Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

1993

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Douglas R. Kilcher

Second Advisor

Randal Wisbey

Third Advisor

Bruce L. Bauer

Abstract

Problem. As one looks at the membership of the Seventh-day Adventist church today, it is apparent that a large segment of the baby-boom generation, those people born from 1946 to 1964 inclusively, is missing. This study was done to determine what can be done by the church to reclaim and/or evangelize baby boomers.

Method. A study of the literature provided material used to gain a general understanding of the baby-boom generation. A survey was conducted of the graduating classes of Adelphian and Cedar Lake academies for the years 1967 and 1968. The results of this survey provided insights into an understanding of Adventist baby boomers in particular. Based on the material available in the literature and the results of the survey of Adelphian and Cedar Lake graduates, a seminar— "Baby Boomers and the Church: A Seminar Towards Understanding"— was conducted at two locations. Participants in the seminar completed two questionnaires— one at the beginning of the seminar and one after its completion. These questionnaires were designed to ascertain any increase in understanding of the baby-boom generation as a result of the seminar.

Results. A comparison of the entrance and exit questionnaires showed a definite increase in the understanding on the part of the participants of both baby boomers themselves as well as the need of a specialized ministry to this generation.

Conclusions. Baby boomers constitute a unique generation with distinctive needs. These needs require that the Seventh-day Adventist church take this generation seriously and begin to adopt an intentional, specialized form of ministry to this generation.

Subject Area

Baby boom generation, Church work with the baby boom generation

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/222/

Download

Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS