Schadt says young adults get caught up in a “triangle of discouragement.” In this triangle, young people experience pressure from their parents to be obedient children; they feel pressure from the church to be perfect Christians; and they feel pressure from their peers to adhere to social cultural norms, which are often negative.

“It creates a situation where young people are living an intentionally-deceptive dual life,” Schadt said. “We need to prepare them for adulthood by giving them the freedom to make tough decisions in high school. We’re not allowing the Holy Spirit to do His job in convicting our kids in their lives—we as parents are doing it. Instead, we believe if we have our rules and our consequences, we will raise them up in the Lord. A lot of times, that’s just not the case.”

Purity and Vocation

Raison contends one practical way to help young people stay connected with their faith is to encourage them to get involved in volunteering or ministry on their campus. He says that during this time of emerging adulthood, there is a huge opportunity of growth that needs to be capitalized upon.

“Young people need to try to engage in a meaningful activity,” said Raison, who heads up the 4-H Youth and Community Development program at OSU. “In doing that, they can attain growth and progress through their volunteering. We are effectively equipping them with first hand experiential knowledge of the value of serving others, and hopefully moving them into this whole mindset of servant leadership.”

Raison adds that young people are the ideal candidates for volunteer work, as they are physically able, they don’t have too many time commitments, and they have disposable income.

Hunter says that it’s part of the church’s responsibility to engrain in young people an idea of unconditional servanthood.

“Another piece of the transition is to see how to serve God in all areas of life. There’s the sense that many young adults don’t really know what they’re going to do, and they’ll serve God when they find out what that is,” Hunter said. “We need to try to create an understanding that your entire life is to be under the reign of Christ.”

Added Raison: “If we don’t get a hold of them, we have seen what the alternative is,” he said. “We know what else they’re going to be doing on a Friday night. It’s not very productive; it doesn’t take them anywhere.”

The pull toward living a deceptive life that Schadt mentioned can show up most powerfully in the area of purity. Because of the delay in marriage, one of the primary struggles Christian emerging adults face—if not the primary one—is sex and abstinence.

“The minority of emerging adults who may believe in sexual chastity before marriage and want to resist the lure of sexual adventuring face a very difficult peer culture in which to live,” wrote Smith. He also notes that the rise in varied forms of birth control over the last half century have made it increasingly difficult for young adults to remain sexually pure, even more so in the isolated, insulated college setting.