​#11 - Traditional, Formation, and Depth: Welcoming and engaging Millennials in your parish family

Friday, 1-2:30 pm
Presenters
Garwood Anderson, Nashotah House Theological Seminary, WI
Rev. Ryan Pollock, Assisting Evangelist - Diocese of Dallas, Curate for Young Adults - St. Matthew's Cathedral, Dallas, TX

Workshop Description
“The Millennials” are perhaps the most written-about generation in human history, at least in part because their ways of identifying what matters to them and how they decide to invest their time and energy are so different than the generations that have come before.

Where young adult ministry for the last 40 years focused on a departure from tradition and shying away from inter-generational dialogue, against all odds, Millennials are filling churches and chapels from New York to California not for the rock bands or fresh expressions meant to attract them, but for the quiet experience of centuries-old Compline chanted by candlelight and old-fashioned pot-luck dinners. Searching for authenticity, and longing to truly belong, the older ideas of ministries to young adults and their young families need to shift to meet these desires in the hearts of Millennials. 

Hear from an evangelist to young adults and an experienced leader in seminary education as they discuss the roles of tradition, spiritual formation (not just information), and the search for depth as a framework to understand what young adults and their young families are seeking in a parish family, and share ideas for how parishes of any size can welcome this next generation of leaders through authenticity and being really present to one another.