Have you seen the November 2025 Barna report titled about this comback? Click here to read the report. You will need to click in the blank space following the introduction if you do not see the graphics.
I wonder how many of our churches/Parishes/Synagogues are noticing a comeback. I hope to have the opportunity tomorrow while I am at my church to talk with our Discipleship Minister. We have a very active and growing young adult ministry.
As I have shared the last 2 weeks, my church just launched our 2026 Bible Reading Plan which has been well received. We are doing more through the library than we have ever done to support the annual reading plan. I'm wondering if part of this growth is due to the fact that most of our Discipleship staff team are young adults themselves. Barna's report is making me aware that our library team may need to change our assumptions about young adults, especially about men. We tend to put more emphasis on older generations who have been our top users. We now need to have conversations with leaders of our young adults and young adults themselves. We are missing a mark of interest for them.
What are your responses to Barna's report. Have you given up on young adults? Notice the conclusion to this report at the very end. Let's grapple with the Enrcouragement and Challenge for us as library ministry leaders. Am I the only one who sees a real opportunity here for us to engage more people in those books sitting on the shelves?
I look forward to our conversation,
Morlee
Replies
Amy and I made a spontaneous decision last Wednesday to move the young adult books to the cart that has had all the CE books. While doing that I noticed our young adult collection is missing the mark with today's young adults. We need to do some purging and replace those books with more Bible related books. I still need to have that conversation with our young adult minister.