Finding your Yes to God as a Young Adult

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Finding your yes to God as a young adult is not always a dramatic moment. Sometimes it starts at a line dancing night. Jim sits down with David James, a 24-year-old Mission Service Associate at Heritage retreat center in Sharon, Georgia, who is weeks away from entering the Catholic Church at Easter Vigil. A former Baptist from South Carolina, David shares how frustration with a Sunday social culture, a Catholic young adult community, and 210 acres of sacred Georgia ground became the unlikely path to his yes. His story is a compelling window into why young adults today are turning toward the Catholic Church in growing numbers.

What’s in this episode:

• David's journey from Baptist church life to OCIA and Easter Vigil
• The role of a vibrant young adult parish in welcoming new questions
• Why young adults are turning to the Catholic Church in record numbers
• The sacramental life as a daily structure for devotion and belonging
• Heritage Retreat Center and its roots as Georgia's first Catholic settlement
• The MSA program and what a year of service and faith formation looks like
• Radical hospitality as ministry and offering work to God
• Saint Carlo Acutis and using technology for the good of the Church
• How witnessing guests arrive worn out and leave renewed shapes a young person's faith
• The glowing rectangle problem and why real encounters with God require presence
• One resource every Catholic family should know: The Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Book he is currently reading: Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor by Allen Hunt and Rome Sweet Home by Kimberly Hahn & Scott Hahn
• Advice to his younger self: Find the Catholic Church a lot sooner than I did
• Final wisdom for listeners: Don't be afraid of your faith; be Christ to others through your faith

Resources Mentioned:

Heritage Retreat Center – Georgia's historic Catholic retreat center and home of the MSA program

Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor by Allen Hunt – A conversion story that inspired David as a new Catholic

Rome Sweet Home by Kimberly Hahn & Scott Hahn – A conversion story David read alongside his own journey into the Church