Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Jeff Potts

Second Advisor

Orville Browne

Third Advisor

Richard Sylvester

Abstract

Problem

The Richmond Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church has not been successful in attracting post-modern young adults. Pastoral observation suggests that a potential contributing factor is that doctrinal study guides are not effective for reaching young adults. Post-modems are very visually oriented and place an emphasis on the need for experiential learning. In order to be effective, Bible studies targeting post-modem young adults need to focus on a combination of experiential discussions, relationships and individuality. These three areas are the focus of a new video Bible study series that specifically targets post-modem young adults entitled, Experiencing the Joy.

Method

The method used to evaluate the effectiveness of the Experiencing the Joy program in attracting and connecting with post-modern young adults was through a project conducted in the Richmond Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church comparing one lesson of the Experiencing the Joy study with one lesson of Search for Certainty study and documenting the results. The second part of the method was to implement the Experiencing the Joy program into the Richmond Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church with a group of young adults and document the results. The third part was to request pastors of area churches to implement the Experiencing the Joy program into their ministry and document the results.

Results

The result showed that the Experiencing the Joy program was an effective tool for attracting and connecting with young adults. This tool was proven more effective at attracting and connecting with young adults than the traditional Bible study during the project conducted at Richmond Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church. The program was successfully implemented into the Richmond Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Experiencing the Joy program was successfully implemented into the College Park Elementary School with the grade 8 students and additional high school students; the young adult group meeting at the Harmony Seventh-day Adventist Church; the young adults meeting at the Immanuel Seventh-day Adventist Church; the Kitchener-Waterloo Seventh-day Adventist Church; and the Kingsway College students.

Conclusions

The Experiencing the Joy program is an effective tool for reaching postmodern young adults. The churches that have implemented these studies provide positive feedback in their ongoing use of the Experiencing the Joy program.

Subject Area

Church work with young adults--Seventh-day Adventists; Postmodernism--Religious aspects; Richmond Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church (Ontario, Canada)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/327/

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