"Ministries with young adults need to provide opportunities for them to interact with their peers and form healthy Christ-centered friendships. Faith is made real when the effects of faith are seen in others, especially those of the same age. Countless students have given testimony to how their faith has grown during the college years because of the friends they surrounded themselves with and the intimacy in spiritual growth they have experienced together." Age-appropriate ministry and age-oriented activities are not simply appropriate, but necessary to foster this sense of membership in a longstanding community and fellowship with other Christians. By belonging to a community of young people, a young person gains a sense of how to become a reasoned, adult member of the church who has made an active, vocal, and questioned commitment that will last a lifetime. Youth education teaches the process of 'becoming' as well as presents the ideal. Critics of age-appropriate or youth-oriented ministry often see it as a dumbing down, a diluting of the church's message, or pandering to the needs of the moment. But the communities of young people involved in age-appropriate retreats that deal with their unique issues are still part of the larger community and family of the church, as every community is part of a larger family of churches.

One eighteen-year-old church member of the Victory Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky noted: "The church needs to realize how the culture is changing...A church that gets stuck in tradition...

The church constantly needs to be reinventing itself, and our youth group is a big part of that process." By communicating in a meaningful way to young people, and making the Bible a living text to their concerns, the church can never die. The church's recreational room may be filled with the whiz of ping pong balls, chatting about school and fun teen-friendly food, but when the minister comes and calls things to order, the teens can still lift their voices in songs of praise and remain attentive for the discussion afterward, eager to discuss the struggles of their young lives in the context of those who understand their struggles to live a meaningful Christian life as a young person today.
Works Cited

Keeler, Randy. "Developmental Theory and Ministry to College Youth."

Direction Journal. 31 (2). Fall 2002. pp. 186-193, 13 Jun 2007, http://www.directionjournal.org/article/?1264

Snell, Gina. "Keeping it real: Churches compete against worldly temptations to reach teens," Kentucky Herald-Ledger. 9 Jun 2007. 13 Jun 2007. http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/93008.html

Randy Keeler, "Developmental Theory and Ministry to College Youth," Direction Journal, 31, no. 2, (Fall 2002), pp. 186-193, 13 Jun 2007, http://www.directionjournal.org/article/?1264

Keeler, 2002.

Gina Snell, "Keeping it Real: Churches compete against worldly temptations to reach teens," Kentucky Herald-Ledger, 9 Jun 2007, 12 Jun 2007, http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/93008.html