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Face Time: Jason Garvermeets with pastor CoreyMagstadt at a Twin Citiescoffeehouse. The effectivejobless rate for millennialsis 16.2 percent.

The Forgotten MillennialsMore noncollege-bound young adults seek direction, and more ministries arepoised to help. By Catherine Newhouse

ason Garver reached a crisison a summer day at age 18,when he came to the endof his peanut-butter-and-

cracker food supply in a houseon the hrink of foreclosure.

His hopes for a steady job had justcrumbled. Nearly every company wherehe had applied for work had recently

called to turn him down. Garver thought:Why does God hate me so much?

He texted that question to his formerpastor. Except that Garver wasn't sure ifthere was a God. If there was, he thought,maybe he had written off the high-schooldropout as a "bad kid" for abusing drugsand alcohol. His father had moved out ofstate for work, leaving Garver to survive on

occasional grocery deliveries from friends."It was the hopelessness of not hav-

ing any food, not getting a job, not seeingpeople," Garver said. "I wasn't in school. Ididn't have friends coming to see me ever,and I couldn't go out to do anything. I wasso hungry I didn't want to do anything."

After receiving the text, Garver's pastor,Gorey Magstadt, asked to meet with him.

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Give Them Sheiter: At the Launch Pad,homeiess young adults are provided afford-able housing. A new federal program. YouthCount, will count homeless miliennials innine major cities this year.

Magstadt told Garver that he didn't haveall the answers. But he did help Garver getback on his feet and invited him to the newLaunch Ministry for young adults nearChaska, southwest of Minneapolis-StPaul, Minnesota.

Garver, now 22, belongs to the so-calledmillennial generation (born from 1980 to2000), a group numbering 80 million thatsurveys show is beyond the reach of manytraditional churches. According to a recentPew Forum survey, miliennials are theleast religiously affiliated Americans of anyliving generation.

Young adults who go from high schoolto a four-year university or military servicehave specialized ministries tailored tothem. But few ministries exist to addressthe distinct needs and spiritual concernsof miliennials who drop out of high school,go straight into the workforce, or attend acommunity college.

"There's a cultural expectation ofwhat a college student is," said Magstadt,

Launch Ministry's executive director. "Butif you're that age and not going to college,you fit into a different box, and the churchdoesn't know what to do with you."

Launch is one ofthe few ministries inthe country serving 18- to 25-year-oldswho aren't pursuing four-year degrees.Without Launch, Garver says, he mighteasily have fallen into a deeper financialand spiritual rut.

When Garver needed short-term hous-ing, Magstadt invited him into his home,and when he needed a cai" to get to work,Magstadt gave Garver his old one. He alsoencouraged Garver to turn to Scriptureamid his spiritual struggles.

Garver has since obtained his GED andnursing assistant license, with his eyes seton a bachelor's degree in physics.

And he doesn't think God hates himanymore. "Now I can say, being a Chris-tian—that's how God helps," Garver said."It's not a big glowing hand coming fromthe sky. It's people like Corey."

TREND REVERSAL: GOING iT ALONE

As the author ofthe 2009 book, Souls inTransition, Notre Dame sociologist Chris-tian Smith has studied the religious lives

ofthe millennial generation and theirhalting transition into adulthood. Hisresearch has found that miliennials whodon't go to college tend to be even lessreligious than their peers—a trend rever-sal since the 1990s.

"It used to be that college corrodedreligious faith. That has changed," saidSmith. "Something about just graduatinghigh school or not graduating high schooland just working seems to be associ-ated with less believing and less churchinvolvement."

Smith said there are a few possiblereasons for the trend. First, social classis a correlating factor—Americans whohave bachelor's degrees and thereforeare in the middle class are more likely toattend church. Second, working youngadults tend to be more socially isolatedand less connected to any type of com-munity institution, including the church.Third, religious organizations typicallyoverlook groups of college-age adultswho aren't at four-year institutions.

"If you're trying to set up a ministryfor young people, colleges make the mostsense," Smith said. "They're accessible.Students are away from home and are mostsusceptible to being changed by a message.Ministries view college-bound people asmore attractive because they'll be moreinfluential in society as they get older."

But the noncoUege-bound are a sizablegroup to overlook. Ofthe nearly 4 millionU.S. high-school graduates in 2011, about68 percent had enrolled in college by thatOctober, according to the Bureau of La-bor Statistics. Of those college-enrolledstudents, only about 60 percent were atfour-year institutions. In an economicdownturn, many miliennials have opted toattend more affordable two-year colleges,which are less likely to have robust on-campus Christian outreach.

Meanwhile, working miliennials aremore vulnerable to poverty and unemploy-ment. Smith said, meaning they face someofthe hardest obstacles transitioning toadulthood.

Realizing this, Magstadt started LaunchMinistry. As the senior pastor ofthe RiverChurch in Chaska, he saw that manyyouth-group graduates had disappearedfrom the church's regular worship. Afrer

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stepping down as senior pastor, he soondiscovered just how serious some of theirproblems were.

About 20 young adults showed up tothe first Launch Bible study in February2009. As they went around introducingthemselves, Magstadt saw many were deal-ing with crises: the first person had lost hismom the night before, the second personhad just found out she was pregnant, andthe third person was her boyfriend, whowas addicted to meth.

"We quickly realized we were in overour heads," Magstadt said. Although hehad envisioned the Bible study to be like ayouth group for young adults, the need fora supportive community was more urgent.

AN ENVIRONMENT TO GROWLaunch started developing practical pro-grams to meet young adults' basic needs,such as one-on-one mentoring and lifeskills classes, which teach career skillssuch as building a résumé, applying for ajob, and taking the GED.

The mentoring progi-am pairs about 20young adults with volunteers from localchurches. The mentors help young adultsset and achieve their goals in both spiritualand practical areas of life. It's this person-alized attention that results in change,Magstadt said.

"Young adults are crying out for some-one to pour into their life, especially thosewho don't have much parental support,"Magstadt said. "They need guidance that ismuch more direct and personal."

Most recently. Launch opened a transi-tional house called the Launch Pad, whereeight young men stay for a monthly rentof $150, and they hope to start a house foryoung women. After committing himself tothe Christian faith, Garver is now helpingto manage the Launch Pad.

Magstadt said creating the Launch Padwas necessary because young adult home-lessness was on the rise in their area.

"All their basic needs were taking up somuch of their time that they couldn't focuson other things, like school and developingtheir spiritual life," Magstadt said. Recentnational surveys show that 2 million peo-ple ages 18 to 24 had experienced home-lessness during the previous 12 months.

Even while they don't have ministries

that specifically target noncollege 18- to2S-year-olds, some churches have suc-cessfully reached millennials. In the pastfew years. Sunrise Community Church inAustin, Texas, has seen millennials gravi-tate toward their ministry, and now pastorMark Hilbelink estimates that half thecongregation is under the age of 40. Hil-belink came to Sunrise in May 2009 at theage of 26, succeeding a 65-year-old pastor.

Hilbelink describes Sunrise as halfblue-collar and half white-collar, with ayoung adult population that faces struggleslike out-of-wedlock children, alcoholism,and drug abuse. He said such issues re-quire a brutally honest church atmosphere,where young adults can own up to theirfailures rather than hiding them from thepublic eye.

"We want you tolayoutyourdirtylaun-dry and then we'll walk with you throughit and deal with it, rather than forcing youinto the closet with it," Hilbelink said.

Sunrise emphasizes the importance ofmissional small groups to create that inti-mate atmosphere; in fact, said Hilbelink, ifyou have to choose, skip church and go tosmall group. Chad Vails, 28, had never beento a small group before Sunrise. But whenhe joined one he found himself opening upabout his fear that he wouldn't be there forhis 5- and 7-year-old daughters, fatheredout of wedlock—just as his father wasn'tthere for him.

Vails said he told his small group ev-erything before going to his pastor, buthe eventually saw that it was okay to tellHilbelink too. "It's hard to talk to a pastor,because you think he's this guy who's rightwith God," he said. "Is he going to judge meif I tell him about this? But afrer I went to asmall gi-oup, I realized it wasn't that bad."

COMING INTO THEIR OWNSometimes young adults take it uponthemselves to reach out to their peers.That's the case with the Mission, a newcommunity-college ministry to 75,000 stu-dents in the Lone Star College System.

The Mission isn't affiliated with anychurch or religious organization. It startedin September 2011 when a few Lone Starstudents in Montgomery County in south-east Texas decided to create a Christianclub. Prior to the Mission, there had only

been a small Bible study group active onthe Montgomery campus.

Many on-campus ministries tend tofocus on four-year schools, where studentslive in the dorms and are gathered in acentral location. At community colleges,students commute and are less accessible.

The response to the Mission was over-whelming. Natalia Gaggero, a 22-year-oldLone Star student who helped start theministry, said more than 80 people showedup for the first meeting, and they had 120members in the first month. Since then,the Mission has expanded to two otherLone Star campuses. Members are con-stantly praying for Lone Star students; 48people pray for a half hour every day, cov-ering the full 24 hours.

"We're very oriented toward prayerand intercession, crying out to God for ourcampus, for the Lord to break the walls ofapathetic reactions to him," Gaggero said.

Other millennials have risen to leader-ship within existing ministries. Sunrise hasseveral young worship leaders, including22-year-old Ashley Rico, who sings andplays the keyboard.

When Sunrise asked her to join theworship team, Rico was hesitant. Betweenraising her 2-year-old son (now 4) andworking, she had a lot on her plate. Shealso wasn't sure if she was ready for the;piritual responsibility of leading worshipand representing the church.

"I had to make a decision when theyasked me to lead worship, if I was going to be100 percent in my faith," Rico said. "I knew Iwasn't going to get up on stage if I wasn't."

After much praj -er, Rico decided to gofor it. Soon after, she started reading the Bi-ble more and looking up the biblical originsof worship songs. At first, Rico was nervousabout speaking in front of the congregation,but the previous worship leader remindedher that as long as her heart was set on wor-shiping God, everything would be okay.

"Every time I do practice or a worshipservice, I'm reassured and know that'swhere I'm supposed to be," Rico said. "I feellike a better person, not because of what I'mdoing, but because I'm part of something." ©

Catherine Newhouse (soon to be Catherine

Knarr) is tine editor for Faitin Driven Business, a

new online networi< of Christian entrepreneurs.

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