Some youth workers will try almost anything to reach and teach young people the gospel, but scattershot approaches rarely form genuine disciples.

What’s needed are disciple makers who are willing to be teachers and companions on the spiritual journey. It’s this process of disciple making that Rick Dunn, lead pastor at Fellowship Evangelical Free Church, and Jana Sundene, associate professor of Christian ministries at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill., explore in their book, Shaping the Journey of Emerging Adults: Life-Giving Rhythms for Spiritual Transformation.

YouthWorker Journal: Your book explores what it means to shepherd and care for emerging adults. What is an emerging adult?

Rick Dunn: An emerging adult is standing on his or her own, yet interdependent relationally. He or she is entering into relationships with give and take, whether it’s friendship or marriage.

Jana Sundene: An emerging adult is defined differently by different sociologists. The ages we were thinking of were 19 to 35. Emerging adults delay marriage, children and having a stable career. There’s a lot more traveling and exploring and experimentation before they settle down. If you talk to an emerging adult and define them as an adult, there’s often resistance. They don’t want to move into that stage of life.

YWJ: Shaping the Journey of Emerging Adults is about disciple making. As part of this, you talk about how Jesus’ vision for disciple making centered on encouraging, challenging, supporting, coaching and equipping individuals increasingly to wholly obey His Father by means of the life that Christ Himself provided. How does this vision for disciple making compare to other common approaches to disciple making?

Rick: You have to enter into a relationship with a vision for emerging adults to become disciple makers themselves. Instead of thinking about making disciples who go to church, it’s asking, “How many do we have who are disciple makers outside the confines of the church structure?” The difference is attracting with a program verses empowering and deploying.

Jana: A lot of visions for disciple making include encouraging, challenging, supporting and coaching. Obedience and becoming Christlike usually are thrown in there somewhere. I don’t think we’re presenting all that unique approach to disciple making. It’s the method that we’re taking qualms with. When you look at some of the common approaches to disciple making, a lot of times you’ll see a huge list of character qualities. We believe these rhythms or postures are at the core of all the other things. If you trust the wisdom of the Father, submit to His leadership and accept His mission of loving others, that incorporates a ton of other things.

YWJ: Why are trust, submission and love so critical for disciple making relationships?

Rick: These are the things you can’t manufacture apart from a heart change. They’re characteristics of Christ that transform us into His likeness. Apart from God, you can stay sexually pure and be financially responsible, but you cannot love one another. I constantly want to move people toward what they can’t do apart from God. Jesus led His disciples into situations where they needed Him. I don’t want to lead people to what they already can do. I want them to be desperate for Christ.

YWJ: Shaping the Journey of Emerging Adults introduces the life-restoring rhythms of discernment, intentionality and reflection and stresses their importance to the disciple making process. What is intentionality, and why are grace and effort important to this process?

Rick: Intentionality keeps you coming back to Christ and recalibrating yourself around grace and truth. We want to teach disciples to learn to do this on their own. It’s not about getting them discipled. It’s about a posture, a lifestyle, an aptitude for being a disciple who disciples. The reason there is grace is no one is going to get it right all the time. At the same time, effort is an act of worship.

Jana: We have a tendency to go one place or the other. When we’re working with people who are growing and fallen, we have a tendency to overextend grace: “They’re just human. Poor kids”; or to superimpose effort: “Just try harder.” In the midst of intentionality, we need to have effort. Part of the mark of maturity is taking responsibility for yourself. We take steps, but we look at where that ability to take steps comes from and find grace.

YWJ: Based on your own work as disciple makers, how can churches connect emerging adults to our communities in meaningful ways?

Rick: We want emerging adults to come to a church that we cannot yet imagine. The best ideas are not going to come from staff. Let emerging adults explore. Let them teach you what they can teach you.

Jana: Have seasoned adults engage in the journeys of emerging adults. Get relationally knee deep with each other. We, as churches, need to think about how we can engage emerging adults in the mission of the church. If they’re prosumers—if they’re producing and not content to be consumers—they do things such as music, art, photography and film making. Why don’t we think about new roles in the church that would fit where these adults are? What do they have to offer that’s different? There’s so much potential there. They could infuse the pieces of our service with beauty, expression and creativity in the ways they use art and music. Life forms that are starting to stagnate could be re-imagined by our emerging adults. Then they would feel empowered, invited and welcomed in the midst of community.

YWJ: What advice would you give youth workers and pastors about how to recruit people to serve as disciple makers?

Rick: Catch people disciple making, and then tell the story.

Jana: Look for adults willing to engage in their own journey. That’s key to the effectiveness of any disciple maker. Vision cast about why walking with young adults is needed, necessary and a key aspect of passing on faith. Do some training. Empower and remind them, “Yes, you can do this.”