Life Now Young Adults is a place where smiles are big, and a passion for the mission of Jesus Christ is even bigger.
A space that started with as few as five attendees has turned into something larger than expected, with a greater purpose than just getting people through the doors.
Life Now Young Adults is a Christian faith-based program for adults ages 18-30. The group holds weekly meetings on Tuesday nights with a live worship band and a sermon that follows.
Once a month, in place of worship, they hold a large-group discussion during the sermon, giving young adults a chance to sit down with one another and discuss the message in community.
“We desire to be a place for young adults to have life now with Jesus and to have life now with each other,” said Mitchell Thompson, NextGen Pastor for Life Now Church.
Thompson curates his weekly sermons towards young adults and the struggles they face as they navigate through the early years of adulthood. The current series is called “Quarter Life Crisis,” and it focuses on topics relating to finding direction in this ‘in-between’ stage of life.
These church services started as a small, experimental effort at Eastridge Church’s south campus. This young adult ministry helped inspire the renaming of Life Now Church after the south campus separated. The group works directly out of what is now Life Now Church.
“Me and my best friend were sitting by a fire one night,” Thompson said. “I came up with the name ‘Life Now Young Adults’ because I was just fed up. I was like, ‘I’m tired of people just getting saved. I want people to have life now.’ And that was kind of the heart behind it.”
Thompson explained that the Bible says in John 10:10 that Jesus came to give life and offer it in the fullest. That is the heart of this ministry’s mission: Accepting young adults at any point in their journey of the Christian faith, offering them a community and helping lead them to Christ or back to Christ, so they can live their adulthood to the fullest.
“My goal is for Life Now Young Adults to be the most friendly place you’ll ever be,” Thompson said. “We want people to know it doesn’t matter what you’ve done or what’s been done to you. Come, show up and you’re going to get loved, and you’re going to experience the love of Jesus.”
Thompson has been the pastor of Life Now Young Adults for almost two years. The program will be celebrating three years of ministry this May.
The vision of having a space for young adults to learn about Jesus and to learn how to walk in the faith has not changed, but the attendance and leadership have grown tremendously since Life Now Young Adults’ beginning in May of 2023.
Thompson, along with Madison Hopper, Emma Hopper, Ethan Miller, Austin White, Anna White and David House—plus close to 30 other leaders—make up this ministry’s leadership team.
“This ministry really has nothing to do with me,” Thompson said. “I just happen to be the guy who is in charge, and for some reason God decided I needed to be the one to lead the young adults ministry, so I am just trying to be obedient.”
The people who believed in the vision of this ministry and who are continuing to pour into it are those who have helped make it into what it is today. With a grateful heart, Thomson explained how these people are helping grow the kingdom of heaven by God’s hands, and that is how they have been successful.
But it is not about the numbers that are this team’s measure of success, but about the lives that are changed for the better.
“This isn’t about me,” Thompson said. “It’s about young adults getting saved and experiencing Jesus Christ. It is truly the grace of God, and it’s my leadership team.”
Weekly meetings are held at Life Now Church on Tuesdays at 7 p.m., and any young adults are welcome to attend. Familiar face or first-time guest, Thompson guarantees that all will be greeted at the doors with arms wide open and lots of enthusiasm for a great night ahead.
“I believe that if we can get them in the door, God can get them into heaven,” Thompson said.
