Weekly Insights
What church leaders need to know about young people and longterm financial dread.
Stat of the Day:
70% of young adults ages 25-39 are worried they’ll never meet their financial goals (YPulse)
What It Means:
Not all stress is bad. Stress gets us to act in response to a situation: motivating us to find food, swerve around that obstacle in the road, and seek medical care when ill. While this kind of stress is basic to human beings and often keeps us alive, elevated stress levels over the longterm can have major, negative impacts on one’s health. There is a clear line between the kind of stress that gets us up in the morning and off to work and the stress that hangs over our every moment like a thunder cloud.
Stress connected to deep-seated existential dread (e.g., climate change) is a lot more like the latter kind of stress than the former, especially as many think we have passed the point of no return in our ability to address the crisis. Many young people today report some level of pervasive climate anxiety, worrying about whether or not the planet will remain livable for their children and grandchildren.
Pervasive stress can come from other sources, too, especially financial strain. With so many young people struggling under the weight of debt, it makes sense that they’re well-represented among those who report high levels of debt-related anxiety. But if nearly three in four young adults (ages 25-39) are concerned that they’ll never meet their financial goals, this is clearly something beyond any normal level of anxiety or stress.
Instead, this represents a level of anxiety much more similar to the existential anxiety related to climate change: facing a relenteless force determined to wreak havoc on their lives for the rest of their lives, while being tied up in financial and political decision-making that most young people feel powerless to address. Failure to address these challenges on a society-wide basis will lead to negative longterm mental and physical health effects that are likely to increase.
Why It Matters:
Addressing the global climate crisis and the looming (personal) debt crisis is a critical task for Americans of all ages, but especially for churches. While rising sea levels will threaten many valuable church properties in cities around the country and globe (Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice already floods on a fairly regular basis), rising consumer debt levels will mean congregants are less likely to be able to tithe to support the expenditures at their local congregation. These bottom-line concerns are, however, not the biggest problem. The existential anxiety many young people experience from climate change and our debt-oriented consumer economy is likely to cause greater social and political instability, with protest movements likely to grow and antisocial, violent behaviors likely to increase.
Questions for the Church:
The church’s focus, however, should be on supporting young people as they navigate these treacherous waters. How can we support them in reaching their financial goals? Are there social or political reforms we should pursue in order to make this more feasible (e.g., affordable college, credit card policy, affordable housing, etc.)? How can we continue to nurture and support young people in our congregations, even when they may not be able to contribute as much to the congregation as is common among older generations? What does this mean for the future of the church?
Is your congregation already engaging these issues? If so, let us know by shooting us an email! We’d love to feature the work churches are already doing in future publications.