Sometimes, it seems, young adults don’t feel welcome or needed in their parish communities. And sometimes it seems to parish leaders that young adults don’t want to commit to anything, or contribute to the parish.

According to young adults and leaders in young adult ministry, both of those perspectives are way off base. The Catholic Church as a whole and individual parishes need the energy, talents and insights of young adult members, and those young adult members need to find communities that will help them develop their relationships with God and with their neighbors.

“Young adults in the church, we often feel that we’re not seen,” said Yamilette Ayala, 32, a parishioner at Holy Name Cathedral and director of marketing for Young Catholic Professionals’ Chicago chapter. “We’re making a lot of decisions about what we want to be, and what will be our take on faith. We need somewhere to be seen, to develop a sense of community in our everyday life.”

“‘As young adults, it’s the stage of life when they are making significant life decisions about their careers and relationships and personal values,” said Father Ton Nguyen, an associate pastor of Holy Name Cathedral pastor who coordinated Theology on Tap during the summer and other young adult gatherings the rest of the year. “We can offer guidance and support in a very important period of their life. If we have a focused ministry, we can address their needs and foster their connection to the community.”

Doing that helps the church stay connected as well, said Brenda Chávez, director of young adult ministry and neighborhood engagement at Old St. Patrick’s Parish at Adams Street and Des Plaines Avenue.

“One thing that I love about working in young adult ministry is the call to pivot and the call to embrace change,” Chávez said. “Young adults are coming from a different time, and they are bringing in change. By not embracing them, the church is missing out on that change. Just listening to them is a great resource on staying connected to the world. … It’s easy to stay in our little corner of the world, and ‘this is how we have been doing things for generations.’ Then all of a sudden that’s not working. Young adults help us stay ahead of that curve.”

One concrete example, she said, is how Old St. Pat’s started livestreaming Masses before the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020 because that was something the parish’s young adult members asked for. When the shutdown happened, the parish was ready to expand its efforts instead of just figuring out how to do it.

It starts, Nguyen said, by creating spaces for young adults to express themselves in a spiritual way.

“There are so many spaces in the bar or the restaurant or at work, there should be space for them to talk about their faith,” he said. “Creating a space where young adults feel safe and listened to and honored is important.”

Nguyen said the cathedral last year organized small groups for young adults to offer one another support and accountability, along with setting opportunities for them to serve their communities.

Those who minister to young adults should also remember that college students and recent college grads have dealt with things that other generations haven’t, said Mary Lato, president of the student leadership team at the St. John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Young adults are looking for “communion and community, love and mercy,” she said.

What can the church expect from young adults?

“A lot of brokenness, a lot of wounds, a lot of neediness,” said Lato, a senior studying accounting. “No other generation has ever had access to what we have, and there are a lot of addictions.”

Chávez said many young adults were greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and some seem reluctant to commit to group activities.

“We’re figuring out the ‘front porch’ programs,” she said. “You’re not necessarily in the church, but you’re on the front porch. So that means programs where they can stop by, no registration, you can come at the beginning you can come at the end, you can stay for five minutes. It’s providing opportunities where they can come and get their feet wet.”

Clarissa Sapien is one of three young adults who have been working to build up a young adult group at St. Thomas More Mission by holding weekly Bible studies and other events.

What young adults need, Sapien said, is the support of their parishes, even in small ways, such as making announcements and including information about events in the bulletin or on parish bulletin boards.

“We want to bring in more people, more donations to the church,” said Sapien, 22, who is studying nursing. “We want to do a cookbook coming out. We want to bring life back into St. Thomas More.”

Nguyen cautioned against putting too much emphasis on young adults’ financial contributions, since many are just getting started and can’t give as much as more established parishioners. What they do have is energy, along with skills and talent.

Young adults today grew up with social media, Nguyen said, and the church needs to connect with them there. Having young adult members can help the church do that, he said.

“I can edit a video, and it will take me a couple of hours,” he said. “They can do the same thing in a few minutes.”