1. Significant worship
2. Christ centered
3. Family friendly
4. Open minded
5. Relevant issues
6. Young clergy
7. Embrace diversity
8. Current music
9. Casual dress
10. Internet presence

The Young Adult Council is committed to helping local churches in the Southwest Texas Conference reach out and keep Young Adults. We are just beginning to go to work for you by providing resources, literature, curriculum, and creative ideas to make our churches young adult-friendly.

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Keep reading for an explanation of the Top 10 Ways to Reach Young Adults.

1. Significant worship (Worship doesn't have to be contemporary, many young adults like traditional worship. The main thing is to make it real, relevant, and alive for young adults, where they are, and what they are going through.)

2. Christ centered (No more country club, feel-good messages that exclude the gospel of Jesus Christ. Churches they are growing and that reach young adults, talk about making life decisions and daily commitments to growing and becoming better disciples in Christ.)

3. Family friendly (Many young adults have children and need day care in order to participate. Also, statistics show that churches with active youth and children's programs keep and grow their young adult population as a whole.)

4. Open minded (Some young adults may look different, be different, or talk differently than many of your current church members. They also think differently. This is good. Be open minded and get to know the young adults who come to visit.)

5. Relevant issues (It's time to get current! Make sure our programs, sermons, devotionals and Bible studies are not only faithful to God's Word, but also relate with today's world. If you don't know what young adults are facing...ask us! We will tell you!)

6. Young clergy (People follow those similar to themselves. Besides, why do we only have 30 clergy under 30? If we are going to exist as a church in the next 15 to 20 years, we better get busy about building up first career, young clergy persons, who are excited about being trend setters and future leaders of the church.)

7. Embrace diversity (Being inclusive is so important. We need to include all folks no matter their ethnic or economic background. The face of the Church is changing for the better. Be ready to embrace people who are much more diverse than your current congregation.)

8. Current music (Give Charles Wesley a rest! After 250 plus years, he needs a break. Even he took popular songs of his day and put awesome lyrics to them. Let's try branching out and integrating modern or contemporary music into our stuffy worship sessions.)

9. Casual dress (Ok...get over the coat and tie. Wear it if you like, but even Jesus walked around in a robe and sandals...or so we thing! Dress down to meet the culture. If you are stuck on dressing up, and looking down on those who do not, then re-read the Gospel. Honestly, our culture is becoming much more causal. Shouldn't the church follow in order to reach the unchurched millions?)

10. Internet presence (How awesome that most of our churches are already embracing this high tech way to communicated and build community. The world wide web IS the key way young adults find out information. Phone books are history, newspapers are archaic. Having a web presence (a web page) on the internet is so important. Don't miss out on this marvelous means to spread God's Word to young adults.)