Helping Young People Find Belonging

I’ll never forget the day I first walked into North Tampa Christian Academy (NTCA). I had just accepted the role of chaplain, but almost immediately, I realized this wasn’t the familiar Adventist environment I knew. Six hundred students filled the campus, and only 30 percent were Seventh-day Adventists. The rest came from all kinds of backgrounds— Hindu, Mormon, atheist and more. I thought to myself, What have I gotten into? This isn’t just a school. It’s a mission field.

On my first morning, I stood before a 12th-grade Bible class. By the end of the lesson, I knew many didn’t believe what I was teaching. Others didn’t care. In the hallways, I passed students consumed with seemingly everything but God. By the end of that week, I came home drained. Sitting in silence, I wondered, Was accepting this job a mistake? Have I been in the Adventist bubble so long that I can’t connect with young people outside it? For the first time in years, I felt like I didn’t belong.

Those weeks shook me. They drove me to my knees in prayer. And slowly, God began working—not only in the students, but in me. Gradually, I began to connect. Months later, one of the most influential students on campus pulled me aside. His words stunned me: “Pastor David, when I first heard you were coming, I wanted nothing to do with you. I told my friends to stay away because I didn’t want anything to do with religion or God. But then I realized you’re different. You actually care about us. You talk with us, not at us. You don’t push an agenda. It’s refreshing.”

Through experiences like this, I realized the sense of not belonging that haunted me in those early days is the same struggle young people wrestle with daily. Who am I? Where do I fit in? Am I seen and heard?

Research confirms it. The Fuller Youth Institute reports that 61 percent of Gen Z often feel lonely or isolated. Despite constant digital connection, many lack real face-to-face community. They are pressured, fragmented and desperately searching for belonging.

The Fuller Youth Institute has done extensive research on loneliness in young people and offers several practical steps churches and schools can take. Drawing from their findings, along with insights from my own journey, here are five ways youth ministries can help young people experience belonging.

1. Create safe, welcoming spaces.

Young people want to know they are accepted before they believe they belong. That means creating spaces where questions are welcomed, doubts are acknowledged and each person feels valued. Youth leaders can set the tone by practicing hospitality—greeting every student by name, listening attentively and making sure no one is left on the margins.

2. Focus on relationships.

The Fuller Youth Institute encourages leaders to “prioritize presence over performance.” Young people are far more impacted by consistent, caring relationships than by polished programs or flashy events. As my student once told me, what mattered most wasn’t my sermons but that I genuinely cared.

3. Empower young people to lead.

Belonging deepens when youth are not just participants but contributors. Invite young people to lead worship, plan service projects or share testimonies. When their gifts are recognized and used, they realize they matter to the community and to God.

4. Bridge generations.

Young people who have meaningful relationships with adults outside their family are more likely to stay engaged in church.

Congregations can foster this by pairing teens with mentors, creating intergenerational small groups and encouraging older members to cheer on younger ones.

5. Point to Jesus as the true source of belonging.

Programs, friendships and mentors matter, but ultimate belonging is found only in Christ. My role is not to manufacture conversion or force transformation. It’s to love young people well and trust the Holy Spirit to do what He does best. True belonging—the kind that quiets loneliness and answers the deepest questions—comes from knowing Jesus and living in His family.

Young people are searching for connection, but the Church has what they’re longing for: a God who calls them beloved and a community that reflects His love. When we step into their lives with care, consistency and compassion, we create a place where they can feel that they belong.

By David Craig, Arkansas-Louisiana Conference Youth and Young Adult Director