• prolonged adolescence, or
• delayed adulthood, or
• Millenials, or
• Gen iY, or
• “thresholders,” or
• emerging adulthood, or
• boomerang kids, or even
• youthhood

It’s a phase of life that has sprung up between youth and adulthood and includes young people between the ages of 18 and 32. If you’d like to read more, here’s a good article that USA Today published on it back in 2004.

What this article suggests, as do the many sociologists and psychologists who study this developmental season of life, is that today’s “young adults” are taking longer and longer to assume many of the “adult” responsibilities in life.

Upon graduating from high school and “moving on” — be it to college, a job, or life outside of their parents’ home — many young people are struggling to step into new realms of responsibility.

They don’t, however, struggle to step into the many new realms of freedom!

These ’emerging adults’ love all of the opportunities afforded to them outside of the parental home… but don’t care as much for the responsibility side of that same coin… which is where their development is halted.

There are a number of factors that play into this new phase of life.

Our culture, with all of its technological advances and provocative media, have created an environment where young people were (and are) being exposed to adult-themed content at a younger age. It’s increasingly accessible which makes accountability a challenge… and younger people are quite sure what to do with it. And it’s having an impact on them. So has the downward economy of the past few years. It’s made much of life unstable — which leaves students feel less courageous when it comes to taking risks and stepping out… and more apt to seek the protective shelter of their parental wings.

Parents, in particular the “helicopter” parents, have made life too easy for their students… and they have taken on a lot of the responsibility (that’s supposed to lead to maturation and formation) that was intended for their students. This is setting the wrong tone in the lives of their students at the onset of a very formative season — which is not good. We have, in most recent years, also seen the rise of  ‘the Apache helicopter parent’ — who doesn’t just hover, but also attacks! These parents are fighting their students’ battles for them… an incredible learning opportunity that they are missing out on.

Students, not all — but too many, are content to “get by” with doing the minimal requirements. They’re not stepping up and taking on responsibility in numerous areas of their lives… and their formation, maturation and personal growth is stunting as a result of it.

All of this has had me wondering for a while now about how this phenomenon is shaping our ministry efforts with this age group.

Some questions I’ve been asking myself are: