Getting a Life: The challenge of emerging adulthood discusses new research into “emerging adulthood”, the phase of life roughly between ages 18 and 30 and its implications for the church. “When the space between high school graduation and full adulthood was fairly short, as it was 50 years ago, the length of time spent out of church tended to be rather short. But with the rise of emerging adulthood in recent decades, churches are now looking at 15-year or even 20-year absences by youth from churches between their leaving as teenagers and returning with toddlers—if indeed they ever return.” Yikes.