Innovative Practices to Help Engage Younger Generations – Transcript
Jim Latimer
Welcome to Coaching for Interims. We are about empowerment for interim ministry, best practices and quick help – wisdom from the field. This is our collaborative Wisdom from the Field project featuring short interviews with transitional interim ministers and others with practical help and wisdom to offer those engaged in transitional ministry. Thank you for tuning into tuning into this episode of wisdom from the field.
We have with us again, Reverend Dawn Adams. Dawn is a very innovative minister, but innovative in a really practical way – which struck me. Some background: she started at her church as a 20-hour-a-week Designated Term pastor. Now it’s grown into 30 hours a week as a settled pastor over a period of a number of years – seven or eight years. And she was speaking to me about the specific ways of engaging a younger generation that are different from the Boomers and older. They operate differently. They want to be involved, but to involve them, it’s a different MO, so to speak. So, Dawn, if you could just say a few words about how that goes for you, that would be great.
Dawn Adams
Yes. One of the things that we have noticed, and has been a challenge, is that the younger generations don’t operate the way the old guard does – to put it blatantly. This is both by attendance, which we’ve spoken of at a different time, but also in their volunteerism and their ability to offer themselves up the same way. Not only is their time different due to career challenges, but the way they operate in time is different. And with their responsibilities – if they happen to be family people – that gets even more complicated.
And I can only imagine, as we move more and more into the online space, what that means for people who will be part of our church, but aren’t even in the same locus. So, it really causes us – as leadership, as church people – to think about what the jobs are that need to be done. What jobs don’t need to be done? What can happen in a different way? Where can it be located? And how can we spread them out into pieces and parts that are consumable and possible for an individual to take on.
And that’s different for everyone. And in our church that has meant, just before I came in about eight years ago, that my predecessor, God bless him, had taken the multitude of committees, and got us down to two committees. Now that had pros and cons. And again, it’s about experimenting, in that some things were lost that needed to be picked back up. It wasn’t as easy as just going, Well don’t have those committees. Wait a minute. Who’s watching the Sunday school? And how is that happening? So, doing that.
And then we noticed that having one moderator became a challenge. Because many people had jobs that required them to travel, they could not commit to being in the same place for all of the meetings. And so, we changed to a three-moderator system, where there is a moderator-in-training, a moderator that’s the acting moderator, and a moderator emeritus. And so, they had people that knew a little bit, or were learning, and that could back each other up. And that made it easier for people to say, Yes, because it wasn’t 100% on their back.
And then the two boards we had that worked pretty well for six years, just got merged into one unified Council. Because again, it is very hard for people. Their days are long. They’re tired. Especially if they have families, they’re often obligated to six soccer ball leagues, two Taekwondo things, a multitude of things – homework, traveling. It’s different than it was. People are more mobile. Their obligations cause them to go to other places and leave the space that they’re in. And frankly, now in this Zoom time period where we are issuing with COVID, a lot of people are zoomed out. They just don’t want to take on any more time. I spend eight hours a day on my computer. I don’t need more time if we’re meeting on the computer.
So, it’s trying to figure out what people can do, and what they’re willing to do. I was saying to you, Jim, I have two teeny tiny jobs that have been incredibly helpful to get off my chest. There are a million others, but I find these two to be funny, interesting, and an example of how you bite it out. I think personal care contact is super important. It’s a way to stay connected. Well, I have a congregant that is wonderful at writing cards. So, what I do is literally type her a message and say, Would you write a message to Jim? Jim visited last week and he would love to get a card saying, Thank you. Or, Jim had surgery. Send him a card for surgery, or whatever the case may be. And she does it. I have another congregant that gets all my readers. I send everything out. She gets my readers. Now that I say that, I have another congregant that does our prayer list.
So, I’m doing it and it comes through my hands, but it actually is doing two things. They are okay to saying, Yes, to a job that only requires this much – this little bit of time. And they feel connected. And they feel a part of the community that they are doing something for and participating in.
It is a challenge, though, to figure out how to chunk it out. Because I will acknowledge I’m 51 years old. I say that of my own accord. But I’m old now. And God bless me, but I don’t think like a 20-year-old. I can’t. It’s outside of my experience. But we need to ask their opinions. How can I get you to say, Yes? Or, what is making you say, No, right now? How could I change this job where it would be okay? Sunday school, for example, having someone willing not to be the coordinator for all time forever and ever and have every single grade, but being willing to do it once a month, themselves. Or being willing to do just the Christmas Pageant. Those used to be one-job, one-person things all the way across the board. Now they’re multiple people taking on small chunks that are digestible. And more importantly, they do it with joy, not with the feeling of complete exhaustion, because our faith is supposed to be joyful.
Jim Latimer
Amen! Preach it! Absolutely. And what makes that work is that you have a sense of the larger piece: if we’re gonna have a Sunday school, or something, we need to know what the scale is – the scope is. And then you have a count. You find out who’s interested in being involved in some way, and then ask them, What works for you? What’s your passion or your interest? Rather approach them with a specific job, approach them with questions like, How would you like to be involved? What works for you? Where do you feel your energy moving? And then whatever the task or job is, you create around that to the extent you can. And that then enables them to do it with joy, and to really feel connected, rather than giving them a job description: This is what we’ve always done, and so, do this, please. And they’re going, I don’t want (or can’t) do that. And then there is upset. It’s a mashup.
Dawn Adams
And one of the real learnings for me is not to assume, for example, that because someone is a school teacher – say, a second-grade school teacher – that they would make a great second grade Sunday School teacher too. They might not want to, because that’s where they spend all their other energy. So, helping them establish, Where are my gifts and talents? And what do I feel called to do?
That is a big conversation in our church: what do you feel called to? And I remember someone said during my first couple months, You talk about this calling all the time. And I was like, Yes! Not only are ministers called, but each and every one of us is called – the Ministry of all believers. We are all called. And so, don’t feel obligated to do what you do. Where are your gifts and talents? And where is God calling you? Because just like for me, No, is an acceptable response. And I make sure that everyone knows that I would rather have you where God is calling you, than where I, or some other group of leadership, thinks you should be, or frankly, needs you to be. Maybe we need to reevaluate what the needs are. So, I love the way you said that. Jim, having that conversation with your congregants to find out where their movement is? Where is the Holy Spirit calling them?
Jim Latimer
Yes. And inviting them: Hey, if this doesn’t work for you, say, No. It’s okay. No guilt, no blame, please. And not only that, but as you indicated, that can be how the Spirit works. The Spirit can often work through No, not just through, Yes.
Dawn Adams
Absolutely. It’s a partnership, where conversation, reflection and collaboration come together. And when it does, it’s a beautiful thing.
Jim Latimer
Oh, wow. It’s perfect to end there. Thank you. Having those conversations. Those beautiful conversations where people engage and serve, and step into their call or calls. We ministers and others – everybody – everybody has a call. God calls everybody to something – little thing, big thing – over time.
Dawn Adams
Amen. Amen.
Jim Latimer
Thank you so much, Dawn. It’s been a joy.
Dawn Adams
Thanks, Jim.