Young Adults Quest for Truth…and Fun
By Tanner Osborne
Imagine this: You’re a young adult, between 18-35 years old, and you want a place where you can find friendships with others who would like to grow in their faith. The only problem is…it doesn’t seem like your church really has one! So, what do you do?
You ask God for help, buckle down and figure out how to make one happen. This was the case almost five months ago. I was just getting hired into my role as the Parish Faith Formation Assistant and I felt a great urge to dive deeper into my faith and really be a disciple of Christ. With this, I knew I had to take it one step at a time and maybe start with finding a young adult ministry somewhere. Coincidentally, or honestly providentially, I was told that we had another St. Max parishioner working on getting another Young Adult Ministry reinvigorated at St. Max and they needed someone to lead it temporarily, as we sought out volunteers to lead.
Thanks to the Coordinator of Youth Ministry, Roya Salehpour, we started off ultra-strong with a fantastic series on Formed.org by Dr. Edward Sri. Which served as a challenge to the issue that plagues our world today: moral relativism. This was a very popular series that was six episodes long. This initial young adult offering led to a passionate and dedicated group of regulars who showed up for every meeting and sometimes went above and beyond by not only participating in our discussions whole-heartedly, but also by using their own time and resources to bring food and or drink for their newly-made friends in the Young Adult Ministry.
As our series ended, our focus shifted to, “What should we do next?” and “How do we get the word out?” Luckily for us, we have a great group of individuals in our office that give us time to advertise, and we also have some greatly talented individuals who created our flyers and spoke about our ministry after Mass in the gathering space.
The amount of time and heart we put into our discussions during our meetings is a sight to behold. Sometimes it’s like you’d be talking to someone who has lived for two-hundred years, with how much wisdom they’d be sharing. But no, we are all just young adults seeking to be guided by Christ and His wisdom. It is truly amazing how faith and friendship can do so much in a discussion. It can make you reflect on your own disposition, and how you can aid the world around you, eventually getting you to act on such thoughts.
On August 20, 2026, we had an amazing social evening of fellowship and with our “End of Summer Bash!” Cornhole, chicken wings, smores, and one smoking hot bonfire made for a night that was like lightning in a bottle, amazing. We even had a few newcomers who were welcomed immediately into the group. It was so easy, it was like they’d been with us since the beginning. You really could not ask for a friendlier group of people. From artist, to convert, to law student, to seminarian, not only are we siblings in Christ, but we are also shaping up to be a great group of friends in formation who are always there for each other.
If you’d like to join us, scan the QR code to see our event calendar or visit: www.saint-max.org/youngadults.