Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Alfonso Valenzuela

Abstract

The literature related with the family clearly identifies the problem of the midlife crisis. The expert on family relationships and midlife crisis, Jim Conway, says: “Our studies, along with those of other researchers, show that al least 75% of people between ages thirty five to fifty five will go through a moderate to severe crisis.” 1 My experience as Pastor at the Ontario Hispanic Church, California, has shown me that the members of the congregation are not the exception, and I had the opportunity to advice and counsel persons that suffer emotional crisis during this stage of their lives.

The purpose of this project was to identify the causes of emotional crisis amongst members and visitors of the church, between ages thirty five to fifty five, and prepare and implement a seminar, to teach the participants how to cope with midlife crisis. As part of this study, midlife crisis was defined, its causes were identified, and solutions to the problem where recommended. During the process of investigation, cases of biblical characters that suffered through midlife crisis were studied, with the intention to find principles that could be related to the crisis. The literature about midlife was reviewed, books, magazines, and the internet was consulted.

A survey was used with the objective to identify the causes of emotional crisis of the persons from the congregation between ages thirty five to fifty five. The results of the survey revealed severe problems amongst the participants, demonstrating the need to study the midlife crisis with the congregation. According to their own testimony, the implementation of the seminar became a valuable contribution for the lives of the participants. As a result of the seminar they have improved as individuals, have strengthened their personal relationships, have taken better decisions an also have a higher quality of life.

The conclusions and recommendations related with this project will be presented on chapter VI.

Subject Area

Midlife crisis--Religious aspects--Seventh-day Adventists, Midlife crisis--California, Middle age--Psychological aspects, Hispanic Americans--California

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/7/

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