a Shared Life

Frontline is one of my favorite places to go. There’s something contagious about stepping into a ministry that has literally thousands of young adults coming every Sunday night. The energy is tangible, the music is awesome and the preaching is deep, Biblical and relevant. To make things even better, they do a great job of connecting young adults into a community to help them grow and sending them out to missions within a couple of years of being there. If you do young adult ministry or are a young adult living near Washington DC, you’ve got to check these guys out. And, you can check them out online through their virtual campus if you can’t make it in person.

RECAP: We’re traveling around to churches recommended to us who connect with young adults (18-20something/30ish), checking out what they’re doing, interviewing the about their preaching (for a paper) and other things that God’s doing where they are.

Again, these are just some preliminary thoughts as I put together my paper, but, here we go…

One thing that Frontline must continually address is the transient nature of young adults who become part of their worship gathering. When the average young adult moves to Washington DC, there is a very good chance that they will move again within three years. As previously mentioned, the Frontline staff is VERY intentional about getting them quickly involved in small groups and the mission of the organization–including an international missions experience. The intentionality with which the leadership approaches the task of getting young adults involved, is contagious. The lack of ambiguity makes it easy for a new person, or regular attendee, to know what they’re being asked to do.

One of the questions we’re asking is how the churches/ministries that are reaching young adults use the internet to extend their proclamation. With blogs, podcasting, myspace and facebook all making it possible to connect such a large audience with what’s happening on-site, how do the churches that do the best at reaching young adults leverage technology? The answer is surprisingly different for each ministry so far. Frontline has a virtual, online service, complete with ways to respond to the message and interact with other online worshipers, for those who don’t physically attend. In talking to some people, I found that some people are even watching the service live through the public wifi at Frontline. It’s apparent that, for many, technology affects even the way we experience the live event.

Frontline is the young adult ministry of McLean Bible Church. One issue that churches must face when they begin a young adult ministry is where the young adults will “go to church”. That is, will it be expected that young adults go to a regular Sunday service with the home church and then attend the young adult worship service? Or will the young adult worship service be the weekly “main event” for young adults? And, what happens when other generations want to attend? While at first generationally/age-group defined, Frontline has shed its age group definition while keeping peace with their “regular church”. McLean Bible Church and Frontline have found a rare balance that allows both ministries to thrive alongside one another.