Disciple: YEAH: Young Episcopal Adult Hubs

A new take on building a network of young adults

By Summerlee Walter

For at least the past decade, the common wisdom surrounding young adults and the local church has been to go where they are, discover what ignites their spiritual selves and offer something to meet their needs instead of waiting for young adults to appear at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning and bemoaning their absence when they don’t.

Many churches in our Diocese have taken this approach seriously, and we’ve seen as a result a variety of pub theology and beer and hymns programs succeed, including in Raleigh, Tarboro, Durham and Asheboro (“It’s Not a Gimmick. It’s Church,” Disciple, Winter 2018). A Movable Feast, the mobile food and prayer ministry that debuted at Convention in 2014, led to a successful Sunday evening program of the same name at Davidson College and to ongoing engagement by St. Titus', Durham, on the campus of Durham Tech Community College. (The trailer is currently reaching out to a different population at Galilee Ministries of East Charlotte.)

While there are successful—albeit often small—young adult ministries and peer groups throughout the Diocese, it can still be a challenge for under-40 Episcopalians to find a peer group if they are not fortunate enough to attend a church with an active young adult ministry. Others know where to find such a group but feel they don’t fit the “young couples with kids” vibe—or, alternately, the “single folks who can stay out late without hiring a babysitter” vibe. In the end, the question remains: How do young adults find a group of peers in The Episcopal Church?

SOME 3 A.M. INSPIRATION

The Rev. Adrienne Koch was hired—she thought—as the campus minister for North Carolina State University in 2017. It was only after she came on board that Koch learned she would not have any affiliation with NC State, which no longer sanctions chaplains, but would instead serve as a young adult missioner located near the college campus. This arrangement is in line with the vision of the Rt. Rev. Anne Hodges-Copple, who in her role as bishop suffragan guides young adult and campus ministry within the Diocese. She’s working to shift the model for campus ministry away from the traditional chaplain role and toward a local missionary or community organizer model in which a young adult missioner does what the churches have been learning to do for the past decade: go out and meet people. This doesn’t mean the need for a chaplain and a campus-based gathering place disappeared, however.

“It really was a dual role, and I found myself thinking about how the young adult missioner piece really expands the focus of the ministry to, for me, the Raleigh area, basically Wake County, which is a large area,” Koch explained.

In order to grasp the new focus of her traditional role, Koch visited the 10 Wake County churches to inventory the young adult ministries already happening. She also reached out to other Raleigh colleges, like Shaw University, where the Episcopal Church does not have a presence, but she could not gain meaningful access.

“I thought, if I’m not going to sort of start anything—or even get connected with people who are doing the work—how can I give voice to the people who are doing something who I can’t seem to meet or find?” Koch said.

Koch was praying during a 3 a.m. night feeding with her son last February, trying to imagine what her role might look like and feeling overwhelmed by the scope of her mission field, when she started to think differently about the challenge.

“What if instead of seeing it as a big problem, I saw it as a big network,” she said. “What if I saw all of [the churches and ministries] as resource points for me and myself as a resource point for all of these ministries that don’t really have a hub. I can only call it inspiration.”

The idea came with an acronym: YEAH, or young Episcopal adult hub. Koch was inspired in part by her background in the evangelical and Pentecostal world, where small groups of close connection are a major focus. She was also excited by the vast network of connections already built into the Episcopal ethos through convocations, dioceses, provinces and the Episcopal Church. The social media focus that would arise out of Koch’s early vision grew naturally from the idea of networks and close connections.

A NEW WAY TO FIND A PLACE

The young adult missioners have decided to rebrand the work of young adult and campus ministry around Koch’s late night inspiration, adopting the concept of YEAH in Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro and Winston-Salem to start. They’re still discerning exactly what their focus will be going forward, but they already have an important tool in place: the YEAH app, where young adults can both find and form hub groups in their geographic locations.

Hub groups already on the app—which was released in early January—include campus ministry worship, an educational program for low-income youth, church-based 20s and 30s groups, and a Taco Tuesday meet-up. Other content, including entries from the A Movable Feast website and blog will be repurposed on the YEAH app as resources for seekers.

The ultimate goal of YEAH is to make ministry more accessible for young adults, regardless of work schedules or family life. Koch thinks the YEAH app might be just the thing to make that happen.

“Ultimately, I want someone who’s having a conversation about faith to be able to pull out their phone and direct someone to a place they can go, even if it’s not the same place [that person] goes.”

The YEAH app is available in the App Store and on Google Play by searching “YEAH NC.”

Summerlee Walter is the communications coordinator for the Diocese of North Carolina.