| Quarterlife Crisis of young adults needs churchs response  BY CIONA ROUSE United Methodists can handle a crisis. We may not be prepared for every crisis. After all, the spontaneous and critical nature of a crisis usually implies some lack of preparation. I have witnessed, however, United Methodists being some of the first people to respond by rallying our rescue teams to a scene, combining our resources and offering prayers and ministry to people during their hardships. The young adult population, my peers, is now in crisis. The church needs to respond. This segment of the population is cleverly termed the quarterlife crisis by writers Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner in their book Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. This is the period of life after high school or college when young adults may experience absolute shock. Maybe it comes as no surprise that young adults experience difficulty during this time of new responsibility, decision-making, career uncertainty, relationship changes and self-discovery. My mom reminds me that she, too, had been there years ago. Its just a process of life, she tells me. This  may be true. As young adults today experience this phase of life, however, changes in the culture have heightened its critical nature. Young adults may find themselves confused and frustrated. As my mother went through this time, she had a community of faith to support her. I am afraid this is not true for many young adults today. Though we have room to grow in youth ministry, The United Methodist Church has learned how to provide ministries that meet high school and junior high students where they are. Older adults also seem to find Bible studies and other ministries shaped specifically for their spiritual needs. But what do we have in between? Usually there is nothing. In fact, we lose many active youth who graduate from the youth group and do not return to church until after they are 30. Young adults who do stay connected to the church often try to fit in older adult ministries or volunteer to work with the youth in order to find a place in the church. Still many find very little fulfillment. Some congregations have singles ministries and encourage young adults to be a part of this ministry where marital status is the only common denominator, not age or life experience. Then married young adults still feel disconnected as their situations differ from older married couples. Its not that young adults do not want to interact or worship with older adults. We learn from each other across generational lines, and ministry is done regardless of age. In fact, the Sunday School class I attend is a group of young adults who look forward to the time we spend with our partner class, a group where nearly every member was born before 1945. But the reality is that young adults have specific needs and ways of approaching faith that The United Methodist Church must meet, or we will find a generation of people disillusioned by faith and disconnected from church communities. The solution is not to create gimmicks or make drastic changes in an attempt to market to young adults. The solution lies in the church saying to young adults that young people matter to the life of the church, and we are going to make the Gospel relevant to the life and culture of young adults. The solution involves the church creating ministries addressing the varied and changing realities of young adults. Its saying that their gifts and graces are important to the life of the church. Its saying that the church realizes young adults are in a critical period of life and The United Methodist Church is going to respond. Ciona Rouse works for the General Board of Discipleship. She is a former Judith Weidman Racial Ethnic Minority Fellow who worked in the Baltimore-Washington Conference Office of Communications. | 
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