Who Is a Young Adult? Defining Young Adults in Church Ministry

The term “young adults” can be traced back to the mid-1800s, when the Young Men’s Christian Association (the YMCA) was founded as a haven for young men. In the mid-1900s, Billy Graham was the first president of Youth for Christ, an organization that saw millions of young adults come to Christ. Later, it was followed by the Jesus Movement, predominantly comprised of young adults radically following Jesus and making disciples. Based on this movement, the Bible study, Jesus Revolution, looks at young adults in revival and how God can do the same today.

Young adults are in the early stages of adulthood, usually in their late teens, 20s, and early 30s. Young adults often represent a transition period between adolescence and full-fledged adulthood, marked by significant life changes and milestones. They are in a season of exploration, self-discovery, and decision-making that can influence their personal, educational, spiritual, and career trajectories.

Young is relative

If I were to ask a room of pastors and church leaders to define young adults, nearly everyone would have a different definition, age range, rationalization, and defense for their answer. This is because young is relative to who is using the term and in what context. An elementary school might say the young children are pre-k through first grade. However, in high school, young kids might mean ninth graders, or if middle and high school are combined, sixth and seventh graders. Seems extreme? We do the same with adults.

For most normative churches, “the young people” might refer to those under 40 or 50 if the church’s median age is 70. Many 40-year-olds may refer to themselves as young, but 20-year-olds would call them middle-aged. A 27-year-old would say they are young, while an 18-year-old would say they are the real young one. Most everyone feels they are younger than someone else.

Your church’s community and context define young. The challenge is not how you define young adults but how those in your context define themselves. To better understand how adults in the early stages of adulthood and adulting see themselves, we need to investigate their life stages.

“Your church's community and context define young. The challenge is not how you define young adults but how those in your context define themselves.” — @PJ_Dunn

Adulting and emerging adults

“Adulting is the worst,” says a young adult during prayer time at the end of a Bible study. But what is adulting, and why is it “the worst”? Delayed adolescence is a phrase often used to describe current generations of young adults. It’s the idea young adults now take longer to reach traditional adulthood identifiers like a good job, education, financial independence, and marriage. These are the markers of adulting as defined by society, but society has changed.

Take marriage, for example. In 1950, after Billy Graham launched Youth for Christ to reach young adults, the average age for marriage was 23 for men and 20 for women. In 2023, it has increased to 30 for men and 28 for women. Based on marriage, adulting in 2023 took place an average of seven years later than in 1950.

Think of how this has impacted how we build systems and ministry to connect people. Young adult ministry in 1950 would have been predominantly married adults, many with children. Young adult ministry now has more singles than married adults and even fewer with children.

People also live longer; traditional adult markers spread out later in life. In 1950, the average life expectancy was 68; in 2023, it was 78. On average, adults in the United States are living nearly 10 years longer and marrying seven years later. These are vital stats to a pastor or leader looking to reach their community in 2025 but operating like it’s the mid-1900s.

Pastors and leaders, this is where the term emerging adult comes into the picture to explain a gap from 1950 to the present. It addresses 18-25-year-olds and the fact that many are high school graduates with a little more money. In fact, for many, their brains do not fully develop until they are nearly 25. So, they are emerging into young adulthood, and their needs are different than those of adults who are well-established in this phase. This is why a definition of young adults may need to be broader than 25 and younger and expand to include adults under 35, reflecting the 10 years on average we live longer than in the past 70+ years.

Young adult’s lives are in chaos

We often see what we give attention to. Are you looking for a new car? After some research, you pick a make and model. Now, every time you drive around town, you see that car everywhere. The same is true for how you will see young adults if you look further into their lives. Young adults in their 20s and 30s can fall into a few categories, but here are 10 statistics that expose the chaos found in the lives of young adults.

1. Young adults spend 70% less time with friends than they did two decades ago.
2. More than half of young adults are single.
3. Around seven million young adults live at home with their parents.
4. Dependent college students are, on average, 21 years old, while independent college students are, on average, 26 years old.
5. Only 57% of those 18-21 in 2018 were enrolled in a college or university.
6. The average age for first-time marriage for women is 28 and for men is 30.
7. Young adults have the highest divorce rate of married adults, with those 25-34 experiencing a divorce rate of nearly 20%.
8. Mothers, on average, are 27 years old at their first birth.
9. More than half of single mothers (52.9%) and more than 1 in 3 single fathers (37%) are millennials.
10. One in 4 adults ages 18-29 (25%) reports having student loan debt. And borrowers between the ages of 26-34 have an average debt of $33,260.

Jesus is the answer

These statistics demonstrate how a “one-size-fits-all” approach to reaching and engaging young adults simply will not work. Young adults live chaotic lives, and your church has the answer. We must adapt our ministries, programs, terminology, thinking, marketing, and outreach to reach young adults. They could be single, never-married, dating, engaged, divorced, single parents, married, or married with children. And they could move between any of these circumstances while in their 20s and 30s in your community. We don’t need to reach one specific young adult but to develop a culture of discipleship that demonstrates a life of following Christ regardless of your life stage.

“We don’t need to reach one specific young adult but to develop a culture of discipleship that demonstrates a life of following Christ regardless of your life stage.” — @PJ_Dunn

What do I name our young adult ministry?

A measure of a ministry name could be, “Would all the young adults we talk to see themselves in that ministry?” If not, how do we articulate communication to reach them and align it with the church’s discipleship strategy?

Young adults are diverse, lonely, energetic, and servant-minded and want to be part of your church. Defining who a young adult is in your community is one more step toward connecting them in the church and making disciples. Don’t let a ministry model or name paralyze you. Focus on advancing the gospel to make disciples who make disciples, and your church will reach young adults.

This article was originally published by Lifeway Research and is reposted here with permission. Read the original article at:

https://research.lifeway.com/2025/01/27/who-is-a-young-adult/