermon and Small Groups) we do it?
• Our values in the young adult ministry are Connect, Grow, Serve and Share–what do you do to live these values on a regular basis?
• Would you go to a small group if we offered more groups?
• If you were to go to a small group for one or more of these, when would you be most likely to go? Nights? Mornings? During the day?

Most people enjoy the current format of our evening worship experience, but don’t come because they are busy, busy, busy–which is no surprise considering that Americans are VERY busy (TOO BUSY!). And in this case, a lot of them take classes, work long hours, etc. Almost everyone seems open to, and even excited about, small groups. I’m excited about some of the new ones forming now! The big question is whether everyone will actually come when the new groups start.

Tonight Mike & I drove up to Red Lion Christian Academy for a seminar on Growing Up Christian by Karl Graustein.

For those of us who came to faith in Christ as adults, some of the quirks of growing up in the Christian subculture are alien to us. The experience of those inside the “bubble” is vastly different than my own. Working with people who have grown up knowing what it meant to be “saved” has been interesting. So many teens and young adults have the blessing and privilege of growing up in a church that informs them, but often fails to lead them to Christ in a way that transforms them. Karl Graustein describes 4 dangers, but I’ll just talk about three:

1. False Assurance
We need to question our Salvation. If our actions, motives, words and thoughts do not reveal that our thoughts have been transformed, we need to ask ourselves if we are really committed to Christ–or just playing the game. Has our life been changed by the good news of Jesus Christ? Or are we just meeting others expectations?

2. Lack of Amazement at the Grace of God
Nothing is so amazing as the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God. But, when we’ve heard about it more times than we can count, it’s easy to take it for granted.

3. Attraction to the World
There are so many things that distract us from our focus on living the life God calls us to live. Movies, relationships, leisure activities, etc. Look for what drives and attracts you–then ask yourself if it pulls you further from God or closer to Him.

Although the book is written for young teens, these are good areas for all of us who follow Jesus to evaluate our lives. I’m looking soon to teach a class for high school seniors on how to keep and strengthen your faith in college and these are likely to show up on week 1.

After our small group, Nick, Winston and I went out to see Expelled tonight. The Expelled website says, in part, that “Big Science has expelled smart new ideas from the classroom. What they forgot is that every generation has its rebel…Ben blows the horn on suppression.” The movie is a documentary filmed as Ben interviews scientists on both sides of the Evolution/Intelligent Design (ID) debate. Of course, since it’s Ben Stein, it’s also interesting.

Ben Stein raises the question “What’s wrong with asking if the evidence is better explained by Intelligent Design than Darwinian evolution than simply dismissing such thought as inane and anti-intellectual.” If evolution is so foolproof, why are its proponents so defencive and censor ID ideas? There is an amazing interview with Richard Dawkins at the end. (By the way, I have read some of Richard Dawkins work, so please don’t think I’m a dismissive censor.) I don’t want to spoil the movie for you, so I’ll leave it at that…and look for the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off allusion at the very end!

Until you get a chance to see the movie, check out this video.

This weekend, our church had the privelege of having Earl Creps speak on Sunday morning. Since he was already on the east coast, he dropped down to Delaware to speak before continueing in his travels. A few things alwasy stand out to me about Earl. As my professor, he has made me read more than possibly any other person ever should–I think my eyeballs are calloused! The ever expanding stacks of books that won’t even fit in my book cases attest to that. While this might incline some to avoid him as a professor, it encourages me. I am encouraged by his keen interest in our rapidly changing culture and the ways pastors (especially younger ones) try to engage culture. I am also encouraged that someone with great academic credentials still communicates/preaches in a way that anyone listening can understand him. If you want to hear some of his messages, check out his podcast.

For the past couple of months, we’ve been concentrating our energy on beginning our new, weekly young adult event–the Gathering. (For more information, check out our young adult website or myspace.) There hasn’t been much time to blog, review resources, etc. Since I’ll be even busier with our weekly gathering, we went for a road trip to Washington DC to check out hangout and check out some museums, monuments, etc. Before going to the Museum of Natural History and spending a lot of time looking at rocks and bones (We saw dinosaurs on the iMax, but never found the bones. We ended up seeing a lot of birds and butterflys and ran out of time…), we started at the National Portraiture Museum to see Steve Colbert’s Portrait and the Hip Hop Portraiture exhibit. Both were well worth the admission price. (OK, this is a joke, these Smithsonian galleries are free…except for the iMax and incredibly overpriced food–come on, $4 for a cookie? That had better be one incredible cookie!) It was nice to see that the Federal government has a sense of humor with Stephen Colbert’s portrait. The picture itself was funny, but the fact that they hung it near the Presidential Gallery–over the water fountain as you enter the restrooms, made me laugh. The funny thing is, people were taking pictures of themselves by his portrait the whole time we were there. But, I saw very few cameras in the Presidental Gallery…kinda makes you wonder about our culture…of course, I got a picture of me next to it…

At night we visited Ebeneezers coffeehouse and checked out the worship gathering that National Community Church (NCC) hosts there on the lower level/basement. Every one of us loved the whole experience. Not only was the coffee excellent, but the worship was genuine and the message was authentic. (Chris Jarrell, the campus pastor spoke. Check out the message.) As for churches engaging culture, NCC is on the forefront. They are a model of how to reach out and connect with the community–and especially young adults, who are often resistant to churches’ outreach efforts. I’m looking forward to hearing Mark Batterson, the lead pastor at NCC, speak on creativity in ministy this May at a confernce for pastors. If you’re doing ministry to young adults or even thinking about it, definitely check out what NCC is doing because they are definitely doing something right. And, they run possibly the coolest place in DC–Ebeneezers!