Since 2010, ministry has expanded from five groups across region to more than 40 today

Detroit — It’s not a rebranding, it’s not a reformation, and it’s not a restart. It’s a reboot.

Citing the rapid growth of young adult ministry in the Archdiocese of Detroit — from five groups in 2010 to 40 today — young adult ministry coordinator Chris Gawel thought it was time for a reboot.

“I came up with ‘reboot’ for like a computer, when you have too many apps running, you need to have a reboot,” Gawel said. “When I started, we had five active groups, now we have 40. It’s only a matter of time before every parish has something to do with young adult ministry.”

Given the expansion of young adult ministry across the archdiocese, Gawel said the time has come for a more coordinated effort to corral the growth and channel the new energy.

“When I came on in 2010, it was fine, and I could interact with each group on an individual basis,” Gawel said. “A lot of the job was going to events, interacting with leaders, talking with them about planning. But that can’t be anymore.”

Gawel introduced his concept of a “reboot” to young adult leaders at Sacred Heart Major Seminary on Feb. 17, using the meet-and-greet as a chance to collaborate on events and ideas and bring a sense of centralization to young adult ministry.

“What was cool about the meeting was getting group leaders in a room with one another, a chance to network and get to know each other,” Gawel said. “Our parishes are very parochial, they stick to the boundaries. Young adult ministry goes beyond parish boundaries. If people are going across town to take dance lessons every week, why would they not go across town to go to Church?”

During the meeting, young adult ministers were shown the amount of overlap in events and ideas across the archdiocese — for instance, 15 young adult groups in the archdiocese hosted an ugly sweater Christmas party in December 2015, with each event drawing around 10 people.

Gawel said young adults want to be a part of a bigger community, citing successful events such as Mass Mobs and Theology on Tap.

“Young adults want to have an impact, but it’s hard for them to commit, hard for them to be leaders,” Gawel said. “Young adults don’t have a usual 9-5; they’re trying to balance a life their parents don’t understand.

“They don’t want to be part of something mediocre. They want to part of something bigger than themselves,” Gawel said. “They’re looking for new opportunities to grow more in faith, and that’s what’s working.”

The focus, Gawel said, is collaboration: because young adults aren’t tied to the parish near where they live, groups from different areas need to work together in order to create events and gatherings where Catholic young adults can meet and worship with other young adults.

“The meeting and ‘Reboot’ are great growth and networking opportunities,” said Kimberly Boismier, executive director of Agape Young Adult Community based in Rochester Hills. “Hopefully it will lead to a chance to work across parish boundaries and pull together at young adult ministries.”

Some of the benefits of the Feb. 17 meeting, according to Boismier, were the idea of creating a young adult ministry leadership council, which could tackle issues that are particular to young adult ministry.

“From what we know, parishes don’t have the bandwidth to run a long-term sustainable program, because young adults are in transition,” Boismier said. “So we are thinking, form a leadership council to help with cross-parish, cross-regional collaboration of events. Hopefully, that’ll bring about greater trust and communication as we focus on keeping young adults interested in the Church.”

Gawel said it’ll take time for the fruits to come to bear, but it all centers around communication and collaboration.

“During the meeting, I saw young adult leaders light up when some ideas were being shared,” Gawel said. “Young adults are looking for fellowship, identity, an opportunity to grow in discipleship and a chance to grow in witness.

“That’s why collaboration between parishes and regions is essential. Young adults will flock to where there is active young adult ministry, and it would be successful.”

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Young adult ministries

For a complete list of young adult and campus ministries in the Archdiocese of Detroit, visit www.aod.org/campus.