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By Joey Butler*

2:00 P.M. EST Feb. 28, 2011 | LAS VEGAS (UMNS)

Young adults attend Relevance X, a three-day leadership conference for ages 18-30 held in Las Vegas. A UMNS photo by Joey Butler. View in Photo Gallery

When one thinks of Las Vegas, a lot of images come to mind: Bright lights. Palatial casinos. Extravagant music, comedy and magic shows. “Sin City” just doesn’t seem the ideal place to hold a church event.

But when 150 young adults converged on University United Methodist Church in Las Vegas Feb. 18-20 for Relevance X 2011, where they shared their faith and their dreams for how to move the church toward the future.

Through energetic worship services, sermons, dialogue and a unique “field trip,” participants focused on service and how that is a key component to their faith. They were challenged to exhibit their personal faith by being a servant to those in need.

The Desert Southwest Annual (regional) Conference began hosting Relevance X in 2010. The annual event aims to reach young adults who often find themselves without a voice in the church.

“As we continue to see numbers decline in the way of attendance by young people, it is now or never that this generation stands up and begins to ‘rethink’ how we are doing things as a body,” said Glen Simpson, 25, young adult ministry coordinator for the Desert Southwest Conference. “Relevance X was only meant to begin the conversation.”

Young adults must be heard

Polls by the Barna Group and Pew Research Center on young people’s religious views offer some sobering findings.

Pew reports 18- to 25-year-olds are among the least likely to attend church regularly — 32 percent attend at least once a week compared with 40 percent of those over age 25. Sixteen percent say they never attend.

Glen Simpson, young adult coordinator for the Desert Southwest
Conference and coordinator of Relevance X, welcomes
attendees. A UMNS photo by Ray Morgan. View in Photo Gallery

Even young Christians are wary. A 2007 Barna study reports half of young churchgoers perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical and too political. One-third called it old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.

When Barna asked young people to identify their impressions of Christianity, one common theme was “Christianity is changed from what it used to be” and “Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus.”

The United Methodist Church is not immune to these challenges.

“We have to get past the churches that claim they don’t have a spot in young adult ministry,” Simpson said. “The entire body of the church plays a role in connecting with young people and truly rethinking how we do church.”

Tara Davis Barnes, a staff member of the Women’s Division of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, echoed those sentiments.

“Among young adults (I spoke with) I heard some frustration that they weren't supported in their church, even when they took the initiative to host young-adult activities,” she said.

Barnes said none of the young women she spoke with were members of the United Methodist Women group at their church.

“The activities of the group did not speak to the young women’s interests. I suggested they begin their own young women’s UMW group, and the common response was, ‘We can do that?’ Hopefully, now, some of them will.”

Tony Jones, author of “The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier,” delivered the keynote address. Jones encouraged those in attendance to consider the current church and whether the model still works.

“Just because we can’t imagine what the church will look like in the future doesn’t mean it’s not just as vital a church as what we have now,” he said.

Tony Jones, keynote speaker for Relevance X 2011, demonstrates the importance of serving others by
leading a foot-washing ceremony. A UMNS photo
by Ray Morgan. View in Photo Gallery

Jones said one of the main problems with modern Christianity is how much it relies on big, ineffective institutions and traditions that are considered “sacred.”

The Barna and Pew research studies emphasize repeatedly how young people mistrust such large institutions and this contributes to their lack of interest in church. Rather than a movement that speaks to their personal faith, many young people view religion as simply a list of rules that incur punishment if broken.

Jones pointed to Methodism’s founder, John Wesley, as someone whose faith didn’t fit into the rules of the day.

Even though Wesley’s methods often pushed the envelope, Jones said, “I think he’d struggle with the modern institutionalism of his own movement.”

Derrick Scott III, 30, who directs college and young adult ministries at Crossroad United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., agreed the current church model needs to change to speak to young people.

“I don’t know if my peers feel like it’s relevant,” he said. “I don’t know if we know why we do what we do, even at the core of our church. Since we don’t know why, we’re just trying to get people to jump on this bus that might not be going anywhere fast.”

But Scott said moving forward doesn’t mean the church should abandon its foundation.

“There is something really profound in what Wesley did and the reasons and motivations behind the movement he started. I still think our best days are ahead of us, but to really pull again from the reasons why our movement began would be a great source of inspiration.”

Service sustains faith

The centerpiece of Relevance X 2011 was a service experience with the Dream Center, an outreach ministry in a part of Las Vegas that doesn’t get shown on TV. Just a few miles from the lights on “The Strip,” the neighborhoods are far from glamorous.

Visitors see rows and rows of homes badly in need of repair, with bars over their windows to prevent burglaries. Nearby, homeless people sleep in tent cities by the interstate.

Relevance X participants assemble sack lunches to
distribute to the homeless as part of a service project
through the Dream Center, an outreach ministry in Las Vegas.
A UMNS photo by Joey Butler. View in Photo Gallery

Relevance X participants stocked a warehouse full of furniture and household items to be distributed to disaster victims and others in need. Others packed sack lunches and health kits and distributed them to homeless people on the neighborhood streets.

When they returned to the conference, they broke into groups to discuss the impact the project had on them and the ways they might serve others when they return home.

“People who go out and feed the homeless may be the only form of Jesus that they see. It would let them know that Jesus is real,” said Wayne Minert, 27, a Relevance X participant from Las Vegas.

Simpson said he feels young people are drawn to mission and service as a way to sustain their faith.

“I’m discovering that young adults … want to physically see that what they do in this world will leave a lasting impression on it,” he said. “By doing service we begin building the other key piece to reaching young people: the relationship. It is the building of relationships that will ultimately lead to young people reconnecting with the church.”

The most important of those relationships is young people’s relationship to Christ, said Derrick Scott.

“The more in love I’ve become with Jesus over my life, the more I’ve been pushed into compassion and justice,” he said.

As Relevance X came to a close and participants prepared to head back to their communities, Simpson asked them to take their ministry experience back with them.

Borrowing from his city’s famous slogan, he said, “The hope is that what happens in Vegas won’t stay in Vegas.”

*Butler is young adult content editor for United Methodist Communications, Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Joey Butler, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.