As we prepare a couple for the sacrament of matrimony, it is important that we know to whom we are ministering. In many cases those seeking marriage preparation are young adults (age 19-35). It follows that we, as marriage preparation leaders, are ministering to young adults.

As ministers to young adults, it is our mission to help connect these young adults to Jesus, the Church and the mission of the Church in the world. (Sons and Daughters of the Light — A Pastoral Plan for Ministry with Young Adults, USCC.)

In order for us to be better prepared to work with young adults, we have compiled below a list of things you should know and/or think about as you prepare to minister with young adults. (List adapted from Trainer's Kit for Developing Ministry with Young Adults, Center for Ministry Development, 1999.)

Young Adults work in a society characterized by the increasing complexity of everyday life.

• Many young adults feel that the pace of life will only increase as we move further into the new millennium.

How will this affect the family that they will soon become?

Young Adults today live in the first truly multimedia age.

• They have grown up in an image culture.
• They think and communicate visually — in images.

How does this impact how they will relate to you as instructor, to each other as a couple, and to their children as parents?

Young Adults live and work in an information age where information is an integral fact of life.

• They are the first of the generations that exhibit fluency and comfort with the new technologies.

How will this affect what and how you communicate with them? Do you have an email address?

Young Adults experience a very different family life from the safe, child-centered, two-parent home of the past. They've experienced:

• Smaller families
• Dual career parents, both going to work outside of the home
• Day care as pre-schoolers
• Divorce at twice the rate of the previous generation

How does this impact young couples expectations of what they are committing to?

Young Adults experience difficulty in the current workforce that has changed from an industrial age to an information age, from manufacturing to a service-based economy.

• It is difficult today to support a family on one income.
• Educational requirements for one to obtain a good job have increased.

What kinds of things would be helpful for these folks to hear as they prepare to start their own family in this new age?

Young Adults today are redefining their relationships with their family of origin, due in part to their own childhood experiences and in part to the changing economy.

• 46% of single young adults in their 20's are still living with mom and/or dad.
• They are insecure about their financial future and are cautious about relationships as a reaction to parental divorce.
• They are under little pressure from parents to move out.
• Young adult women do not expect to be supported by their husbands, so they are under less financial pressure to find a husband early.

What kinds of things will be valuable for young adults to hear as they are now not only preparing for their marriage but may be leaving the nest for the first time?

Marriage for young adults will probably not mean the formation of another, totally separate, nuclear family.

• They are more comfortable with the extended family of relatives, step-relatives and friends that has developed through their single lives.
• 71% agree with the statement that a family is any two or more people who love and care for each other.

How does this impact what you will share with them about your family and experience?

Young Adults today have a more pragmatic philosophy of life.

• They are persuaded by what works rather than what ought to be.
• They are more concerned for the person and the community.
• They are more comfortable with change than previous generations.
• They tend to adopt a flexible stance toward life.

How will this ideology be helpful for a young couple preparing for marriage? How will this be a hindrance?

Young Adults are fairly consistent in naming the conditions they need to have a good life.

• Good health
• Close personal relationships
• Living comfortably
• Being known as a person of integrity
• Having a close relationship with God

How can we connect these wants to what the church teaches about marriage?