The future of the Church is already here

By Marv Knox

Brianna Rice’s experience in Japan last summer reflects how the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship serves a rising generation of church leaders.

“It was life-changing,” recalled Rice, 29, who is graduating from Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology this spring.

She spent two months in Kanazawa, Japan, as part of CBF’s StudentServe missions intern program. She worked alongside CBF field personnel Carson and Laura Foushee at Kanazawa International Baptist Church as a community engagement intern.

She initially focused on building relationships with participants in the church’s Japanese and international worship services. But she also drew on her educational background, which helped her connect the dots between her gifts, calling and eventual ministry.

“I taught Sunday school and did training for anyone in the congregation wanting to lead children’s church on how to facilitate and build up their children’s ministry,” she said. “I became more confident in my skills. I didn’t realize things I’m good at were skills until I got there. But then I saw I could do them vocationally. It definitely will impact my future in ministry.”

CBF hopes to replicate Rice’s experience—helping young adults understand and lean into their places of service and leadership in their congregations, communities and beyond, said Colin Kroll, CBF’s young adult ministry manager.

“Young adult ministry focuses on emerging adults and young professionals, mainly ages 22 to 35,” he said. “They are progressing through a series of transitions, from starting a family to beginning a career, and adapting to the changes each transition brings.”

CBF young adult ministry not only seeks to serve individuals, but also comes alongside their churches, Kroll noted, adding CBF sees young adults as more than “the future of the church.”

“We’re not just looking at the future but at the present of the church,” he explained. “We’re not seeing young adults as a mission, but we’re learning what the church is as emerging young adults and young professionals engage the church. We’re learning from them what church means and looks like for those coming behind them.”

For example, CBF has gained insight by participating in a national survey with the More in Common research organization. “We’re learning why people leave the church as young adults and why they come back, or if they don’t come back, what they are looking for that will draw them back,” he said.

The survey is poking holes in the stereotype of young adults as disinterested in faith.

“Our young adults are looking for opportunities to participate in community and create change,” he reported. “They’re less interested in membership in organizations and more interested in looking at ways to be involved, to practice agency and to participate in real-world impact. They’re interested in opportunities to lead and to serve without waiting a decade to earn trust.”

Similarly, the research has provided insight into young adults’ views on financial stewardship. “Young adults are not holding onto their wealth, but they’re giving differently than their elders,” he said. “They give to causes more than to organizations. They want to make sure their money and time are making real-world impact. And that shapes how they connect with congregations.”

Contrary to popular assumptions, “a significant percentage of young adults who have left congregational life are not closed off to engaging congregational life,” Kroll said. “There is interest in being part of real community. Their preferred church size is between 50 and 300 people. They are craving authentic community where they can be known, participate and have an impact.”

Young adults also crave practical application of the gospel, he said, noting that it manifests itself in at least two aspects.

“In terms of spiritual formation, they want to practice their faith in a way that actually shapes their daily lives,” he explained. “They’re choosing each day to engage life in a way they feel Christ is calling them to.

“And they’re willing to be connected (to ministries and congregations) locally, where they can create change that matters.”

The practicality young adults seek resonates with ministries led by two of Kroll’s CBF colleagues, Dane Jackson and Alisha Damron Seruyange.

Jackson is the Fellowship’s manager for mission service and leads StudentServe, which, for example, enabled Rice to work in Japan alongside the Foushees. He works with Global Missions but collaborates with Congregational Ministries because of their shared focus on young adults.

For 23 years, CBF has offered student internships to provide ministry experience in local congregations as well as on national and global mission fields. CBF launched StudentServe two years ago from the merger of Student.Church, which offered congregational internships and Student.Go, which provided missions experiences. StudentServe is open to students age 18 and older, working either with CBF field personnel or in congregations.

“Our goal is to help students discover their place in God’s mission to change the world,” Jackson said. That means encouraging young adults “to thrive, to grow, to discover their calling, to give life to the world using their gifts.”

A significant facet of that process is introducing students to “the breadth of CBF ministry and missions,” he said. CBF’s ministry experiences and learning opportunities reflect a series of concentric rings—beginning with local churches and expanding to regional, national and global service.

StudentServe puts participants in positions to help CBF fulfill its Global Missions goals, he noted. Students have opportunities to cultivate beloved community, to bear witness to Jesus and to seek transformational development in the contexts of global poverty and global migration, all in partnership with the Global Church. “Everything we do is through those lenses,” Jackson stressed.

Both student interns and ministry partners benefit from their StudentServe experiences, he said.

“Students get a full CBF orientation when they sign on,” he explained. “They get direction from me and from their supervisor. We pair every student with an encourager who speaks to them regularly, providing feedback, experience-processing and a third pastoral voice.

“The congregations and ministry partners benefit because they receive help; but they also get the opportunity to come alongside these students. They get to offer wisdom, encouragement, advice and direction to these students who are experiencing a call to ministry.”

Last year, StudentServe operated spring, summer and fall cohorts involving 21 students, who worked a combined 6,720 hours, Jackson said.

“We’re growing the program—exploring what ministry and calling looks like,” he added. Options for ministry and calling are diverse, as evidenced by the variety of placements, he said. “We’re still sending folks to work with field personnel, as well as work with congregations across the United States. Some served as traditional pastoral, youth and children’s ministry interns. But we also supported a variety of other positions—Spanish-English translators, web-development and social media communications interns, community engagement and outreach interns, immigration advocacy interns and operations specialists.”

The door of opportunity also is wide, Jackson insisted.

“You don’t have to be in seminary or studying theology to participate,” he explained. “We’ve worked with folks pursuing business, communications and English degrees, all who may be experiencing a call to ministry.

“StudentServe is not just an internship and job, but it’s helping students discern God’s call. We also want to help our host supervisors create the best posting possible. We want to cultivate a win-win for everyone.”

Alisha Damron Seruyange is the CBF’s young Baptist events specialist, responsible for local, regional and national gatherings that help Cooperative Baptists connect with each other and with their own callings. She works alongside Kroll in the Congregational Ministries division. She also serves part-time as the associate coordinator of Alabama CBF.

CBF ramped up its interest in developing events specifically for young adults with the creation of Seruyange’s position—a first for the Fellowship—a couple of years ago. Seruyange plans the Christian Educators Conference, held every other year for ministers to children, youth and college students.

She also works with volunteer steering committees and planning teams from across the Fellowship to prepare for and host gatherings. These events enable churches and groups from different regions to connect, learn and lean into different topics of spiritual formation and discipleship.

Events matter because gathering is sacred, Seruyange said.

“No matter how advanced we become, there is no substitute for the holiness that happens when you’re in the same room with somebody,” she explained. “While the world is changing rapidly, there is still so much goodness available when we get together. “Gathering enables us to remember our Baptist identity and remember there is work to do. It enables us to show up and do God’s good work in the world. There is something important about getting together.”

Early this year, she was putting the final touches on plans for 400 youth from CBF congregations to get together for a winter weekend retreat at First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala.

“Being together is special,” she said. “And for students in a small youth group, it’s also a rare and beautiful event.”

Student and young adult events impact far more people than the participants who attend them, Seruyange observed. Their echoes reverberate through entire congregations. “The word that is going around is ‘intergenerational.’ The truth is that anything that impacts part of our churches goes back to the whole,” she said. “And it’s in that group where they are every week—the church—where the real spiritual formation happens. “So, CBF events are touchpoints in supporting and cheering on what happens in the local church. Events point young adults toward listening to their calling and figuring out what their next right thing is in faithfulness. A product of youth and young adult gatherings, we hope, goes back to impact churches for good.”

Student and young adult events also contribute to congregations by providing safe spaces and open opportunities for young adults to be thoughtful and creative about church life and practice, she noted. Events give youth and young adults the chance to give voice to what might be possible “back home” in their churches.

“We’re still learning what that looks like—for the church to be brave enough to listen to their students and young adults and to find where God is at work, even if it’s not a Wednesday night program or a committee,” she said. “At that point, the church would then be invited to make space for the ways a new generation is experiencing and discerning God’s calling. That’s a wild good time, but it’s also scary.” In that regard, CBF student and young adult events can serve as incubators for “transforming narratives”—new ways of thinking about how congregations can embrace and nurture their rising generations, she added.

“It could be something as simple as recognizing that young adults aren’t awake on Sunday morning at nine o’clock. So, what does that mean? Maybe we could revamp the Sunday-morning script we’ve been following for a few decades. Maybe we could find God at the center of something ‘different’ where churches—including their young adults—could grow in discipleship and depth.”

It also might mean changing how congregations talk about and practice faith, she said. “I do see young adults are drawn to authenticity, transparency and making real impact in the world,” she explained. “Institutionally, it’s a little unnerving. The unknown always is. But what is out there in that space of the unknown? What if there is this beautiful expression of beloved community?”

Young adults’ desire for authenticity and creativity in church life calls for “re-evaluation and space for things to be different,” Seruyange insisted. “It’s the work of the churches to name and nurture young adults’ calling—and to interpret what that means in life.”