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Hyphen: Bridging the Young Adult Gap By Sarah
k. Holland It's about time!
This seems to be the general response whenever people hear about
hyphen, the new young adult ministry of the UPCI. And,
I'm apt to agree. I think that was my exact response when
I received a call from Nate Binion sometime back in July.
Bro. Binion
was calling to let me know that, as of July 1, 2009, the UPCI had
added another department to its General Youth Division. This
department was set up entirely for young adults, ages 18-30, and
single. I responded as everyone else has--it's about time!
Finally this group is being recognized and resources provided for
the building of young adult groups. Binion was calling to ask me
to be involved, and I jumped at the opportunity. Local Lessons, National Reach In my own church,
we have a young adult group. It's been around for 10 years,
and we've slowly built it into something we're proud of, but, I
admit, it took some time. It was my pastor's vision, and he
began the class and soon turned it over to a group of capable men.
However, as their lives transitioned, we found it difficult to keep
the level of consistency needed to maintain this group. It
went in waves of being successful and strong, and then would flow
out again. Finally, the
group seems to be established around the idea that we are a community
of people. We're all in similar places with similar needs,
the strongest of these being the need to network and find a spiritual
place for us to grow, as we are all involved as leaders in other
ministries. So we spend time together in and out of our weekly
meetings. We stay in contact through e-mails, as well as through
our events. We share our ideas, job opportunities, and our
reading material. We've even found some strong curriculum
to use. But this has taken 10 years to establish, and I can't
help but wonder if it would have grown more quickly if there had
been a place for us to find resources? Connecting Point That is why
I was so excited when I received the phone call. Hyphen
is just that--it's a connecting point, a place for resources, and
an opportunity to help one another establish much-needed ministries
on both the local and district level. These are our goals:
* Communicate the need for a young adult ministry to the UPCI * Equip districts and local churches to start young adult ministries * Build a national young adult culture * Create venues to engage Apostolic young adults through: -- Worship and inspirational meetings -- Practical instruction opportunities -- Social events and Regional Meetings * To create and produce targeted Apostolic resources through our web site * See every
church and district facilitating young adult events and ministries Hyphen
was launched on Thursday of Youth Congress, and kicked off by playing
an integral part in the “8”
young adult event at Congress. The name “hyphen” stands for
the thing that fills that gap, that fills the space between, and
that's what we're attempting to do: to be a bridging point for the
18-30 year olds who previously haven't had a place to belong in
many of our churches. Our website
serves as a resource guide and we have a Facebook group which serves
as a networking and connector point (search “hyphen young adults”). It's about time we joined forces and helped one another to be a hyphen, to fill the gap that has long been left open.
© 2009, Sarah
k. Holland ------- Sarah k. Holland is an associate editor with ninetyandnine.com |
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