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Yeah. Mhm Yeah. Mhm. Good morning. Good afternoon everybody. My name is Melissa Wigginton. I'm the Vice president for Education beyond the walls here at Austin Seminary. This is our first time to

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do Webinar. Martha Len and I, so we are very excited about this and we're delighted to have so many of you joining in the conversation. I care about this too because I am one of my

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core commitments is for young people to find their place in the world and to find their place of belonging . And one of my other core commitments is to the life of the church and the dream of the

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church and the good news that it gives witness to in the world. So that's where my heart is in doing this work. I'm Martha lin kun, I'm the director of the project here, Austin Seminary

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called the 787 Collective. And and our focus is on the spiritual thriving of young adults in central texas . I'm really excited to hear from all of you today. We're excited to share some information with you

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at the front end of the webinar, I just wanted to say, to try to keep the audio integrity of the, of the webinar tight are when managers muted everyone at the beginning of this presentation.

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And we have invited people to introduce themselves via the chat function, which you can find at the bottom of your screen. Little bubble, like your text message bubble on your iphone. So if you have

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a chance to to type in a little introduction, if you haven't already, we welcome um we welcome that. Also if you are having technical difficulties or questions or um if you uh need to communicate with

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us or with the group during the webinar, that that message function is a good way of that chat function is a good way to do that. And um as melissa said, you know, we come

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to this work with the intrinsic motivation of just the spiritual health and well being of of young adults in our communities and in all of our communities. And we're really excited that you share curiosity about that and

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passion and um and we have some information that we're going to share with you on the front end of the webinar, as I mentioned, and then we'll have more time for discussion um in the second half

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of the webinar, So, um, Let's get started. Yeah, Martha Lin mentioned, she's the director of the 7/8, uh director of congregational innovation for the 787 collective. This is an innovation hub

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That we are leading with uh 12 congregations in central Texas. It's a project funded by the Lilly endowment , And we're one of 12 innovation hubs around the country. So you are part of our learning and

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we want to share with you where we are going with this, how we're thinking about it. And so that's the context for this conversation. Um, go ahead advances like when I wrote the description for

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this, I said, young adults and churches are as rare as hen's teeth and um, as Martha Lane and I were preparing for this, she said , what does that even mean? And I realized

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that I was using this expression that I had learned from my grandparents who actually had chickens in their yard . Well, now I know having chickens in your yard is kind of a thing. But I realized

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when Martha lin said that, that I was using this metaphor, that that really I was kind of enacting the problem because we use metaphors that don't relate to the lived experience of a lot of people that

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were trying to communicate to what I meant when I said that was they're rare. Okay, young adults and churches are rare. And I know from previous conversations that many of you have young adults in your

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churches. And we are very uh glad about that and hope that maybe the people in this webinar can connect even to have further conversation after this brief our that we have together. So while many of you

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have young adults in your congregation, many people don't . And in fact, overall the numbers are much lower than in previous generations. And we'll go into that a little bit more as we move through the

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four areas that we want to cover in this webinar . So during this hour, we want to contextualized the situation in which we all find ourselves. We want to complex if I the story around young adults

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, we want to think theologically a little bit, and then we want to talk about how the church is responding to the realities of the situation and open it up to think about the future. So let's

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just get started with some data. I want to say about contextualizing the situation that we are in the midst. We're not not to talk about why things are the way they are, but to just look

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at the facts and you all know this. But I want to start with real data and this is all available in the link that we sent you to the Pew Research Center 2014. Study this slide and

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I know it's a little bit, uh, hard to read, but it's trying to demonstrate the change over time, um, in generations of how many young people are religiously affiliated. So basically, you

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see, um, in the blue line at the top, that's gen x and the millennials are at the at this, you know, I don't want to show you that that little dot at the top

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that says 26 that's millennials and how connected they are to the church. So you can see that there are fewer and this is a change from the, the level of involvement in the church and previous generations

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. If we took a look at 100 people in the US and line them up relative to their religious affiliation, what you see in this slide is that There are as many, the column to the left

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is 18-29 year olds. There are as many protestant affiliated, 18-29 year olds as there are unaffiliated. Okay, so just let that sink in for a minute. Mhm. I'm going to assume it's sunk

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in. The thing I want to say about this is um that this data shows us that the number of people who are disaffiliated is growing, and the reasons for this are multiple and complex as we know

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. But what I want to say to you today is I think it's worth paying attention to what our feelings are about that because I worry that this data um cultivates a sense of shame, or evokes a

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sense of shame in a lot of congregations. And my worry about that is when their shame there so often blame. And so they people end up blaming themselves or their past or their denomination. And worst

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of all, they blame the 18-29 year olds. And I want to say we can't change this cultural trend. All right, this is way beyond our control. And so looking at how you and the

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people in your congregation feel about that seems important to me, because if we don't look at our unexamined assumptions, if we don't look at the story, we're telling ourselves about why this change is happening,

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we're gonna be stuck and we're not going to be able to respond with the fullness of creativity that I think God is gifting us with and is leading us toward. So that's my first little sermon. Um

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, the second thing I want to say is that there are changes in the religious landscape, not just in cultural changes, but in the religious landscape. And so, um, you know, there are

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when you look at the people who are religious, there are fewer and fewer of them who are going to church. And this is just the reality. Now, uh, In the in the whole population

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, young adults are 20%, of the adult population who are religiously affiliated, but fewer than 10% of them go to church. So that's another piece of the religious landscape and you will be both happy and

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sad to know that christians are not the only ones dealing with this in the uh muslim world, they have a big concern about young people becoming unm Osk , okay, so they say yes, I'm muslim

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. Do you go to a mosque? No, Why would I? It's boring, it's not relevant , They don't talk about things I'm interested in and that may sound familiar to some of us who are

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christians. Similarly in reform Judaism, there's a big movement to, you know, how do we get the young people into the practice of of the jewish way of life? And there have been big efforts

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, much like what some of our denominations have done in the Reform Judaism movement to figure out how do we meet the young people where they are and get them to become practicing jews? So in the religious

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landscape you see across all religions, young people are not participating in the traditional ways of faith communities. But the second thing I want to say is there's another movement that is uh sort of what we call

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religion like, and if you had a chance to look at any of the resources we gave you from the, how we gather website, they have really named this this dynamic because they've looked at, you

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know, they started with the question, well we're do young adults get together and they started identifying things like crossfit gyms and supper clubs and all these other places where young adults gather and they are religion like

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is their argument, They have rituals, they have high levels of accountability, they have participation. Um , and these organizations are starting to find out they have some of the same problems that churches do.

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But I raise this because it's a place where you can see people being led by, I think religious instincts, even though they don't name it that, but the church is in general not connected with those

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communities. Um, I recommend that you look at that data if you haven't in the report particularly called something more because the conclusion that these researchers come for is that come to is that these organizations are not

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able to connect with the questions of ultimate see. So they've got these practices, but they don't, they don't know how to get to the deep questions . And you know, my prayer is we know

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something about that. This uh slide is from a new art installation in Austin. It's a chapel. It's we were there last week. It's beautiful, it's spiritual, it is not religious. And so

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I thought it was a good representation of this. The last thing I want to say in this section about understanding the context is I think that a lot of young adults find as I referred to, but

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I was talking about the Muslims find the ways of christian life and community in congregations just not attractive. And so there have been a lot of people who have looked at, what are the things that happen

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in congregations where there are a lot of young adults who are lively and involved. And I'm going to share with you this list of characteristics so that you can do the math yourself. This is the list

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of characteristics about what congregations who have young adults look like and you will see where you do or do not connect in the congregation you serve. So welcoming and accessible, relevant and relatable leaders and what I

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want to say here is this doesn't mean they've got , you know, soul patches and Guayabera shirts. It's more about sharing leadership and the significant paradigm here is away from the powerful charismatic a leader to share

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leadership. Um, in ways that they want to go where the pastor knows their name, they want to go where they can talk to the pastor and feel like there's a connection there relationships and caring.

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This is, you know, community, this is the probably strongest thing that we hear. A lot of young adults say that they're looking for and it's not surface, it's not just introducing yourself every sunday

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when you're passing the peace, but you are. And it's a congregation where people are involved in each other's lives in ways that show caring, social justice oriented. You know, obviously we see young adults

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involved in an incredible number of social justice movements and they want to go to a church where they can advance and and find a home for expressing their social justice commitments, spiritually vital and alive. This means

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we're really walking the talk of being followers of jesus . And so there's a, there's a seriousness about the gospel in these congregations that um, is thick enough and deep enough to allow these young adults to

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really, that they trust that it can hold their weight and it's offering them something that's not just superficial . And finally, this hashtag use me or lose me is uh, these are congregations where right away

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young people can get involved in something they can do something that's meaningful contribution to the life of the congregation . You may notice these are good characteristics for congregations , whether they have young adults or not. So

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basically, the bottom line is young adults want to be involved in congregations that are alive, that are healthy and that are vital. So I'm gonna talk a little bit more about this story of who these

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young adults are, which is something, you know , I hope is obvious. But with full disclosure , we're still learning a lot about. I am came to this work after coordinating an intentional community for

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young adults for six years and I felt like that gave me a strong context for understanding this generation better and these people. But I'm still learning every day how little I know. So, um, we're

00:15:05.300 - 00:15:20.020

inviting you on that journey with us. But here's here's a little bit about some of our some of our work and um, questions we're asking and our approaches to finding and mining answers to those questions.

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So, so a question that we're holding in our work and we're holding with you today is this question about what millennials want and our need to spiritually thrive , both in and outside of the community and how

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is the church or is the church uniquely positioned to help them in this pursuit? Um, so while we, um, we're thinking about this question and in our work, we're working with a cohort of

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12 congregations and in and around Austin, um, to try to find new and innovative and engaging ways to walk alongside these young people, um, in their spiritual life and also invite them into new ways

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to be part of congregational life and new ways to celebrate the traditions that are congregational life. Um, and so we were doing an orientation for these churches back in june of this year and as we were

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putting our materials together, we we were challenged where I was tasked at the time to find an image that represents young adulthood and we were going to have the congregations that were in discernment around this project respond

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to this image. So, um, this is the first image that that someone in the group put forward. It's a well known cover of Time magazine and an article they did, it was specifically focused

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around the millennial generation and um, I mean, it's interesting, right? I mean, the cover puts forth this juxtaposition, you know, the me Me Me generation. Millennials are lazy entitled narcissists who

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still live with their parents and why they'll save us all. Um, so there is already sort of this fascinating juxtaposition there, but also obviously a lot of the bias and judgment that Melissa was talking about

00:17:12.210 - 00:17:25.740

earlier, you know, just about when, when we have shame around changes or challenges that seem sometimes daunting an insurmountable, like where we put that shame and sometimes that becomes blame. And um and I

00:17:25.740 - 00:17:38.450

can say personally my in work with millennials in the first couple of years, I I felt like they were driving me crazy and now because I was sort of buying into this stereotype. Yeah, But um

00:17:38.940 - 00:17:48.130

this here are some actual young adult responses. So , so that that picture didn't really, I mean I thought, well this is interesting, there's a juxtaposition there, but I don't feel like really sums

00:17:48.130 - 00:17:57.600

up what we're looking for. So I solicited from young adults, I knew some responses like if you had to pick one image that that summed up your young little experience, what would it be? And

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here are some of the responses. It's The 1st 1. Um this was hilarious and my first react , it was like, have you actually seen the original Willy Wonka? I don't think they know Gene

00:18:11.700 - 00:18:19.400

Wilder is, but whatever, I mean, it was it was true. I mean, I think it was I felt like it was for me, point taken like, Um nobody has their life figured

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out in the early 20's. I think if we're all honest about that, and and I know a lot of, a lot of these young people are struggling with these questions and and uh and feeling so

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much the pressure of time, ironically for those of us who are slightly older than our twenties that they feel they felt an enormous amount of pressure to figure things out. This is the next one. This

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is one of my favorites that this was this person's uh synopsis of their young adult experience. So, I felt like to be a young adult, I can relate to this one, and because it happened

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to this young at all, I thought that is exactly what your twenties. So anyway, this is sort of calming and funny and I could watch it a long time, but for the second time we

00:19:08.450 - 00:19:27.330

will move on. Um and then this was one of the other responses and this this person actually um Sent to images and here's the here's the next one . Um and and these really sort of stopped me

00:19:27.330 - 00:19:44.290

in my tracks. I'll go back to the one before um this sort of image of this woman with all of these things written written on her face and her body. Um and then this one and it

00:19:44.290 - 00:19:53.970

was just really evocative to me because I think, you know, I have a lot of fun with all these adults I work with, and then I have these moments of just like, whoa, there's

00:19:53.970 - 00:20:07.190

so much happening in their lives and their growing up in a really complicated time. And both of these really startled me in in the best sort of way . And um and this is what this young adult

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and with her permission, I'm sharing this, um wrote about her twenties and I'll read it and re along. Um and I think we're also just as a side note, happy to share these slides with

00:20:18.190 - 00:20:27.520

you guys after after this is done if that's helpful to you. So, you know, that that information can or will be forthcoming if it's helpful. Um I think when I reflect on the last three

00:20:27.520 - 00:20:37.050

years of my early twenties, it's been about trying on different selves by going through different experiences and I like this or am I like this? Do I like being this way and doing that or not?

00:20:37.060 - 00:20:45.360

What is the image I present versus what is authentic ? What are the values? I let's steer my boat in the vastness of the sea. I resonated with both of these images I found where there is

00:20:45.360 - 00:20:56.180

a confusion and mess under the surface of what one sees from the outside. A deep questioning and struggling to find peace I suppose are sort of understanding of the world and how I fit into it is disarray

00:20:56.180 - 00:21:06.510

and it's beautiful and necessary. And so I follow it all up with my antidote summed up in a quote from Lao Tsu about letting things be as they are not resisting the messiness that happens, but leaning

00:21:06.510 - 00:21:17.960

into it and noticing it with mindful compassion. So this was an incredible response obviously, and this is like where this is the part of this millennial identity that does feel like they will save the world.

00:21:18.440 - 00:21:30.070

Um and here's a quote from all too. Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes don't resist them. That only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way

00:21:30.070 - 00:21:41.060

they like. Um and this, I think this moment was really powerful to me for a lot of reasons, also because I feel like this is in some ways what the church is being called to do

00:21:41.240 - 00:21:51.790

, which is let things flow forward naturally, but that's not what the church is, that's not really how churches are organized, that's not how we function . And we are in a a liminal space and

00:21:51.790 - 00:22:03.000

in between space and in between times and um and you know, here was this young adult proffering something that really felt like a very appropriate response and sort of an answer to a lot of this anxiety that

00:22:03.000 - 00:22:14.320

we are feeling. Um and so that's great. I mean, how we partner with these people and and have them, um how we meet them, where they are, and how we together form community

00:22:14.330 - 00:22:25.590

is a potent and difficult question, but I definitely think that the answers are there, but we will only find them together um and back together. I mean, together as church as church, big C

00:22:25.590 - 00:22:37.770

church, and also together with these young people. Um so from this image to this image, I think the question um that persists is where in the space of these realities might the church have room to

00:22:37.770 - 00:22:48.810

maneuver and something to give? And this was our charge. This was our church. Our church is good luck and get ready to be creative. Um And thank you for joining our webinar today. They

00:22:48.810 - 00:23:00.170

have Anyway, our churches are the churches in this cohort that we're working with, the 787 collective are already getting in there and getting creative. And and so we're all we're all working on this. Um

00:23:00.540 - 00:23:12.220

, and then just to sort of complicate this a little more, I want to talk though about about this millennial because even in that that experience we had there really is, there's still a subset of millennials

00:23:12.220 - 00:23:27.610

that are their voices really not, is not the voice that we are hearing loudly. And I think we have to be very conscious in our response because we're adjusting our own work. Um as we speak

00:23:27.610 - 00:23:42.280

, sort of because some of our our earliest assumptions and a lot of the cultural assumptions around millennials, like the sort assumptions that inform that Time magazine cover are Are in response to to one specific portion of

00:23:42.280 - 00:23:56.870

the demographic of millennials. And This is a study from 2015. A woman named Kimberly Quick was published by the Century Foundation. She wrote that generational researchers usually identify millennials. People born between the years 1981

00:23:56.870 - 00:24:08.150

and 2000 2000 is the most educated, most diverse generation to date, and they're right. Over a third of millennials hold at least a bachelor's degree. In 43% of millennials identify with one or more minority

00:24:08.160 - 00:24:18.840

group. So it's true they are the most diverse and the most educated. But if you look at that statistic and then look at the flip side that tells us that about 66, um Percent of millennials

00:24:18.840 - 00:24:30.120

don't have a college degree and 57% unite associated as a member of a minority group. So, so while it's important to raise up these generational characteristics, it's also important to notice they don't cover everyone.

00:24:30.120 - 00:24:47.080

In fact, it's a large swath of that population that, that is still trying to find a vocation and make income without a college degree. Um, and, and we have to be very careful about

00:24:47.080 - 00:24:56.200

this in our work in Austin because the demographics of boston have changed rapidly, and a lot of the young adults who are coming in here work in higher income sectors, like, like the tech sector.

00:24:56.200 - 00:25:08.280

And um, so as we're doing our work, we're really struggling with trying to figure out how we do create work and address these challenges in a way that, that, that covers a larger demographic of

00:25:08.280 - 00:25:18.880

young adults. And, and part of this is the legacy inheritance of a lot of mainline denominations. And so I think it's something I just want to hold up as a way to complicate. We're learning

00:25:18.880 - 00:25:29.020

about young adults, we need to listen to young adults, but we also need to be really conscious of, of the voices that we're hearing and what part of the millennial population they represent, particularly when

00:25:29.020 - 00:25:45.480

we're trying to craft needs based responses to what they're dealing with every day. Um, yeah, so let's keep thinking about this. Um, Melissa's gonna walk us through some some of the theology and this

00:25:45.480 - 00:25:56.030

is just one little bit from from quick from the article. Just she's a millennial herself and she's she's talking about millennials. She was talking about how in a digital age where connection to other people's only click

00:25:56.030 - 00:26:08.620

away. We can easily consume music, clothing styles , dance crazes, recipes across cultures, but we can't live each other's experiences. And and I'm always looking for little like breadcrumbs like that for us as

00:26:08.620 - 00:26:26.600

a church to understand where we fit into this picture and how we can meet these people where they are . Mm So We've just talked for 30 minutes and put out a lot of ideas. I want to

00:26:26.600 - 00:26:41.150

say that in our work in this effort. The first move is listening. And as Martha Lynn shared , you know, really what she was demonstrating is the work of listening and beginning to reflect really here

00:26:41.150 - 00:26:53.260

and reflect on the lives of young adults and and who are in our churches and then the ones that are invisible to us. And so listening to the young adults, you know, and then listening to

00:26:53.260 - 00:27:07.790

your community who's out there, who's not even part of it, that that's in your landscape. And then the next move for me is for us to think theologically about this religious demography, the changes in

00:27:07.790 - 00:27:23.960

religious landscape, um, the religion, like the young adults, uh, who have the messiness underneath and all the labels that have been put on them and the realities of their lives. And so I

00:27:23.960 - 00:27:41.090

want to slow down a little bit right now. And um, think theologically. So, I specifically want to ask first, what is going on here ? Where is God showing up? Where is christ

00:27:41.090 - 00:28:00.000

present and where is the Holy spirit moving? I think one of the gifts of us even asking these questions and one of the, you know, hopes , promises possibilities from this reality of young people being

00:28:00.000 - 00:28:12.600

disconnected from the church is it's pushing the church to ask a lot of hard questions and pushing the church to make some changes. Whether young adults come back to the church or find the church or connect or

00:28:12.600 - 00:28:22.670

not. You know, these questions that you're starting to ask, comment about what is this? Well , let's pack it up and look at how we're treating Children, and let's look at our leadership structures

00:28:22.670 - 00:28:37.260

and let's look at how we what scriptures. We talk about, how we talk about them. Those are all um stories of new life caused by this reality, which so often makes us feel and maybe

00:28:37.260 - 00:28:48.480

I'm projecting but feel ashamed or feel defeated or feel discouraged or anxious. And so we want to scramble out there and do something. Um but I think that's part of what's happening is that we're it's calling

00:28:48.480 - 00:29:07.980

us to account and rethink. And so as we make the final turn in this webinar, um Martha Lynn has brought some Reflections and some things that we've learned from people in the 787 collection collection collectives collection

00:29:07.990 - 00:29:21.370

, um that we hope will will inspire you in some in particular ways. And she's she's keeping that up, I guess the last connection I wanted to make is about um looking back at our history and

00:29:21.370 - 00:29:32.580

tradition, how what a shock it was when the gentiles were able to become part of the church, you know, and uh people had to rethink how they were gonna think about this and make up new

00:29:32.580 - 00:29:48.540

stories. And sometimes I think we're at such a critical change in the human experience that it's almost like , like that. Um well, so I just wanted to share with you, sort of, some

00:29:48.540 - 00:30:03.140

of the the essentials that we we feel our essentials that that we are including in our work, our approach to this work. Um, and uh first , the very first thing is listening that came up

00:30:03.140 - 00:30:15.320

in the discussion, listening to the Holy Spirit, and we included a link here. We developed a discernment guide for congregations we were working with that we're in discernment around this question of whether they felt called

00:30:15.320 - 00:30:29.790

to really engage with this population and feeling called, you know, this is we're moving. Do they have compassion capacity? Was that in itself was an awesome process and that that resources that are available?

00:30:29.790 - 00:30:40.390

It's free. So basically, you know, we we put we put a premium listening. The discernment guide is there for you guys, but helpful to you or anyone in your congregation. Um, the

00:30:40.390 - 00:30:53.820

other thing, this is very this is very much Edward was touching on this earlier but relationship, not membership, we've we have really stressed this with all the congregations working with and that that it's essential that

00:30:53.820 - 00:31:08.900

they're approaching this work with millennials in terms of the integrity of the relationship building the relationship, the energy going into relationship and not just trying to recruit new members for the church. And then tradition and innovation

00:31:08.900 - 00:31:23.470

is the 3rd. Um, yeah, the third component for, for our work, which is uh , um, I mean the first place I heard that term Mystique University, but it's basically like we

00:31:23.470 - 00:31:34.300

are who we are, we are christians, We come with that we come with a tradition and that we are, we are trying to innovate within our tradition. That doesn't mean we just ditch our tradition

00:31:34.300 - 00:31:44.510

and start doing new things. I mean, we hope we are doing new things, but that we're doing that with integrity so that they are part of who we are as christians and nutrition that we come

00:31:44.510 - 00:31:56.840

out of, you know, which is awesome and very fraud, but that we're honest about that and um, that's how we're looking at innovation is within that context. I I have some examples from our

00:31:56.840 - 00:32:10.270

collective work that I'm happy to share with you. I really um want to hear from you guys if if we can, and I had some questions um that I would love to hear from you all if

00:32:10.270 - 00:32:20.470

you're and I'm happy to chime in as well and share from our experiences. I'd love to hear from you because I know what I'm talking with some adults , um sort of if you'd be willing to share

00:32:20.470 - 00:32:30.260

a young adult ministry concept or practice. Um and within that, what you find is working and what is challenging, and also any questions you'd like to bring to the group about your experience, or in

00:32:30.260 - 00:32:39.260

general, like some of the people who responded to Melissa's inquiry on friday have really specific questions about sort of how they work with young adults. Um and they were, I think, curious to learn how

00:32:39.260 - 00:32:50.100

other people are doing that, like, particularly like , you know, if the church has a marriage ministry, um, like people sort of working with married young adults separately than single young adults or how

00:32:50.100 - 00:33:02.720

is that shaping up? I mean, everybody, everybody here is coming from a very different context. So there's no expectation of, you know, what any of these um, experiments with young adults look

00:33:02.720 - 00:33:13.440

like. But we'd love to hear from you with some of the things that we've been doing. Um in terms of listening, we've had a couple of , we've got a couple of experiments are finding ways

00:33:13.440 - 00:33:25.830

to listen corporate lee. Um, and sort of mind for stories and information about 27 experience and two of those things that we we did a public spirited Republic storytelling events last spring in conjunction with the Horrors

00:33:25.830 - 00:33:39.600

, which is uh, Mark you acknowledge organization in Ashland Oregon. Um, and we we found in each each storytelling that we had six young adults and Austin who were working around particular social justice issues.

00:33:39.600 - 00:33:54.260

Each each event had a social justice theme. One was refugee refugees, one was creation care, environmental justice. And then the third was around immigration, um, in general. And, and so that

00:33:54.260 - 00:34:05.210

was a way for to get six young adults up on stage to tell personal stories about their lives and have large groups of people listening here. And we also did a, um, a thing where we

00:34:05.210 - 00:34:15.190

commissioned um, six short plays, um, sort of about the young adult experience because we're fiction, But it was a really rich way to kind of get in and, and we use young adult performers

00:34:15.190 - 00:34:27.500

and, and to hear about how the stories resonated with them. And also sort of think about what what what defines 27 experience. Um, in terms of producing innovation, we have a church in san

00:34:27.500 - 00:34:39.110

Antonio, we're working with its felt a liturgy called Lighten Up, which they hold outside the church on sunday evenings and oriented towards young adult and it follows a traditional liturgical percent like progression, but instead of

00:34:39.110 - 00:34:54.580

having a sermon, they have like a dialogue section and their dialoguing about current topics. Um and it seems to really be providing meeting a need for for that kind of engagement and then they use prayer stations

00:34:54.580 - 00:35:10.620

. So the service is really oriented to be low key to be accessible to people who are unchurched and also to provide a really interactive experience. Um, one of the other churches in the collective, uh

00:35:10.630 - 00:35:24.160

as they were listening to young adults in Austin, they recognized that the lack of affordable housing in the city is a major problem. And so they started thinking about the people in the church who are empty

00:35:24.160 - 00:35:36.850

nesters and have these houses that have all these letters in them. And they started wondering, what would it be like if they, you know, rent it out there. Rose to some of these young

00:35:36.860 - 00:35:49.050

people who can't afford a place to live. Well , that's a pretty radical idea. And it's real need if you're talking about them living in somebody else's house. So they ended up, uh, starting

00:35:49.050 - 00:36:00.480

by just having a conversation where they invited six, Seven young adults to meet with 67 of the older people. You know, they had gathered everybody together at the Spiner house, which is this, you

00:36:00.480 - 00:36:10.440

know, hip place that always joked that they card there and I'm too old to get in. Uh , if they had, they had a conversation there and, you know, nobody ended up saying new

00:36:10.440 - 00:36:21.940

your stuff in. But it really surfaced a lot of things about what does it mean to live with people and what is the need. It just created an opening for a possibility that might or might not

00:36:21.940 - 00:36:37.380

come to be. But the young people, the young adults who were there afterwards remarked about how valuable that was. And it's the beginning of forming some relationship. That's another one of the ideas that the

00:36:37.380 - 00:36:51.650

congregations have come up with. Well, we are about at the end of our time and um, I hope that this has been a valuable our for you. It's been a great experience for us.

00:36:51.650 - 00:37:04.190

Yeah. And I just, um, we we have your email addresses that you, um, submitted this when you register for the webinar and I will send you the slides and you'll have, um,

00:37:04.190 - 00:37:13.380

and we'll send you a survey as well. But then you have my email address. And so if there are things that you wanted to offer questions you have, we're more than happy to be in dialogue

00:37:13.380 - 00:37:23.460

about these questions. And I hope, you know , over the course of our work on this lily grant to that, we will continue to have more practices to share more ideas, more thoughts, more

00:37:23.460 - 00:37:35.630

ways of building community around this work. Um, and so, you know, I guess I just wanna encourage you if you'd like please stay in touch . Um, and uh, and we'll be doing

00:37:35.630 - 00:37:45.260

the same. And if there's somebody that spoke that you would like to have further conversation with, let us know, we can put you in touch because part of what we are hoping is just really to

00:37:45.270 - 00:37:59.530

create a community of connection, of people who are uh feel feel the burden of this situation. All right, Thank you very much have a great rest of your day and we hope to see you.