Is Your Catholic Young Adult Ministry a Group or a Community?

When you picture your parish Catholic Young Adult ministry, what comes to mind?

Maybe it is Theology on Tap once a month. Maybe it is pickup volleyball, a book club, or a steady rotation of socials. Maybe it is a core leadership team that has been holding things together for years. Faithful, creative, and if we’re honest, sometimes tired.

Here is a question worth asking in the good times, when attendance is strong and momentum is high, so that the ministry is still standing when seasons get hard:

Is your Catholic Young Adult ministry a group, or a community?

That distinction matters more than we realize, because what works in a good season does not always survive change, conflict, or transition. If we want Catholic Young Adult ministry to outlive the current leadership and thrive into the future, we need to build on something stronger than a calendar of events. You might be asking, group vs community, what’s the big difference?

A group can be a really good start. But a community is what becomes sustainable, and over time, sanctifying. Here are a few contrasts that help us discern what we are building.

1. A group is inward focused. A community reaches out.

A group often exists for the people already in it. The goal is connection, belonging, and consistency, and those are good things. But the gravitational pull stays inward. Are we having a good time? Are our people showing up? Do we like this format?

A community, on the other hand, naturally turns outward. It notices who is not there yet. It makes room for the newcomer, the lonely, the skeptical, the recently returned to the faith. It does not just ask, “How do we keep our people engaged?” It asks, “Who is Jesus calling us to love?”

2. A group has hobbies. A community has a mission.

Groups bond around shared interests: sports, food, games, speakers, study topics. Hobbies build rapport, and they can lower the barrier to entry.

But a community is formed by something deeper: a shared mission. And the Church mission is not vague. It has a name: Jesus Christ. To know Him, love Him, and follow Him, and to invite others to do the same.

Without mission, a Catholic Young Adult ministry becomes a collection of events. With mission, even simple gatherings carry direction and purpose.

3. A group does not have responsibility. A community has shared responsibility.

In a group, leadership tends to mean a few people plan and everyone else attends. When those few burn out or move away, the whole thing can stall.

Community is different. Community creates shared ownership.

People do not just consume ministry, they contribute to it. They host. They mentor. They invite. They pray. They serve. They show up early, stay late, and notice who needs a ride, a check in, or a friend.

When responsibility is shared, Catholic Young Adult ministry becomes less fragile and more like the Church.

4. A group is finite. A community grows.

A group can plateau easily. It becomes our circle, familiar and stable, but not expanding. Sometimes it even becomes unintentionally closed, not by cruelty, but by comfort.

Community expects growth, not just in numbers, but in maturity. It assumes new people will enter, and that everyone will be challenged to go deeper in prayer, virtue, commitment, and discipleship.

Growth is not a side effect. It is part of the point.

5. A group is instant. A community takes time.

Groups can launch quickly. You can schedule a social, set up a group chat, and you are off.

Community takes time because it is built on trust, conversion, and real relationships. It requires patience. It requires conflict resolution. It requires sticking around when things get awkward, when someone disappoints you, when the fun wears off. But that is also where the grace is.

Sanctification does not usually happen in the easy moments. It happens in committed relationships, when we learn to love like Christ.

Why This Matters for Catholic Young Adult Ministry

Groups are fun and fast to launch. They are often a necessary starting point. But when conflict comes, or when the original leaders move, get married, start demanding jobs, or simply need rest, a group mentality often cannot hold the weight. That is because the mission of Jesus is not rooted in meetups. It is rooted in community, a people grafted onto the larger Body of Christ, united in worship, sacrament, and shared life.

If we want Catholic Young Adult ministry to be sustainable, we cannot settle for being an event based group that depends on a few heroic leaders. We have to call young adults higher. Not into something to do, but into belonging: Belonging to Christ, belonging to the Church, and belonging to one another in a way that forms disciples.

So take a breath and ask it plainly: Is our Catholic Young Adult ministry functioning like a group, or becoming a community?

If the answer is “mostly a group,” do not be discouraged. A group can be a seed. But do not stop there. Young adults are hungry for more than casual connection. They are hungry for meaning, mission, and a Church that expects holiness.

And that is what community builds. Because growth, responsibility, and sanctification do not happen best in isolation. They happen together, in community, as part of the living Body of Christ.