For self-described “Georgia boy” Dylan Nicholas, church and faith were central to his successful transition to the Upper Valley with his wife, Aimee, in their early 20s.
“It felt like home very, very quick to me. I think that came a lot to the call (from God) . . . not just, ‘Hey, we want a job,’ or, ‘Hey, we want to relocate,’ ” said Nicholas, now 28, who went to college in Alabama and also lived in Florida. “There was a purpose for us.”
That call back in 2010 was to help launch White River Junction’s Riverbank Church, known for incorporating lively music and light shows into its Sunday services. Along with several other young couples from the South, they targeted their evangelical Christian message to one of the “least-churched areas of the country,” said Nicholas, a full-time assistant pastor whose many duties include managing productions.
What’s more, they were doing it as millennials, who, on the whole, are considerably less religious than their elders in America, according to the Pew Research Center.
In a departure from generations before him, Nicholas prefers “experiences” over “services,” and avoids the term “religious.” To him, the word smacks of rigid rules, as opposed to focusing on the Bible and strengthening relationships with God — no matter who you are, where you come from or what you look like.
The idea of the church, he said, is that “all I have to do is just believe. That’s it; I don’t need to say my Hail Marys, I don’t need to give money … just believe and everything else comes after that.”
Stylistically as well as theologically, Riverbank is “come as you are, jeans and a T-shirt,” Nicholas said. “I preach in a hat when I’m up on stage.”
Perhaps that’s why folks from their mid-20s to mid-30s are, by a hair, the best represented age group among more than 400 people at Riverbank most Sundays. Nicholas and his wife rented in Plainfield before buying their first home in Enfield, and as he watches other young couples go through such changes, he’s comforted that Riverbank provides a well-established support system.
“It’s so essential, and we see that a lot when we see a lot of younger couples, meaning mid-20s, coming for jobs from other parts of the country,” he said. “They love the community that’s here.”
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Dylan Nicholas
Age: 28
Hometown: Calhoun, Georgia
Currently Lives In: Enfield
Where were you five years ago? Launching Riverbank Church. “Five years ago we were being stressed out because we just launched and (we realized) we have to now do this every single week.”
Where do you see yourself in five years? Watching lives change. “Honestly I could not imagine in this past five years what God has done, what Jesus has done in this church, and I cannot dare fathom what he’s going to do in the next five. . . . I’m excited just to be a part of it, I’m excited just to watch.”
What does the Upper Valley offer 20-somethings? Each town and neighborhood has its own identity. “I think that’s one of the great things about the Upper Valley. Each town, Hanover to West Lebanon to Lebanon … all the suburbs of the Hartford area, they each have their own kinds of niches.”
What is lacking for 20-somethings in the Upper Valley? The everyday comforts you find in other areas, along the lines of Target and Chick-fil-A. “They don’t have those up here, which is fine, but from an outsider’s standpoint, people are like, ‘What, you don’t have that?’ And it makes it unattractive to outsiders.”