Young adult faith

Fernando’s Desk has a very perceptive post up today about the ways in which faith “reconfigures” in adulthood. Among other things, he notes:

"Creative youth ministries don’t just give young people the opportunity to express themselves, they can give them the chance to be cool and rebellious (within acceptable limits in socially conservative contexts). It’s not unusual for somone who might have been a little vanilla outside the church context, to be really hip and popular within it. Going to church might actually confer social standing, or distinction for youth. But in adulthood, whilst people might respect your decision to go to church, they are hardly likely to find it cool or hip.

There’s also another point; the distinction that countercultural rebellion seems to confer actually fuels a lot of contemporary marketing, fashion and patterns of consumption for people well into mid-life now. In fact, as boomers enter the retirement age, counterculture could well be a cradle-to-grave marketing strategy.

As we get into adulthood, one of two things happens. We either learn that this distinction through rebellion is less than substantial, in which case we might well look with suspicion upon a message of faith that depends on a counter-cultural outlook. It might be difficult to reconfigure church or faith, stripped of the countercultural baggage.

Or we continue to buy into the myth and uncritically aquire greater means to give ourselves the distinction of rebellion (apple mac, clever t-Shirt, cool jeans, enviromentally sensitive holiday destination, etc). In this view, we need the distinction that church confers much less than we might have in our youth, since we have so many other ways to be hip and cool. Also, in this view there is no incentive to compromise or make peace with the establisment and status quo within the church?"

Might it be possible to support young adults into a grasp of their faith that takes their deep questions seriously, and that builds a vision of "counter cultural" identity that is at once BOTH engaged AND critical? What would that look like?