We are officially announcing that as a brand, we will be giving back 10% of all profits through our e-commerce site back to Young Adult’s Ministries. I (Jeremy, the owner), have had a strong conviction for this over the last 8 months now, and the time has come to make it a reality, let me share why.
Some context
Did you know that high school ministries have only been around since the 70’s? Jim Rayburn actually started the initiative back in the 40’s by creating what we know today as Young Life. Over the next 30-40 years, churches started to realize their need for high school ministries as well. Many started hiring people from Young Life and Youth for Christ while others built out their own ministries and hired their own Youth Pastors. By 2023, there are now hundred of thousands of high school ministries found in churches all across the country. It’s only taken 50+ years for this to be normalized.
While high school ministry is great, did you know that anywhere from 60-70% of high school graduates will drop out of church when they graduate high school? And that only around 35% will return to attend regularly at some point in their life? (Barna Research Group).
Why is this? Perhaps it has to do with how we teach our youth? Perhaps maybe it has to do with the system as a whole? There is so 1 definitive answer to this question, but what we do know, is that it’s a plague to the Church.
In 2020, 3.2 million students graduated from high school. Studies show that approximately 63% of all students between 13-17 claim to be Christian. If we apply 63% to the 3.2 million students who graduate each year, then we can confidently say that about 2 million students every year will graduate high school and drop out of church.
How We Plan To Give Back
Here at Ask Us Why, we not only believe in having a rock solid foundation in Christ, but even more, in the future of the Kingdom. And young adults now will build that future. And over the last 4 years, Ask Us Why has inadvertently centered around young adults already between our content, following, and customers. It only makes sense that we solidify the vision we have for raising up leaders for the future of the Kingdom of God by locking our focus into Young Adults.
So, not only will we be giving back 10% of our profits to Young Adults Ministries, but we plan to aggressively tackle the issues we face today with drop outs.
In the first of many stages in our new initiative, we created the very FIRST of its kind, the Ask Us Where Network. This will blow your mind like it is ours.
The Ask Us Where Network
The Ask Us Where Network is a digital platform designed meticulously, thoroughly, and thoughtfully to connect young adults to young adult ministries near them. Students or young adults between the ages of 18-29 simply go to the website, pick the state they live in, and choose either the university they will/are attending, or simply the closest one to them. Once located, our database will then show a list of all of the Young Adult ministries approved on our network in close proximity to that University. Each ministry has its own designated page that displays basic information about who they are, what they are about, when they gather, how to get in touch. You can even add their ministrie’s schedule directly to your calendar of choice to remind you when gatherings are happening. Students can also fill out a contact card that goes directly to that ministry's main contact point, while also sending us a copy of the form. Their job is to respond back in a reasonable time to connect with the student, establish a relationship, educate them on the ministry, and get them set up to seamlessly join when they can. On our end, we will send out automatic follow ups to students and young adults who reached out to make sure that the ministry they contacted reached back out. If they didn’t, we contact the ministry to check in and ensure responses. If they fail to, we remove them from the network. Here’s where it gets really cool:
Every ministry that will exist on our network will go through a screening process by us to make sure they align with our values and beliefs about Young Adult Ministries, click here to read more about what those things are. Meaning, we don’t just pull from any random database with a list of existing ministries and then put it on the network. Any ministry that wants to join the network has to reach out and apply before being approved. Why? Because we want to make sure that every student who uses the network is truly being set up for success to connect with a ministry that is real, consistently gathering, and prioritizing the relationship with them. If that ministry fails to uphold our values and standards of a ministry (consistent gathering, teaches biblically, prioritizes discipleship, communication, etc), then we remove them from the network. Trust is hard to come by in this world, and we want to be the most reliable network to ever exist in this space.
If a ministry doesn’t exist in an area a student or young adult looks, there is a contact form on the bottom of the page that they can fill out that goes directly to our team who will then start researching for existing ministries in that area. Either way, we want young adults to know that we have their back.
This is the first stage in our initiative. Studies show that 71% of college students who dropped out of church didn’t do so intentionally. This gives us hope that we aren’t working against the tide, but rather bridging inconsequential gaps that occur naturally in each stage of life. Meaning, students face two situations:
- Students are moving away from home to go to college in completely new environments and cities. In fact, studies show that nearly half (43%) of all students move out to go to college. In doing so, they enter a space completely new to them where they have little to no connections to faith-based communities near them.
- Students graduate high school, attend college locally (or don’t go to college), but grow out of the high school ministry and community at their church and don’t have a new specially designed faith based community for their age group to connect with.
In either situation, a majority of these students and young adults are starting fresh with their environment, and without the right tools, can find it challenging to find the right community to get involved with. Many students who choose to live on campus end up meeting lots of new friends, but without a shared belief in Christ. Surrounding ourselves with such influence is an easy grab by the enemy to pull us away from our roots in Christ. The influence and temptation to party, explore sexuality, have fun, let loose, try new things, get drunk, try drugs, and experience the world are like sweet water to a starved sinful flesh. These students are like fish in a small pond for the Enemy to snatch up.
If we can start this initiative by connecting students and young adults to the right communities BEFORE they even move to college or graduate, then we can set them up for success as they enter the real and raw world around them that is waiting to devour them. We even plan to partner with pastors of High School Ministries across the country to use the network in an effort to set their students up for success as they leave. These young adults are the future of the Church, the Kingdom of God, and if we can invest in them before the world devours them, imagine the impact we can have on the world. Imagine an extra 2 million students every year on fire for God and bringing that fire to the universities they attend. We’ll pause to let you get your excitement out…
So in a nutshell, we are taking Ask Us Why to the next level. This is only the beginning of what Ask Us Why will become over the years to come, and we can’t wait to share it all with you.
What does this mean for you?
Spread the word. If you know a young adults ministry that isn’t already on the network
(check here), reach out to us and get us connected.
Shop with purpose. Not only can you buy apparel that is designed to embolden your walk with Christ, but it serves a greater purpose to contribute to young adult ministries across the country. We have partnered with Raize, a giveback software, that will allow us to create an exclusive list visible at checkout that allows you as the buyer, to choose exactly what ministry your profits go to (only approved ministries on our network will be on it). It’s even cooler that Raize handles the funds directly so we don’t even touch them. Just another reason to trust in our system and commitments. Click here to check out our e-commerce store with apparel, journals, devotionals, and other accessories made to help you grow in your faith!
Get connected. If you are someone looking to find a solid community around you that’s designed to walk with you in this stage of life, utilize our network to find them. Disclaimer: it will take some time for our network to build a large database of networks so we ask for your patience as we find communities near you in the meantime.