December 5, 2016

Linking Arms Instead of Pointing Fingers

Research about preserving faith in Adventist students.

V. Bailey Gillespie

If you are new to the Valuegenesis research about Adventist education, this brief discussion is for you. Valuegenesis research is all about faith, values, and commitment of Seventh-day Adventist young people in grades 6 through 12 in Adventist schools.

The research team, housed in the H.M.S. Richards Divinity School at La Sierra University, had the opportunity to survey all students in Adventist schools in North America during the month of October in 1990, 2000, and again in 2010 to create one of the largest data sets available regarding young people over a period of years—generations, actually—of any religious group in America.

Studying Students

We are often asked why this research is so crucial. The research team wanted to learn how the three venues of home, church, and school influenced the spiritual life of students. Then we wanted to explore what might be needed to improve these contact points with Adventist youth, and discover how to assist their pastors, parents, and educators in understanding what is central to those students regarding the development of their religious and spiritual lives, and the impact made by the influence of their homes, their local churches, and the religious life of their Adventist schools. In addition, the research attempted to provide a profile of best practices for these three groups—homes, churches, and schools—in spiritual nurture and growth.

For young people, friendship is evangelism.

The studies were generational in nature: We studied Gen X, Gen Y, and millennials (Gen Z) populations. Since this was a census of all of the students in Seventh-day Adventist schools, we are able to get accurate percentages of all of the students. Each study examined the same concepts, with only some updates as the years passed.

In addition, cultural and age-related questions were added to update the survey to keep the reliability significant. Our scales over the years were perfected and overall data sets provide a look at the trends in Seventh-day Adventist youth in North America over 20 years.

The Church Connection

Special insights into post-high school youth reveal significant needs as well. We have come to the following conclusions about keeping youth in the church. This is what we believe helps this situation.

Learn to love them, and youth will get involved in the local church.
Have adult volunteers who are dynamic and excited about their own experience with Jesus. Young people live their lives in the middle of action and choices. People who tend to nurture this newfound faith have to be people of integrity, commitment, and dynamism.
Create environments in which young people experience church as God- and user-friendly; environment is crucial.
Learn how to be relevant. Research regularly reinforces the fact that relevancy is the best way to increase commitment and loyalty.
Understand that young people have something vital to offer a local church. Organize their natural gifts for use in the church; give them responsibilities; and provide mentors to help them with those responsibilities.
Teach young adult leaders to be disciplers rather than teachers. Think mentoring. Ask the question “Am I preparing my students to be hearers of the Word, or doers of the Word?”
Equip young people by giving them responsibilities. Equipping others is a powerful way to ensure involvement and commitment in local churches.
Remember: for young people, friendship is evangelism.

Our doctrine of God’s rich grace through faith demonstrates a clear need of becoming as central to the mission and message of our Lord Jesus as possible. This Jesus reason takes priority above any other belief or practice. When young people realize His gift to us, their lives change, as does the whole life and practice of the local congregation.

Loyalty and Maturity

Our research shows that having quality homes, churches, and schools increases the possibility of both growing in faith and being loyal to the Seventh-day Adventist message and church.

Research indicates that the longer one is involved in Adventist education, the more loyal and mature one’s faith becomes. This means that when local Adventist churches and schools unite to provide the best possible environments, messages, actions, programs, activities, and involvement, young people are more likely to move from understanding the faith of others to practicing their own personal faith. This movement to a personal faith requires cooperation in all three environments: home, school, and church.

Our data show that faith is increased, maturity of belief increases, and loyalty to the church grows when all three settings work together.

V. Bailey Gillespie, Ph.D., chief investigator for Valuegenesis Research in Faith, Values, and Commitment, is associate dean of the H.M.S. Richards Divinity School at La Sierra University.

Nine Ways to Communicate Faith

Here are some of the major findings of the study as we look at best practices of the home, church, and school. If we want to build a rich and growing faith life, with loyalty to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and compassion for others, the following issues need to be priorities in each of these target venues:

It is crucial to build a warm, open, and loving climate in the home, church, and school.
Schools and churches should encourage a rich thinking climate (critical thinking skills) to be developed through honest questioning, acceptance, and nonjudgmental approaches to young people. This is especially important for older young people in their later teenage years.
The church, home, and school have to be grace-oriented places. Data show that a critical, judgmental, and closed discussion model is not conducive in building a religious life. If parents, teachers, pastors, or other adults use excessive control, punitive measures, or are overstrict, the likelihood is greater that their youth will reject traditional moral standards, become involved in rebellious behavior, reject the faith of the church, and become more self-oriented.
Relevant and meaningful family worship in the home should be encouraged. Relevance is more important than regularity of worship. But making sure young people are regularly exposed to family worship together outside of church seems crucial for religious maturity.
Families should be assisted in creating home-centered helping, or service projects. Don’t just let the school or church do this. Parents who model caring and inclusivity are crucial to building a growing faith in their children.
The church should grow vibrant children’s, youth, and young adult ministries. If possible, split 13- and 14-year-old young people away from the youth group for their own ministry. Crucial times for making decisions about God are the transitional periods between junior high school (earliteen) and high school (youth) and again after high school to college or university (young adults). These crucial times require personal ministry to be at its best.
The home is the ideal place where popular, cultural, life-affirming choices are taught. Parents are ill-advised to rely solely on the church or school to do this. Parental modeling of good values, clear standards, and mature choices is most powerful in building a rich and growing faith life in young people.
You should learn to talk to young people about their faith. For example, you can learn to “faith-talk” with young people simply by sharing what God is doing in your life, and asking them to share how they see God involved in their lives. Telling them what to believe is rarely a good way to communicate faith. Telling your own faith story, and asking young people to share their own journey with God, helps us learn together as we all grow in faith. It also implies that as long as we live, we are still learners in the school of Christ.
Christian education should be supported. We have learned that this is one of the most crucial foci for the home, church, and school.

V. Bailey Gillespie