Back to Exponent Menu Printer Friendly Page   LOCAL FEATURES Friday, February 22, 2008 Reaching young adults Tech Day promises to help parishes develop effective Web presence By Elaine Polomsky Soos When it comes to today’s young adults and the Church, pre-evangelization is often what it’s all about. For various reasons, many members of the Millennial Generation (those roughly between the ages of 18 and 28) are not connected to a church though they may be active spiritual seekers. What they look for in their spiritual quest is typically not what their Baby Boomer parents (or their Generation X siblings, cousins or even parents) seek, said Mike Hayes in a recent Exponent interview. Hayes is co-founder and managing editor of BustedHalo.com, a Catholic online magazine for “spiritual seekers” in their 20s and 30s. Hayes will be the main speaker for the first diocesan Tech Info Day, “Technology and Faith Formation: Reaching Today’s Young Adults,” to be offered by the Department of Information System Services 8:15 a.m.-5 p.m. March 12 in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center on the campus of Youngstown State University. In other presentations, technology and computer security issues will be discussed, and representatives will be on hand with information on software, Web site preparation and discounts to non-profit groups. Cost: $25 (includes lunch). Free parking. Participants may bring a laptop if desired, as Hayes will assist them in creating a blog and a podcast and in improving their parish or organization Web site. Information: Lou Orbin, 330-744-8451, ext. 268, or lorbin@doyweb.org. Before “Millennials” (so named because they grew up at the turn of the new millennium) will set foot in a church as adults – and certainly before they “sign on any dotted line,” Hayes said – many will check out the church online to see if it’s a place they wish to go and become part of. If a parish Web site does not tell them what they want to know immediately, they will move on to something else, Hayes warned. With one mouse click, they’re often gone forever, said the author of the book “Googling God: The Religious Landscape of People in their 20s and 30s” (Paulist Press). Because so many members of the Millennial Generation (and many in Generation X, aged roughly 29-39, as well) are “unchurched” (or virtually unchurched), parishes should focus more on pre-evangelization – attempts to simply “open doors” and create relationships with young adults – rather than share the Gospel explicitly, Hayes said. Many of today’s young adults are not necessarily looking to belong to the institutional Church, Hayes noted. But they are interested in taking a little peak into the world of church to see if there is anything there for them, as they search to understand life’s meaning and to make sense of the many tragedies and unsettling events they have personally or vicariously experienced in their lives. Events such as the unthinkable school killings at Columbine High School (1999), Virginia Tech (2007), Northern Illinois University and others, have hit far too close to home for the Millennial Generation, Hayes pointed out. Never before have ordinary young people been the target of such senseless acts of violence and in such grand proportion. Never before has an entire generation lived with such insecurity in a place they used to feel safe – their own school or college campus. Add to these events Sept. 11, 2001, which brought live images (and repeated broadcasts) of terrorists murdering innocent people by intentionally flying planes into buildings; and the tsunamis of December 2004 and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 (countless families are still displaced from the unfathomable destruction wrought by these natural disasters). For several years of young Millennials’ lives, they have lived with the threat that their own lives could be taken at any time, randomly and without warning. “Young adults are longing for a sense of security and community that has been taken away from them,” Hayes said. They want answers to the “big questions.” They want to know what is true and worth believing. They seek ways to get beyond the confusion that confronts them every day. Just a generation ago, Hayes pointed out, young adults of Generation X flocked to church (or community) programs that invited them to get together with others of their age group to do some social justice activity, then celebrate with food or a party. “It didn’t matter who sponsored it,” Hayes said. “If you did almost anything to get young people together to do something different, especially if food was involved, everybody would show up.” In those days, “if you said, come find out about the Church or about a book of Scripture, you’d hear crickets – no one would come. Today, the reverse is true,” Hayes said. “Millennials are more trusting of authority than Generation X and the Baby Boomers. They want to talk about things like truth and God, and they want a trusted source.” Many will look to the Church to help them with this, Hayes said, but “in their own time and space.” The difficulty comes when young people, who today are so connected to and at ease with technology, assume that every church is as well, only to find out that many churches don’t have a Web presence at all – or that the image churches often present of themselves is not inviting to young adults. If a Millennial sees a church on the way to school or work and wonders whether it can help him or her, he or she typically won’t go inside to talk about that. Instead, they’ll go to what has become their primary source of information – the Internet – and see what the church’s Web site says about it, Hayes said. “They use the Web page as a kind of test site for whether or not to show up at Sunday Mass.” That is why, in his technology workshops with church personnel, Hayes stresses a few important basics: In order to appeal to young adults, parishes don’t have to “go big” with their Web sites, but they do need to have a Web site. “Otherwise, you simply don’t exist. If you’re not online, you don’t exist,” as far as young adults are concerned, he said. From data he has collected from doing focus groups and from interacting with visitors to Busted Halo, Hayes said young Catholics look to parish Web sites for two things: “Mass times and something cool.” Millennials want to know when Mass is, so they can show up when they want to and mix into the crowd without committing themselves in any way. They also want to know that a parish cares about people their age. A Web site that appeals to today’s young adults needs to “articulate who the parish is and what they’re about.” A list of events (including especially evening Mass times, Scripture studies, etc.), should be highly visible, and young adults should be “front and center” in the portrayal of the parish. “If [a parish Web site] can also give young adults something contemplative and cool to think about” – one of the “big questions,” for example – it helps them connect, Hayes added. Another way a parish can pre-evangelize those who might not otherwise become involved is to look for innovative yet simple ways to “get its message out,” Hayes suggested. Priests should podcast their homilies, for example. (A podcast is a “portable on demand” airing over the Internet that a person can download and, if desired, transfer to a mobile device, such as an iPod. Podcasts can be audio or video. Those “in the know” point out that a podcast does not have to be of high professional quality for a user to click on it and play it, thanks to YouTube, a popular Web site that carries millions of videos made by ordinary people us ing very inexpensive equipment. What matters is the message a video conveys, not whether or not it outshines others technologically, Hayes said. “If I had a dime for every time someone over age 40 or 50 tells me they don’t understand the younger generation, I’d be rich,” said Hayes, who is 38. “The best way to know young adults is to connect with them where they are,” he said. And where they are is online – gathering the news and information that matters to them, listening to their choice of music, connecting with other young adults in an online community that rivals any in the “outside” world, and searching for answers to all the questions they have. He encouraged those who work for the Church to check out sites that young adults frequent, in order to learn the kinds of questions they are asking (and the answers they are receiving). In his presentations at the Tech Info Day, Hayes said he intends to give parishes and other church organizations “10-15 ideas that can enhance their Web site tomorrow, for free, and a few others for later that will cost a little money.” Those who attend the conference need know only how to use a computer, he said. Encouraged to attend are pastors and associates, parish secretaries, bookkeepers, business managers and directors of religious education, school principals, and anyone using computers in church ministry. Among the company representatives who will lead presentations on technology issues at the Tech Day: Symantec – discussing computer security issues (viruses, phishing, spyware, and protecting an organization’s reputation, etc.) Software Spectrum and Insight – providing information on companies that offer discounts to non-profit organizations Microsoft – reviewing enhancements to their new versions of Windows and Vista and to Office 2007 Internet Data Management – offering tips on creating or maintaining a Web site Great Lakes Computer Corp. – offering information on how to maintain networks remotely; also information on servicing printers Interlogic Outsourcing Inc. – an employer services company offering ways to save money.   Back to Exponent Menu Printer Friendly Page   Other Articles of 2008   Please visit the Catholic Exponent new Web site: www.cathexpo.org   FFC speaker lists surprising mega-trends for Church worldwide   Paulines’ stpaulstube.com Web site up, running, getting response   Bishop Murry: Charity is most important of deacon’s three ministries   Diocesan library/media center has resources on vocations   Mission trip to Mexico touches St. Robert parishioners   Cavs look to bounce back from first-ever losing season   Diocesan educators honored for years of service   New class of permanent deacons set to be ordained   Diocesan high schools update facilities, announce new staffers   IHM teens help rebuild New Orleans, learn life lessons   Enrollment for diocesan schools expected to remain the same   Youngstown native Leschinsky takes perpetual vows as Salesian   Mantua St. Joe group repairs home in southwestern Virginia   Conneaut St. Mary/St. Frances merger to be celebrated Aug. 24   St. Clement School in Navarre will not open for 2008-2009   Picnic promotes camaraderie among diocesan seminarians   Sacred Heart of Mary Parish celebrates 175 years   Groups from diocese help New Orleans with rebuilding process   Louisville group helps build new ‘Carter’ home   Office of Lay Ministry Formation set to begin 14th year   Nun’s talk on media calls for ‘communication, not control’   Six-part series on poverty, racism used World Café format   Retired priests — They value their vocation, like to be busy, need to feel needed   Four priests appointed deans; three other priests reappointed   E. 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