Two years ago we hosted 50 young adults from around the US at Augsburg for a weekend of storytelling and listening. The reason for this gathering was to unearth the common hopes, concerns and desires young adults hold for the church and the world we share. In sifting through the stories shared, we hoped to distill themes that might give shape to a book we wanted to create – one written by young adults to the church. This book was one of the ways Riverside Innovation Hub was committed to stewarding what we learned in our first five years of the Lilly Endowment’s Young Adult Initiative. After working with congregations and young adults in our inaugural round of the Riverside Innovation Hub, supported through the Lilly Endowment, we were granted additional funding and time to share the wisdom and learnings that emerged. Who better to speak those truths than the young adults themselves?��

Just two years shy of that special gathering this very book has come to be. Well, nearly.

The manuscript was submitted to our publisher early in September and now we will work with them to take the final steps of transforming our authors’ ideas, stories and whole-hearted requests into a book that can be shared broadly. So much has transpired within those two years – an author application process, two writing retreats to launch and further along the writing community, collaboration with an illustrator bringing to life themes of the book, multiple rounds of editing drafts, countless cups of coffee and hours at laptops, and final revisions to compile the completed manuscript over the summer.��

Each chapter provides an invitation to a table. Chapter one describes what courageous curiosity looks like and proposes this posture as a necessary mindset for the church and young adults as we approach the present day challenges lifted up in this book. Chapter two orients us to the young adult experience, too often shaped by tokenization. It offers an alternative approach rooted in relationship; one where young adults are valued co-creators for our shared future.��

Chapter three (our climate catastrophe), chapter four (grief and lament) and chapter five (mental health) work together to paint the bigger picture of our times. Together these three chapters name the very hard realities that shape our human experience, while also offering guidance for finding our way in the ruins.��

Chapters six (abuse of power), seven (marginalization, inclusion and liberation), and eight (sex, shame and intimacy) reveal some of the particular ways young adults have been grieving as our churches have contributed to harm and avoided confronting the ways change is needed. The themes of these chapters are inherently intertwined.��

Chapter nine brings us back to the importance of community, and how the church can more fully embody a community defined by the centrality of Jesus. Chapter ten (beyond the walls) further fleshes out the faithful next steps for our church communities. Being centered on Jesus, in fact, means our churches are called to be decentered towards our neighbors, becoming trustworthy partners in God’s mending work in the world. Finally, chapter eleven (scarcity and abundance) lifts up a more adequate and faithful narrative from which we can enter into the challenges before us. A narrative rooted in reclaiming “enough” that roots us in God’s abundance, mending our relationships – with God, with each other, and with the earth.��

Editing and stewarding this process has been perhaps one of the largest professional projects of my career, certainly the one with the most moving pieces! I am so proud of what this team created together and deeply grateful for all of those who helped bring this project to fruition. The list is too long to name in this blog post, but as we get closer to releasing the book to the public, you will hear more about it and the many hands and hearts behind it.��

As we shared the draft manuscript with a handful of readers, we asked them, who do you think should read this book once it’s completed. Take a read at their feedback of who they hope reads this book. And if you hear yourself in their reflections, and we’ll keep you posted as the book gets closer to release!

“I imagine using it [this book] for student leadership development. Peer group book study and for young adults who are in discernment about their faith journey. And as a preacher, I confess there are definitely some quotables and “that’ll preach!” material here.”

“For me this will be a reference point any time someone brings up the fact that young people are leaving the church! I think it could be helpful in a congregational council setting, maybe for a retreat. And I think it needs to be required reading for every faculty/staff member at our schools of theological education and hopefully met with empathy. Better yet, you could have trainings with these faculty/staff based on this book so that they can meet with empathy and not scorn.”��

“I would recommend it to people who have young adults in their lives, church people who are worried about the future, young adults seeking meaning, theologians. AND! Older people who feel disconnected from the younger generation. I thought of my dad—a retired Presbyterian minister—who grew up and practiced ministry in a different world than the one his grandchildren live in. There’s a lot in here that could inform conversations we’ve had about why society looks the way it does and why young people make some of the choices they do (including to leave church in droves).”

“Every call committee and church council who are going through the process of calling a new pastor and/or figuring out a vision for their specific congregation should read this book. As one going through this process at the moment, I deeply resonated with Amanda, Jia, and Kristina’s writing in the introduction, specifically, the invitation to sit together around the table especially on the Holy Saturday moments we continue to find ourselves in. I think it’s also important for the young adult demographic to read this book, so that we can add to the conversation from our own perspectives and so that this book can become a living document of sorts, rather than another resource for older generations to try to understand “young people.”

Anticipated release is fall of 2025, but follow us for more updates on this project. We have several ways we hope to engage interested folks in the learnings from this book before and after its public release

The post The Manuscript is in! Let’s Celebrate! appeared first on Riverside Innovation Hub.

We recently asked the young adult writers for the project to reflect on this experience. Below is the reflection from Amar D. Peterman.

Amar D. Peterman��(M.Div., Princeton Seminary) is an award-winning author and constructive theologian working at the intersection of faith and public life. His writing and research have been featured in Christianity Today, Faithfully Magazine, Fathom, The Berkeley Forum,, The Anxious Bench, Sojourners and The Christian Century. Amar is the founder of Scholarship for Religion and Society LLC, a research and consulting firm working with some of the leading philanthropic and civic institutions, religious organizations, and faith leaders in America today. Amar also serves as Program Manager at Interfaith America where he oversees programs related to emerging leaders, American evangelicalism, and Asian America. He writes regularly through his newsletter, “This Common Life.” You can learn more about him at amarpeterman.com. Amar’s co-author is Nicholas Tangen.

Why did you say yes to this experience and what are your hopes for the project?��

Written by Amar Peterman

Writing is always shaped by the people around us and the places we are located in. The best writing embraces this, capturing every moment as an opportunity to tell a story or find meaning in the ordinary moments of our life. Writing that reflects these daily experiences and infuses such with sacred meaning holds the opportunity to change us—even convict us—and as we are called into a community beyond ourselves.��

I said yes to this experience because of this truth. Through this project, I am not only brought into conversation with other writers across the country, but into active participation towards a shared goal. As we gather to envision a hopeful future for the Christian church, we are diligently writing and marking out tangible steps to create equitable spaces of inclusion and belonging for young people in local congregations across the United States. Together, we represent a diversity of experiences, locations, denominations, and beliefs within Christianity. These differences, though, are not a hindrance to our cooperation; they are gifts that allow this project to speak to more people than any individual could do on their own.��

Out of this project, I am encouraged by the consistent reminder that I am not alone in this work. Whether it is the weekly conversations I have with my co-author, poems shared by fellow contributors, or drafts uploaded to our shared project planner, this experience has given me the opportunity to witness God’s redemptive work taking place in the lives of each member of this project. As we write about the leadership and contributions of young people in the church, we are actively living out this mission in our lives.��

Like writing, I think faith is also formed by the places we inhabit and the people found there. My hope for this project is that we might acknowledge this—that community is a fundamental aspect of the Christian life, not a tangential one. As Christians, then, our formation within the walls of the local congregation ought to be marked deeply by the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. In doing so, the community of the congregation becomes different from any other because we are united by something that connects our very souls together: the redemptive work of God in the world.��

Therefore, the second hope I have for this project is that we might help the church reflect this formation by valuing the leadership, calling, and talents of young people in the church. I believe that the experiences and dreams of young people can lead the church toward our call to love God and neighbor in a unique way. Many problems within the church, I believe, stem from our failure to include the voices and wisdom of young people in our congregation, who are attuned to the realities of our world in a way that older generations cannot participate in. If our congregations seek to thrive in our modern day, young people must be in a position to lead.��

This project is a communal one—gathering writers across generations to model the very reality we propose the church ought to live into. I am honored to be a part of a project that brings together such a wide collection of voices and experiences and confident that God will use our labor to both encourage young leaders across the church and pave forward spaces of leadership and belonging for them.

The post Saying Yes Because of This Truth: Project Reflection by Amar Peterman appeared first on Riverside Innovation Hub.

In early February, some of the Riverside Innovation Hub staff attended and presented at the ELCA Youth Ministry Network’s annual convening, the Extravaganza, in Anaheim, CA. Amanda Vetsch and Kristina Fruge presented what we heard at the Threshold Event.����

The purpose of the workshop was to share the wisdom we, at Augsburg’s Riverside Innovation Hub, are learning from young adults about their hopes, dreams and concerns for the church. In particular the about key learnings from a recent event we hosted on campus this fall, when we gathered a diverse group of young adults from around the country, representing a wide variety of ecumenical backgrounds and other lived experiences.��

Before we dove into the presentation portion of our conversation, we used Mentimeter to poll the in-person and virtual attendees. This helped us get a sense of who was attending and practice using a new tech tool. Both groups were from across the country, with a strong portion in the Midwest. We were fairly caffeinated, and the majority of both workshop groups believe that the person in the middle seat on the plane does NOT get both armrests. After the icebreaker and Menti practice, we dove into presenting about who we are, what we did, and what we heard.

Who are we?��

In 2017, the Christensen Center for Vocation got a Young Adult Initiative grant from the Lilly Endowment to create an Innovation Hub that equips congregations to explore questions around the intersections of young adults and church. One of our guiding convictions was that young adults don’t want to be attracted or drawn back to church, but would rather see the church move out into the public where young adults are actively living out our faith. The Riverside Innovation Hub spent five years working alongside congregations to be and become public churches and learn how to be led by young adults in that endeavor.��

In 2022, We got a second grant to help expand that work, and one of the ways we’re doing that is through a book project. We’re committed to practicing what we preach and teach, so the book is super collaborative and envisioned and written by young adults. To distill the themes of the book, we hosted an Envisioning Event in November, selected two authors per theme, a young adult and a thought leader, and have built a writing process that includes two retreats, lots of drafts and revision.��

What did we do?��

For the Threshold Book Envisioning event, ��we gathered 50 young adults from across the US to share what they wish the church would know and help identify the themes of the book. This group of young adults had varying experiences with church and came from a wide variety of traditions and denominations

The gathering was designed for them to share their hopes, heartaches and dreams for the church.�� Jeremy Myers and Rozella Haydée White facilitated the space. Five keynote listeners joined us to listen with deep intention to what was emerging in the space. You can read more about how the event was shaped in this blog: Threshold Recap Blog

What did we hear?����

We heard stories full of grief, love, celebration, loss and more. It was an absolute gift and honor to have those shared with us. After two days full of reflection, conversation, and sticky notes, we generated a list of the themes:

• Grief and Healing
• Marginalization, Inclusivity and Liberation
• Abundance and Scarcity
• Community
• Sex/Intimacy and Shame
• Power and Abuse of Power
• Beyond the Walls
• Courageous Curiosity
• Creation and Destruction
• Mental Health
• Tokenism of Young Adults

Audience Participation:��

Just as the young adults used the lens of desolation and consolation to think about their experiences within the church, we did as similar thing at our workshop.����

First ,everyone was invited to pick one theme from our YA’s list that resonates with themselves or a reality in their ministry context.��

Between both workshops, the theme Tokenism of Young Adult was chosen the most. Followed by Community, then Abundance and Scarcity, and Marginalization, Inclusivity and Liberation tied for third.��

Desolation:��

We then spent time individually reflecting on that theme and how we’ve experienced it as desolation.

��Some of the answered shared included:��

• One of the challenges I have encountered as a young person is having a lot of my community around me who is atheist/non-religious. Having spaces in my church community that my non-religious loved ones can participate and not feel alienated
• Existential dread re: the warming planet and the effects on vulnerable people
• Scarcity: Constant focus on too little time, too few people, too little money, always just trying not to die
• Post COVID “skill desert” of how to connect
• Not being fed but asking to feed others
• Courageous Curiosity – doubt/wonder/questions being interpreted to mean that you just don’t believe or aren’t faithful enough
• The rejection of queer voices. I can name more than a handful of individuals in my last congregation that were harmed for their identity
• “Why aren’t the YAs coming?” It feels like it sends the message that our young adults are not enough as they are unless they meet the church’s expectations.

Consolation:��

After reflection and sharing about desolation, we reflected on the chosen theme and how we’ve experienced it as consolation.��

Some of the answers shared included:��

• Creating a Pride Cafe,�� art camp to explore identity issues, creating a community center in unused space. �� Invited folks to dinner and asked what they need spiritually
• Participation in new and ongoing hunger ministries (but desolation in the fact we still need them)
• Spaces where my non-religious loved ones can participate without feeling alienated
• Hiring a mental health specialist on staff
• Curiosity – when you open up space for vulnerable and genuine conversation about life, faith, church, you feel more connected to what church can be.
• scripture and church history/tradition provide a rich source for dialogue and makes space for mystery/hard questions
• exploring creation of an LGBTQ+ Christian group in a neighboring county where there are no affirming congregations

See the full mentimeter responses here: , .

Now What?��

We concluded our time together by thinking through our next steps for our own contexts. What is something attainable we can do next, a low hanging fruit? What is something that is big and audacious we want to do, a moon shot? And who do we need to connect with, or coffee?��

Find the workshop handout here:

To learn more about the book project and receive updates, join our

The post The E: Young Adult Book Project Workshop appeared first on Riverside Innovation Hub.