Customer Reviews

Googling God: The Religious Landscape of People in Their 20s and 30s

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a highly readable, informative, balanced book. I'm picky about books on this topic; many of them lump all young adults together into the same category. I appreciate how this book acknowledges the different types of young adults (those who focus on social justice, those who are drawn to the sacraments, etc.) and offers concrete ways to minister to them. It's a wonderful read for those who minister to young adult Catholics, as well as anyone who is curious about how the "younger generations" of Catholics experience their faith.

Another unique feature of this book is the middle section, which offers in-depth profiles of a sampling of young adults. I'm someone who is fascinated by others' experiences of faith, so this section was a real treat. It's also a great way to put a "face" on the ideas discussed throughout the book.

One last reason I enjoyed this book: when I was getting my teaching credential, one of my professors told us to think about past teachers we'd had, and the teaching methods they'd used that had worked for us. She then told us that we needed to learn how to teach in a way that was totally the opposite of that. Her point was that kids learn in a variety of different ways, and that if we fixate only on the methods that worked for us, we won't reach a huge number of our students. This book makes the same point with regards to faith. Everyone engages with their faith in a different way, and if we want to effectively minister to young adults, we need to provide a variety of ways for them to connect with their faith community (sponsoring all-night Adoration, organizing volunteer trips to the soup kitchen, etc.). That's such a crucial message, and this book does a great job of communicating it.

This book is directed primarily at those attempting to organize Catholic youth ministries, but it's a very insightful read for anyone involved in recruiting or organizing youth groups (religious or otherwise) at all. Mr. Hayes draws on his many years of personal experience with younger Catholics to identify a wide variety of interesting Gen X and Millennial profiles. He sheds light on much of the outdated logic or group think which has lead to the declining numbers of younger Catholics who are actively involved in organized church events/activities. He also provides us with many helpful suggestions on how to appeal to both Gen Xers and Millennials. The last chapter of the book gives step by step directions on how to organize and get your message through to today's young adults. The easy to follow directions make you feel as though you're reading one of those "For Dummies" books. Overall, this is an excellent resource for anyone who's looking to recruit and organize younger people of faith. Many older church organizers would be well advised to read this book.

Young adults' search for God
Reviewed by ERIN RYAN, National Catholic Reporter

These days, there seems to be a lot of discussion in church circles about how young people are the future of the church and a lot of consternation about what Catholics can do to bring them in. However, most church ministry programs for young people tend to focus on teenagers or children. Two recent books speak to the young adults in our midst.

In his book for youth ministers, Googling God: The Religious Landscape of People in their 20s and 30s, author Mike Hayes makes it clear that young adults are more than just the church's "future." They are the church now.

Mr. Hayes is the associate director of Paulist Young Adult Ministries and the managing editor and cofounder of the savvy bustedhalo.com Web site for Catholics in their 20s and 30s. His book provides a close look at young adults in two specific generations: those in the often cynical, questioning "Generation X," defined here as people born between 1964 and 1979, and "Millenials," defined as people born after 1980, who are more often concerned with rules and order.

In Part One of Googling God, Mr. Hayes, who says he belongs to Generation X, explores how these two generations have been shaped by events in the world around them. Then, taking a cue from Mary Anne Reese in America and a symposium paper by Fr. Jim Bacik, he offers seven classifications or orientations that can be applied to young adult Catholics: eclipsed, private, ecumenical, evangelical, prophetic, sacramental and communal.

Part Two of Googling God contains interviews with 12 young men and women ages 22 to 39, six in each of the two generations. Most are practicing Catholics, but some have stopped going to church. Some grew up in traditional ethnic Catholic families such as Hispanic or Filipino households; others grew up in ecumenical families that practiced different religious traditions. Many people who cross over the "evangelical" category, say, are looking for emotional experiences in their worship: "God often is so far removed from young adult life that they long for opportunities where they can see, feel, taste and smell the very fervor of religion," says Mr. Hayes, who points out the importance of following up these experiences with solid church teachings and guidance from ministers.

In Part Three of Googling God, Mr. Hayes gives practical advice about methods of doing ministry and resources for further reading. He also stresses the importance of using technology, especially the Internet, and gives tips on how to start your own Web page, which every church should have, he says, in the age of Google search engines and instantaneous answers.

Mr. Hayes also notes that all the young adults he interviewed wish for "a more collaborative dialogue between the church and young adults," and that whether they are from Steubenville or from a Jesuit parish in New York, they tend to think beyond "liberal" or "conservative" categories. And from the interviews, it is clear that while their approaches to life are diverse, each young person has clearly given a lot of thought to the spiritual questions he or she has faced.

"God, for me, is like someone who's already up when you've come downstairs in the morning and you're stumbling to get that cup of coffee and he's already there with his," says 24-year-old Jeff G. "And you sit on the front porch in a rocking chair and the sun is just starting to rise over the horizon and he says, `It's a beautiful sunrise!' And I say, `Yeah.' And that's it."

It's hard to think of a more personal description of the divine than that.

Another book, Blessed Are the Bored in Spirit: A Young Catholic's Search for Meaning, is aimed toward young adults themselves. Author Mark Hart, vice president of the youth ministry LIFETEEN, leads conferences and retreats for teens and adults and is also author of Ask the Bible Geek: Answers to Questions from Catholic Teens.

Mr. Hart stresses on his first page that he is a "postmodern Catholic" and invites young people to delve more deeply into church teachings they may not understand. But while Mr. Hayes advised ministers to listen to young adults first and then explain church teaching within the complexity of their lives, Mr. Hart sees the situation a little differently. "The pews are emptying because the truth of Christ has been forfeited, too often, on altars of conformity, funded by the court of comfort and public opinion," Mr. Hart writes in his introduction. And later he writes: "People who can put a probe on Mars, clone animals and solve the intimacy issues of 80-year-olds want to alleviate all mystery and end all pain. ... The reality is that life is filled with sin and suffering and there are two kinds of people: those who run from it and those who deal with it. Do yourself a favor and learn to deal with it."

Mr. Hart intends to help people deepen their faith and their awareness of God's love for them. He has some lovely things to say about seeing the life of faith as positive fulfillment in God rather than a set of rigid commands, especially in Chapter Five: "Reconciling Your Issues: Thinking Outside the Box." It's a matter of taste, though, whether you find humor in his pun-filled chapter titles like "When the Family Meal Leaves You with Heartburn" (about bad liturgies) or "Time to Exorcise" (after a discussion of vain gym rats) or "Discipleship 101: The One Elective Needed to Pass."

Unfortunately, in spite of what Mr. Hart says about his book being a look at the "modern spiritual journey," his puns and light personal narratives, alternating with a heavy advice-giving style, wind up making the book rather bland. Mr. Hart does throw in references to anime or " `The Karate Kid's' Mr. Miyagi," but too often they come off as strained attempts to be relevant or funny. There's much general discussion about such topics as how young people want to be good but like to have sex, or how this is a culture of death, or how Mass is dull, or how it's hard to corral the whole family to church on a Sunday morning. But the book would have been more helpful if Mr. Hart had discussed more specific, concrete incidents in his life and how he faced them rather than relying on distillations and themes.

Both authors both clearly have a lot of experience with young people, but by letting the young individuals speak for themselves, Mr. Hayes winds up with the more engaging book.

Erin Ryan is an NCR staff writer. Her e-mail address is eryan@ncronline.org.

National Catholic Reporter, October 5, 2007

Absolutely fantastic reading. Thank you for the time spent writing this book, it's a must have guide for those working for the good of all those young people out there.

As a 23-year old recent convert to Catholicism, something that has naturally held my interest for some time has been the religiosity of others in my own generation. There have been many books published in recent years discussing the overall decline in religious commitment among my fellow 20-and-30-somethings, yet a steadiness in the practice of self-defined "spirituality". Many of my age group don't embrace the Church, but do still have an admiration for Jesus and spiritual mysticism. Many don't engage in the traditional disciplines of Bible study and participation in the liturgy, but instead have absorbed many contemplative practices of prayer while finding the divine through beauty and nature.

There have been relatively few books published examining these spiritual trends among these young-adult generations, especially through a distinctly Catholic lens. However, in the last handful of years, a few books have been trickling out examining these distinct movements of faith. Mike Hayes--a long-time young-adult minister in the Catholic Church--has contributed to these explorations by writing his own practical guide on young-adult spirituality, "Googling God: The Religious Landscape of People in their 20's and 30's" (Paulist Press, 208 pages, $16.95).

As the title of the book hints at, many young-adults enter the realm of God through their internet browser. Typing "God" into Google will yield more than 525 million results, while searching for "church" returns more than 383 million offerings. Yet, as Hayes points out, the Church has done relatively little to tap into these realities; the Church needs much growth in seeking out and ministering to young-adults, both within and beyond the Church.

"Googling God" is split up into three sections. The first part describes who young-adults are, and what makes them tick. Hayes rightly recognizes from the outset that it would be sloppy to make blanket statements about all young-adults, especially coming from two different generations. Hayes defines two distinct generations under the "young-adult" umbrella: Generation X (born between 1964 and 1979) and the Millennials (born after 1980). Just as there is much diversity within the young-adult community, there are sharp distinctions even between these two sub-set generations.

Young-adults have different histories, different make-ups, and different spiritual experiences, so Hayes refrains from offering a one-size-fits-all approach. He instead references a symposium paper presented by Notre Dame Fr. Jim Bacik that groups young-adults into seven different types of spiritual identities, which include the following:

"Eclipsed" - Those not interested in spiritual or religious matters
"Private" - Those engaged in private piety, but with no public expressions of faith
"Ecumenical" - Those who believe that one religion is as good as any other
"Evangelical" - Those flocking to praise and worship services with vibrant music and an emotive sense of prayer
"Sacramental" - Those having spiritualities centered on the liturgical and sacramental aspects of the Church
"Prophetic" - Those emphasizing the service, justice, and social traditions of the Church
"Communal" - Those participating in several groups, activities, and retreats to satisfy their longing for community

These labelings are fairly loose, as the boundaries between each are at best hazy; most young-adults show strong identification with two or three of these groups. Nevertheless, Hayes argues that these provide a good foundational representation of the spirituality of young-adults as a whole.

The second part of the book presents interviews with a dozen young adults--six from Generation X and six Millennials--from across the religious spectrum. The interviewee pool contained a good mix of genders, religious experiences, and levels of current spiritual devotion. Each of the "spiritual identities" seemed to be represented as well. The one constant that I did notice among each person interviewed was the search for a church or ministry that "filled" or "appealed to" them. According to this small sample size, young-adults seem more concerned with finding a Church or group that will satisfy them instead of the other way around. This type of consumerist spirituality seems--to me, anyways--destined to remain unsatisfied.

The final part of the book is a rich collection of resources for those who minister to young adults. I believe that this section alone is worth the price of the book, because answered here is the book's main question: How do we minister to young-adults? Instead of offering a one-size-fits-all answer, though, Hayes recalls the seven "spiritual identities" from the first part of the book to present unique ways of ministering to each identity.

This section also features fifteen steps in starting a young-adult ministry. I'm typically skeptical when someone offers a definite series of "steps" leading to a particular goal, but I thought these were surprisingly astute. The steps include taking stock of the young-adult situation around you, embracing technology as a vital tool, and offering a challenging faith at the core of your young-adult ministry.

Speaking of technology, Hayes spends some time in this last part discussing different technological resources to use in young-adult ministry, including websites, podcasts, and blogs. Everything in this section is fully explained, so I think non-technophiles would benefit especially from this advice.

Like I mentioned above, there is slim-pickings when it comes to books written for and about young-adult spirituality, especially from a Catholic perspective. Hayes quotes many times from two of the other Catholic gems in this genre, "The Basic Guide to Young Adult Ministry" (Fr. John Cusick) and "The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Returning to Christian Orthodoxy" (Coleen Carroll).

It is obvious that young-adults in our world crave deeper community, as seen through the explosive use of social-networking technology like Facebook and Twitter. It is also clear that young-adults are on a search for authentic spirituality, one that looks inherently different from that of their parents. If young-adults are to discover the wonder of a life with God, these realities must not only be recognized but entered into. If you are someone who feels at all compelled to spread the Way of Jesus to people in their 20's and 30's, especially through the Catholic tradition, this book is a fantastic introduction and a source of rich guidance.

This book failed to impress on a variety of levels. First of all the book is written from the Roman Catholic perspective, and everything in it is oriented towards Roman Catholicism rather than a larger demographic that the title implies. Not a problem, other than that it is not marketed this way at all. It isn't talking about *all* 20 and 30-somethings, but Roman Catholic young adults. Although there are some broad parameters that apply beyond this more narrow demographic, these are not the emphasis of the book.

Secondly, the title is misleading. The Google analogy is weak and practically (and more specifically functionally) non-existent. Be aware that the book is three years old and still makes references to MySpace as the premiere social networking arena. This is just a function of when the book was written, not a flaw per se, but it's good to bear in mind.

Even aside from the Roman Catholic-limited perspective in this book, the book fails on another fundamental level. Once again, we have another book that strives to demonstrate the amazing complexity of young adults today. And once again, the complexity boils down to this: people are different. Some people are shy, some people are outgoing. Some enjoy the mystical aspects of the Christian faith, some prefer the social justice aspects, others the liturgical, and still others private piety. One stop shopping is unrealistic as people will gravitate to places that reinforce their preferences, and will even prefer going nowhere to going someplace that doesn't jive with their inner muses.

This isn't exactly rocket science, nor is it particularly specific to Gen Xers or Millenials. There is literally no emphasis on Biblical Christianity as any type of norming power in people's lives. A good chunk of the book is devoted to 12 profiles - six Xers and six Millenials. While their experiences and preferences vary, they have the unifying theme of wanting what they want, the way they want it. Hayes seems to accept that this is only natural. There is very little discussion of how to teach people that consumer faith is dangerously shallow. While there are plenty of congregations of all denominational stripes that are rife with poor preaching and teaching and a lack of enthusiasm, encouraging people of any age to continue their search for the 'perfect' parish is madness, because no such parish exists. And, as the old saying goes, even if it did exist, definitionally we wouldn't be allowed to join because it wouldn't be perfect any longer.

If you don't know any Gen Xers or Millenials you may find this book interesting. If you're only becoming aware of the Internet and wondering whether it may be important to your congregation, there is one chapter that might be helpful. But if you're looking for practical ways to engage these generations in your ministry, this book is not likely to be very helpful at all - unless you're Roman Catholic, in which case the book can be summarized mostly by 'keep doing what you're doing but build a web site'.