Holistic Liturgical Formation in Three Traditions of Worship: Insights from the Young People and Christian Worship Study

“Young people are not the future of the church. We are the church now.” This proposal is based on the Young People and Christian Worship (YPCW) study, a mixed-methods, multisite, binational, and ecumenical research project that listens deeply to how teenagers and emerging adults (aged 13–29) experience public Christian worship (95 qualitative interviews, 25 focus groups representing approximately 215 participants, and participant observation at 45 worship services, alongside a 1,420-person national survey). Rejecting problematic deficit frameworks and instead engaging in collaborative constructive theology, we ask “What can we learn about worship from young people?” Our research addresses three distinct liturgical traditions—Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, and evangelical Protestant. Initial findings highlight holistic formation: young people are shaped by and for specific traditions of worship in multiple ways—intellectually, emotionally, and actively. What we are learning about formation is significant for the future/s of the church, and the church today.