Based on the Rev. Matilda Dunn’s experience as Episcopal chaplain at the University of Tennessee campus in Chattanooga, a small percentage of traditional young college students do attend church regularly. Another small percentage expresses hostility toward institutional religion. Most students fall somewhere in the middle: Though they identify themselves as Christians, they don’t participate in regular church services or programs – but neither have they taken any oppositional stand to doing so.

There’s great promise in these young adults. It’s the responsibility of the church to reach out to and embrace them, for their sake and the church’s own, Dunn noted. Future membership is only one benefit to the church: “Campus ministry stands as a major recruitment tool for the ordained ministry if we want to be intentional about bridging the age gap and address clergy shortage,” she said.

The Episcopal Church must intentionally incorporate young adults in all aspects of church life, Dunn asserts. This must occur in students’ home churches and in ministries on university and college campuses, “particularly in decision-making structures as a way of stimulating their interests and causing them to feel a sense of ownership,” she said.

Dunn acknowledges obstacles such as low minority presence may reduce the appeal of the Church to some young adults. But she is encouraged by the way current students relate to each other, the church and the world.