How to Reach

YOUNG ADULTS
for Christ
BY DAVID MARVIN
 Reaching Young Adults for Christ

A New Reality 4

The Porch 5

Principles to Reach Young Adults for Christ 6

DAVID MARVIN served Watermark Community Church for 13

years as the leader of its young adults ministry, “The Porch.” He
is a the author of the bestselling book “We’re All Freaking Out,
(and why we don’t need to).”
I say this for your own
benefit, not to lay any
restraint upon you, but to
promote good order and
to secure your undivided
devotion to the Lord.
1 CORINTHIANS 7:35
A New Reality
According to the US Census Bureau, the average age of first-time marriages in
1980 was around 23 years old. By 2010, the average age was closer to 27 years old. In
2022 the average age was 30 years old and climbing1.
This means just a few decades ago there was no need for a “young adults
ministry,” because people got married at 23. If a young adult was attending a church,
the majority would have needed a “young marrieds ministry.” There was no gap of time
for the average person between college and marriage. They got married and went
to work and often began raising children. Over the last 40 years, however, a dramatic
shift has taken place and a new “life stage” has risen that many churches haven’t had a
plan for. The life stage of 22- to 30-year-old singles.
That is no longer the case. Today, the “young adult” timeframe between
graduating college and getting married is longer than ever and experienced by
more people than ever. You must have a strategy in place to reach this group. Not just
because of the incredibly large portion of the population young adults make up, but
because of the incredible opportunity they present to be a blessing to the body of
Christ. This is a group that has more disposable time, income, and ability to serve and
sacrifice than any other group in your church. Investing in reaching them, equipping
them, and deploying them is the single greatest opportunity most churches are missing
out on. After all, the Apostle Paul spoke of the power of young singles when he wrote
to the church in Corinth saying, “I wish everyone was single like I am” (1 Corinthians 7:7).
Why? Because Paul knew this group of singles possesses a “superpower” potential for
serving Christ (1 Corinthians 7:32-35). The young adult life stage of today is one of the
greatest opportunities for the church.

1 https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/time-se-
ries/demo/families-and-households/ms-2.pdf

4
The Porch
Every Tuesday night at 7 p.m., a room full of 3,000 young adults gathers in Dallas,
Texas for a young adult church service called “The Porch.” Over the past 12 years, as
the former Young Adults Director at Watermark Community Church and leader of “The
Porch,” I have seen the ministry grow from a small gathering of a couple hundred men
and women to a movement of thousands of young adults who gather on Tuesday
nights. This occurs not just in Dallas, but at the additional 11 “Porch Satellites” in nine
other states around the country.
The growth of “The Porch” is demonstrative of the need for churches to address
reaching young adults for Christ. While the numbers and growth are not the norm for a
typical young adult ministry, I think there are a number of key principles and practices
that have shaped how we got here, and how I think God built this movement. These
principles would apply in any context to churches seeking to reach young people with
the gospel.

5
Principles to Reach Young
Adults for Christ

1
New Mindset=Missional Vision

2
Build a Team

3
Delegate

4
Don’t Kill the Ministry

5
Encourage and Inspire

6
Teach The Bible

7
Know Your People
 New Mindset=Missional Vision
1
There was a defining moment in The Porch’s history that changed the course of
our ministry. It was only a couple years into our existence. There was a couple hundred
people attending and around 20 volunteers serving each week. But there was nothing
inspiring about serving at The Porch in those days. In fact, I think most of the people
who were serving were just doing so to make friends.
We knew something had to change. The next day before The Porch, we
called all the volunteers together into a room and explained, “We are going in a new
direction.” We “fired” everyone from serving. “We no longer expect you to simply show
up and check some proverbial serving box off, or for people to stand at a door or in a
parking lot and greet people,” we said. “We are looking for men and women who want
to partner with us in giving their lives to the great commission, who will be pastors to
their peers, evangelize the lost, dream with us of new ways to reach the lost in our city,
and who believe Jesus can and wants to change our city for His glory, and our good. If
that is you, we’d love to talk with you about serving. If that is not you, we will minister to
you, not through you.”
What was the response?
Not only did everyone who had
It’s counterintuitive, but when we call
been serving previously sign up
again to serve, men and women people to give more to serve Christ,
began to pour into our ministry to not less, it appeals to something deep
serve. on the inside of them.
Since that day, The Porch
has had a waiting list of men and
women who continually sign up
to serve. Why have young adults responded to that call? Not because we called them
to do less, but to do more. It’s counterintuitive, but when we call people to give more to
serve Christ, not less, it appeals to something deep on the inside of them. A desire we
all share is to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves and serve the God
whom we were made for along the way. Jesus was right: “the more you give up your
life for His sake, the more you find life” (Luke 9:24).

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 2
Build a Team

There is an age-old question: “are leaders born or made?” At some level, the
answer to the question is “yes.” Yes, good leaders are born, and yes good leaders are
made. Through their work ethic, charcter, experiences of adversity, personality, and
personal gifting. Whether you agree with my answer or not, there are leaders (either
from nature or nurture) around your church, ministry, area, and you need to find them.
They may not be the longest standing member or participant in your ministry,
the most intelligent, or most biblically literate but they have been given the gift of
leadership by God (Romans 12:8). They may be the person toward whom a room
people naturally gravitate, or the person who always seems to be organizing and
putting group hangouts together. If this person is a part of something, others will be as
well.
After you find them, take them to lunch, coffee, or a meeting and share that
you see leadership gifts in them and want to ask them to pray about joining your
leadership team. Cast a vision for the mission or burden God has placed on your heart,
and ask if they would be willing to help reach the lost in your area. If they say yes, then
begin to partner with them and add them to your leadership team.

8
 3
Delegate

Once you have solidified a leadership team, recruited volunteers, and created
a structure for them to serve (i.e.: specific teams to serve on, roles to play, rhythms of
how often, etc.) you should make it your goal to “give the ministry away.” Unleash your
people for the work of ministry. Anything you can give away and empower others
to own, you should. Too often in my experience, the lead pastor or ministry director is
expected to plan, orchestrate, and
operate everything. This is a recipe
for burnout.
Find trusted men and women
Empower your people. Give
who you can develop and them the coaching afterward if they
encouraged and give the make a mistake. But unleash and
ministry away. empower them and call them to do
them same. It’s really the principle
that Jethro told Moses to practice
back in Exodus 18. At the time, Moses
was the bottleneck for the nation of Israel. If someone needed something, they went to
him. Then his father-in-law shows up and says, “this is not good… you’re going to wear
yourself out and the people. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by
yourself” (Exodus 18:17-18). Jethro then says his own version of “give the ministry away
to leaders” (Exodus 18:21); it will be better for everyone. Moses listened and things got
better for everyone.
The same is true for you. Find trusted men and women whom you can develop
and encourage and give the ministry away. Planning events, making graphics,
running social media accounts, and so many other responsibilities you care about are
opportunities to empower other people around you to execute. My guess is, as with
Moses, you will see things get better for everyone.

9
Unleash your people for
the work of ministry.
Anything you can give
away and empower
others to own, you
should. Too often in
my experience, the
lead pastor or ministry
director is expected to
plan, orchestrate, and
operate everything. This is
a recipe for burnout.
 4
Don’t Kill the Ministry

Do you know what the fastest way to kill a ministry is? Discourage your
volunteers. If they feel unappreciated, disconnected, or like what they are doing
doesn’t matter, your ministry is in trouble. How does this happen? In my experience the
three biggest reasons are a failure of leaders to encourage, empower, and inspire. This
has some overlap but they also each have some distinct importance in the ways they
play out. Because I have already spoken
about “empowering” your people in the
previous paragraphs, I will focus here People who feel empowered
on the importance of “encouraging” and feel encouraged, because
“inspiring” your people. But I will add one empowering them
note on the importance of empowerment. communicates you believe
People who feel empowered feel
in them.
encouraged, because empowering them
communicates that you believe in them. If
someone doesn’t feel empowered to do
something, or they feel micromanaged, or
they don’t feel believed in, they feel discouraged.
To prevent unnecessary discouragement from creeping into volunteers’ hearts,

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 5
Encourage and Inspire

prioritize encouraging and inspiring your volunteers. When I was leading The Porch,
I told my staff they should see one of the most important focuses as “encouraging
and inspiring” the volunteers we lead. This means constantly celebrating volunteer
work publicly and privately. It means writing notes, sending videos weekly to out
volunteers, thanking them and God for specific ways we have seen them serving, and
always looking for ways to encourage our people. As Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:11,
“Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.”
As leaders, we also need to be looking for ways to inspire by casting vision
for those serving with us. You probably know that “casting vision” is a part of how
we inspire people. What does “casting vision” mean? In short, vision casting, is giving
people (casting) the ability
to see (vision) what they
cannot see apart from Without leaders providing vision in
a leader helping them. neutral, we naturally drift away from
It’s helping them see the
seeing how our small acts of faithfulness
bigger picture of what God
are a part of something so much bigger
is doing all around us and
helping them connect the than they may seem in the moment.
dots on how their actions
and work—however big or
small—is connected to that
bigger picture. It’s describing the future in front of us, because of their faithfulness to
Christ.
It looks like reminding the people handing out bulletins at the doors that they
are showing hospitality and building a culture of care that helps people receive truth
and hope. Without leaders providing vision in neutral, we naturally drift away from
seeing how our small acts of faithfulness are a part of something so much bigger than
what they may seem in the moment.
A few years ago, a friend of mine was talking about the teaching at The

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 6
Teach The Bible

Porch, and he said, “I would encourage you never to stop teaching the hard truths
from scripture.” I responded that I didn’t even find that a temptation, because in a
world that struggles to define truth, teaching from scripture was our “competitive
advantage.” Over the last 10 years of my tenure at The Porch, we have consistently
covered such truths as, “Sex Being a Gift Exclusively for Marriage;” “God’s Design of
Male and Female;” “The Dangers of Not ‘Guarding Your Heart;’” “The Ditch of Greed
and Materialism;” “Decisions Have Consequences Cecause ‘You Reap What You Sow;’”
“Hell Is Real and Apart From Jesus As Your Savior, You and I Will Go There,” and so forth.
We covered all of it in as gracious and as loving a way as we could. But we didn’t shy
away from the truth; we ran to it. I have discovered that young adults don’t gravitate
away from those truths, but toward them. Maybe it’s because they have grown up in
an environment that had lied to them, telling them, “You can be whatever you want,” or
“Your heart always knows best.” Platitudes may sound good in the moment, but part of
us knows they are simply not true. We have a generation that is starving for truth. Your
job as a teacher of God’s word is to give it to
them, even if it flies in the face of culture. In doing
so, you’ll discover God’s word is as living, active, ...we have a generation
relevant, and healing to the world. who is starving for truth.
Perhaps the most obsessed thing you
would notice about my preaching—and that
of anyone on my team who preached at The

13
 7
Know Your People

Porch while I was there—is our obsession with “knowing our people.” Knowing who
they are, what they struggle with, what temptations they face, hurts they carry, fears
they find crippling, etc. Before every message I preached, I did a run-through to a small
team of men and women who listened to the sermon and helped identify additional
ways to speak directly to what people were experiencing in their daily lives, and how
God’s word speaks to this. We called it “reading someone’s mail.” It’s an expression
based on the idea that if I showed up at your house and looked in your mailbox, I
would learn and know things about you. Your cable company, past due bills, magazine
subscriptions, etc. It was basically our way of saying, “Speak to the lives of the people
in the room.” How did we know what our people were going through every Tuesday
night? We spent time with them, studied them, and then thought through the various
“personas” that were going to be in the room. We asked the question:
“How is this specific truth from God’s word relevant to:”
• The 27-year-old single guy who is climbing the corporate ladder.
• The 22-year-old college girl who just broke up with her boyfriend and
is wondering if God can be trusted.
• The 31-year-old engaged couple who has some dysfunctional dating
habits that probably should cause them to tap the breaks before
moving into marriage.
• The 24-year-old guy who was raised Catholic but hasn’t been in a
church in years and thinks God is disappointed and angry at him.
While we didn’t hit the exact storyline of every person in the room, we were
intentional to know about the various burdens, challenges, and sin struggles our
people were facing and tried to lovingly speak right to them. Whatever your ministry
context is, you can do the same.

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While we didn’t hit the
exact storyline of every
person in the room,
we were intentional to
know about the various
burdens, challenges, and
sin struggles our people
were facing and tried
to lovingly speak right
to them. Whatever your
ministry context is, you
can do the same.
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