Ministering to the Young Single Adult - Elmer Towns

More documents

Recommendations

Info

5. Working but living at home. This person often finds that he is accepted as anadult outside the home but has difficulty in achieving this status in the family setting. Thesocial and spiritual patterns are usually identified with the family, whereas businesspatterns are completely outside the family. He usually finds some little groupidentification outside of business and church relationships. The unique problems of thisyoung person will be discussed at length in this book.6. Working and living away from home. This young person is more successful ingaining recognition as a mature adult than the one living at home. However, he facesmany problems created by business, church and social life, resulting in loneliness. Theyoung single adult living away from home usually has more difficulty being absorbedinto the local church program than the young person who lives at home.7. Separated from a mate. Divorce and separation are increasing. Along with thissituation, there is many a young adult who loses his mate through death before the age ofthirty-five. This young unattached adult has been separated geographically from hischildhood home and has been identified as a married partner. When he began his ownfamily relationship, the community accepted him differently from the young person whohas never been married. The community looks upon him as being more stable, placingmore responsibility upon him than upon the young single adult.The young adult who has been separated from a mate will have more difficultywith his self-image. Two radical transitions should have transpired. The first transitionwas from being a single person to being a partner in a marriage relationship. The secondtransition was from the marriage relationship back to the role of an unattached adult. Theunique problems of loneliness and search for meaning are usually compounded byfinancial pressures and sometimes social ostracism from the local church.8. Separated from a mate and having children. This person frequently faces theproblems of other young unattached adults who have been separated from their mate buthe has an added financial burden joined to this is the responsibility of rearing a familyand playing the role of both parents to the children. Serious tensions are created for thisyoung person. The problems and needs of this group are outside the scope of this paperand will not be considered.V. THE COMMUNITYThe young single adult is getting started in his occupation for life. He is first of alltrying to find his unique inner ability and skill. Then, there is a growing concern forimproving his skill and mastering the vocational requirements of life. He must set up hisown standard of success and achievement at work. He must learn to handle the problemsarising from working conditions. There is pressure for promotion and climbing the“company” ladder of success. Also, he faces the frustration of adjusting to his income.This young person is just getting started in community life. He is not considered afull adult in the church society and for the most part assumes little social responsibility.
There seems to be a lack of desire to contact others outside his own group. He refrainsfrom joining many organizations. The Springfield, Massachusetts, adult education studyrevealed that “60% of young adults between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four belongto one organization in the community, while 60% of those under twenty-five belong to noorganization at all.” 2Apparently, with growing maturity, the adult becomes better socialized.Apparently the young single adult has less organized activity for him than forother sections of our population. The local church reflects our community by having veryfew organized activities for this group. When in adolescence, the young personfunctioned in a highly organized high school culture. Now he is in a “vacuum” and is leftto drift, cut off from the religious and social organizations. The young adult who marrieshas easier access to the organizational structure of society than those who do not. Aparallel survey was made in Hartford, Connecticut, which revealed that only 15% of theyoung adults in that community were members of church groups. 3Olds and Josephson quizzed young adults searching for reasons that they were notmore active in community organizations. The following reasons for non-participationwere given: 41. Too busy getting ahead in a vocation-37% 2. Job takes too much time-26%3. Had no experience in an organization like this-2A%4. Military service does not give time to participate in such activities-23%5. Did not see how it would benefit them personally-23%6. Their friends did not think it was the thing to do-9%Also, in this survey some factors were listed that appealed to young adults:Good recreational program-59%A positive program-50%Something to do that was worthwhile-45%Effective leaders in the group-38%VI. SUMMARYThese, then, are some of the young single adults who may live in our churchcommunity. They need the ministry of the church. They are concerned about their sex lifeand mating, entertainment, life goals and security. Emotional growth, vocational
Page 2: Ministering to theYoung Single Adul
Page 5: ContentsIntroduction1 The Enigma of
Page 8 and 9: young persons. The college student
Page 10: CHAPTER 1The Enigmaof the Young Sin
Page 13 and 14: A twenty-eight-year-old stenographe
Page 15: IV. CLASSIFICATIONThere are many ki
Page 19 and 20: FOOTNOTES1. Judy Klemesrud, The Chi
Page 22 and 23: Who Is the Young Single Adult?I. PR
Page 24 and 25: What do you think is Ann’s main p
Page 26: adult . . . Probably it is safe to
Page 29 and 30: Other reasons are given that young
Page 31 and 32: FOOTNOTES1. Paul B. Maves, Understa
Page 34 and 35: The Young Single Adult and His Prob
Page 36 and 37: 3. Wants to succeed in his work but
Page 38 and 39: Although more people live in high-r
Page 40 and 41: in the family got married, left the
Page 42 and 43: will appear around the drinks. You
Page 44 and 45: communication, the two find a minis
Page 46 and 47: causes tension within the individua
Page 48: CHAPTER 4Helping Young SingleAdults
Page 51 and 52: Counseling has many approaches: cli
Page 53 and 54: isolation from other men. The separ
Page 55 and 56: elieve. Since the gospel has two ma
Page 57 and 58: He may do what you say without unde
Page 59 and 60: him. He needs to know that he is no
Page 61: CHAPTER 5Program in the Church fort
Page 64 and 65: When discussing programs and curric
Page 66 and 67:
. The planned events of the church
Page 68 and 69:
them to a potential host or hostess
Page 70:
d. Helps to keep the newly married
Page 73:
CHAPTER 6Young Single Adults-A Chal
Page 76 and 77:
therefore neglect them. Some church
Page 78 and 79:
Authentic Christian fellowship will
Page 80 and 81:
same-”girls are looking for a man
Page 82 and 83:
unique needs and characteristics of
Page 85 and 86:
Young Single Adults—Their Opportu
Page 87 and 88:
IV. PARTICIPATING IN THE WORSHIP SE
Page 89 and 90:
The young single adult can serve in
Page 91 and 92:
BibliographyAllen, E. “Who Wants
Page 93 and 94:
Leypolt, M. M. “Teaching-Learning
show all

Ministering to the Young Single Adult - Elmer Towns

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?