The easiest mistake for churches to make with young adults is to view them as commodities to be utilized, rather than people to be valued. Yes, they bring energy and freshness to a congregation, but they also introduce a youthful edge and a certain amount of angst into the life of the church. As young adults organize themselves and begin to offer their gifts for ministry, they will begin to assert their own sense of 'how things should be done,' causing more established members of the congregation to feel a twinge of anxiety and perhaps alienation. This dynamic must be managed lovingly and wisely.

By virtue of their age, young adults are pioneers who look for new ways to solve 'old' problems. Rather than settling into an established program, they will typically prefer charting their own course, creating their own turf and changing things up. They seek answers to questions they and their peer group are asking, which may be quite different than the questions we've been trained to address. ...