Church work with young adults

Laura Elizabeth Strauss D.Min.

Young adults make up a fifth of the worshiping body of Sunrise Valley United Presbyterian Church (SVUP). With the percentage of Americans claiming no religious identity increasing from 15.0% in 2008 to 19.3% in 2012, there is a decline in ecclesiastical engagement amongst young adults, particularly Generation Z. SVUP’s ongoing increase in young adults amongst its membership sets the congregation apart. This project uncovers the role intergenerational Christian fellowship plays in young adults' ongoing faith development. This project uses the language of mothering in light of young adults functioning, in North American middle and upper class, as adolescents still seeking the maternal warmth provided by the church in furthering their Christian development.

Ananta Narayan Dahal

Young people are the backbone of every society. The future of our churches and society will be decided on how we care and raise them up as responsible, God-fearing individuals in the present time. Our world is getting smaller with the passing of time. It has become a global village where every crazy thing going on around can be felt in an instant with the media culture getting hold of every nook and corner of many young minds. Immorality has become an accepted norm; sexual assaults have become an uncommon part of daily news, broken homes in every corner of the streets, divorce due to infidelity of spouses, the list goes on. These are not new phenomena anymore, and the church has become a silent witness to many of these abominations.

Sadly, many of these problems are related to misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and mismanagement of human sexuality. Nepalese society has her share of issues related to all these happenings as well. Therefore, with a concern to heal as well as protect the young people who will be our future from becoming degraded human beings, and the zeal to raise them to be Christ-like disciples, following His ways in living holy and acceptable lives before God and man, I devoted my time and energy to explore and research as to how to benefit them. In due time, I realized that imparting proper sex education to these young lives through Christian education ministry in the church can be and will be of great value.

Carvil Antoney Richards D.Min.

This portfolio aimed to develop a collaborative model with six young adults of the Rosthern Seventh-day Adventist Church, Saskatchewan, to increase their confidence for preaching. A three-phase process was required to train the small group. The first phase involved allowing a few young adults to discuss the implication of an assigned Bible passage through the inductive Bible study method. The second phase involved training them to preach; the third phase allowed them to preach. For this portfolio, only the first phase was examined. The participants’ involvement included choosing four Bible passages to develop into four sermons.
This portfolio has V chapters. Chapter I is the introduction, which gives a general overview of the portfolio while chapter II focuses on the researcher’s personal journey and ministry context. Chapter III is about the author’s philosophy of leadership, which governed and guided his ministry practice; chapter IV examines the field research; and chapter V is the conclusion and implication.
The data collection methods used for this research were reflective journaling, participant observation and a survey. While there were things that could have been done differently in the research for a more effective outcome, the project’s conclusion revealed that the young adults’ confidence was increased through their contributions in the group collaboration.

Nicholas T. Wilbur

The purpose of this project is to develop a relational evangelism strategy to reach millennials of Cumming Baptist Church, Cumming, Georgia. The project director led selected members of Cumming Baptist Church to develop a multifaceted relational evangelism strategy that will minister effectively to the millennial population of Forsyth County, Georgia.

The strategy formation team met for six sessions to develop the strategy for the church. The project director instructed the team on demographic data from Forsyth County, information on millennials found through research, best relational evangelism practices, the biblical rationale for relational evangelism, and strategy formation technique. With this knowledge, the strategy formation team, led by the project director, developed a multifaceted relational evangelism strategy. Once completed, the strategy was presented by the project director to the pastoral staff, outreach ministry team, and deacons of CBC for approval and implementation.

Nathan Willems D.Min.

Identity development is fraught with difficulties, especially for children of immigrants (the second-generation). This thesis-project explored the possibility that embracing a Christian identity can help second-generation Chinese American college students and young adults navigate the potential difficulties between their ethnic and national identities. To help participants embrace a Christian identity and apply it to their cultural identities, a 13-week lesson series, Between Two Worlds, structured around the categories of believing, being, belonging, and behaving, was implemented. Participants took initial and final surveys to evaluate the efficacy of the lesson series in establishing the necessity of a Christ-centered identity and in providing a mental framework for identity development.

David T. Um

The goal of this project was to develop a unified strategy for Antioch Baptist Church to make disciples from among college students in Boston, Massachusetts. The project director used the strategy planning model. The project director investigated existing disciple-making strategies popularized by Southern Baptist and non-Southern Baptist evangelical organizations as well as lesser-known programs in discipleship. The project director completed a systems audit by examining case studies of church members whose lives have changed significantly through discipleship. The project director studied the disciple-making strategies already used and currently in use at Antioch Baptist Church to reach college students in Boston, resulting in an organizational profile. The program director enlisted a team and held sessions to analyze the various discipleship programs and synthesize the most effective elements into a single unified strategy for disciplemaking. The project director presented the resulting strategy to the leadership of Antioch Baptist Church for official approval.

Robert Alan Pinkston

Quebec has over 508,000 college and university students, of whom over ninety-nine percent do not know Jesus Christ as their savior. There are several good collegiate ministries operating in Quebec; however, all their numbers combined show only a 0.2 percent engagement of the university student population. To reach collegiate students for Christ in Quebec, there must be a concerted effort by the local church to engage college students with the Gospel. The project in ministry was to develop a strategy for the local church to use the University Impact House model to evangelize and disciple college students in Quebec.

The Impact House is a rented house or apartment in proximity to a university campus. It houses Christian students who live on mission for God to impact their fellow students with the Gospel. The Impact House typically serves a free weekly meal to attract and connect with lost students. The Impact House also has weekly Bible studies, worship nights and prayer meetings for those that have responded and need to be discipled. The Impact House model, in existence since 2009 in Quebec, has proved effective in connecting with unchurched college students. The project in ministry adapted the strategy to implement in the local church context.

Douglas Brent Moore

The purpose of this project was to develop a life-stage transition strategy from pre-adolescence to post-adolescence for Emerald Coast Fellowship, Lynn Haven, Florida. First, the project director explored the internal demographics of Emerald Coast Fellowship to determine critical issues in selected transitions through a church-wide survey. Second, the project director researched and explored existing life-stage transition strategies to develop an annotated bibliography and report on best practices for Emerald Coast Fellowships pre-to-post-adolescent youth. Third, the project director developed a life-stage transition strategy for pre-to post-adolescent youth at Emerald Coast Fellowship using a strategy team. Fourth, the project director presented the strategy to the senior pastor of Emerald Coast Fellowship for consideration to implement the life-stage transition strategy at Emerald Coast Fellowship. This final project report details the project director’s process to develop the life-stage transition project for Emerald Coast Fellowship

Jeffrey M. Luchun

The purpose of this project in ministry report was to develop a strategic plan for St. Andrew's United Methodist Church (SAUMC) in Virginia Beach, Virginia, to reach millennials in their surroundings community through the implementation of these methodologies and the developed strategic plan. During the past decade, at SAUMC, the need to reach the next generation has reached a critical point. The community around the church holds multiple mosaic identities which identifies which were utilized in developing the strategy to reach this narrowed demographic. Current literature on the topic and strategic planning assist in identifying key methodologies St. Andrew's can implement. The millennial generation desires a church that reflects ancient aspects while blending contemporary distinctiveness. This change in ministry thinking, style, and context provides the church with the perfect opportunity to evolve. This project identifies strategies utilized by churches that are successfully reaching the largest and most unchurched population in the United States. These strategies inform the future planning of SAUMC as it seeks to reach millennials in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Gary W. Filson

This project 1.) recommends the use of business language and practices in and for the Church. Whether or not the Church acknowledges it, the Church operates as a not for profit business, performing the functions of a theater (the worship service with music and programs), a school (with teachers, students and curriculum) and even a restaurant (family night potluck dinners and fundraising dinners). Yet the Church typically resists business practices. 2.) This project emphasizes the need to know what our product is and what message we need to use to reach Millennials. Assuming we agree Jesus is the “product”, we need to know how to proclaim to others why Jesus matters. And, we need to know the best way to message our product in this Postmodern Era. 3.) This project promotes developing a marketing strategy in and for the Church. Marketing strategies seek to understand the best way to attract the targeted group and develop programs to meet their needs whereas evangelism usually seeks to assimilate people into the membership of the existing programs of the Church. 4.) This project suggests a step by step plan to do Inreach, which is a deliberate process to prepare a congregation to do Outreach. Inreach is a necessary but often neglected step in preparing people to accept an adaptive change. People within the organization must be trained to see themselves as part of the sales team so that Outreach can be successful. 5.) This project suggests a step by step plan to do an Intentional Outreach Program. 6.) This project distinguishes the difference between preference and purpose driven programs, encouraging leaders to choose purpose driven programs. Not every successful program will work everywhere it is tried. Programs must have a purpose that appeals to the targeted group; programs must be tested (marketed).