St. Stephen Catholic Church and School continues to enhance its faith formation programmes to meet the unique needs of the various age groups it serves. However, it faces a number of shortfalls, among them, the effective faith formation of the young adults and the older adolescents. Hence, the church ought to come up with innovative and creative ideas to remedy the situation.
Recommendations for the Older Adolescents
East drew crucial insights from research and thinking of key leaders on the best practices for achieving higher adolescent formation results in parishes. One of them is the asset-building approach. Here, the parish identifies, nurtures, and demonstrates its faith assets in the preaching, community, and service life in order to meet the spiritual needs of its members (East 29). For instance, young adults and adolescents can have forums for discussing the issues they face. The church can plan for such (East 30).
Recommendations for the Young Adults
Young adults play a key role in church and community life. Roberto and Hayes categorise the young adults into two major groups; that is Generation X-born between 1964-1979 and the Millennial Generation- born after 1980. Part of the reason for low connection of the young adults with the church is their needs for instant gratification. Additionally, the failure of the church to take advantage of moments such as child baptism, marriage or death of a parent also contributes to this situation. According to Roberto and Hayes, such moments are young adult’s occasions of return to the church (Roberto and Hayes 1). The church should acknowledge the young adults who are committed to the congregational life, for example, by providing room for and funding their activities. Additionally, Roberto and Hayes observe that churches can hire a professional to be responsible for programming the youth activities (4).
Young adults and older adolescents should be encouraged and supported to take an active role in identifying ways in which they can sufficiently express their faith, concerns and life without fear of recrimination or demonization from the church.
Works cited
East, Tom. “Voices of Hope: Promising Practices in Adolescent Faith Formation.” Source Book on Adolescent Catechesis: 29.2(n.d.). Print.
Roberto, John and Hayes, Mike. “Best Practices in Young Adult Faith Formation.” Lifelong Faith. Lifelong Faith Associates, 2007. Print.
