Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Russell Burrill

Second Advisor

Jason Cauley

Third Advisor

S. Joseph Kidder

Abstract

Problem

Gathering an audience for evangelistic meetings has become increasingly difficult via traditional proclamation approaches. This challenge is even greater among young adults and has been observed where the researcher pastors in Columbia, Missouri. Research shows that technology has changed the way people choose to receive information. This is particularly true of Millennials and Generation Z. Additional strategies must be developed to meet the needs and demands of the digital age, especially by making use of concise online videos. Concise videos need to be developed and tested to aid in engaging with Millennials and Generation Z. Beyond that, it was also imperative that content delivery methods were developed because most concise videos released on the Internet receive very few views.

Method

This project was evaluated with a clear objective in mind—to measure the effectiveness of videos developed by the researcher to engage the interest of Millennials and Generation Z and invite them to an evangelistic series to share the gospel. Videos were developed and placed on various social media platforms for viewing. The videos were then run as paid ads in the college town of Columbia, Missouri, and the surrounding area. The videos were evaluated by the amount of time they were viewed and by cost per view. Finally, viewers were invited to attend a live evangelistic series in Columbia, Missouri.

Results

In total, forty videos were developed in this project and tested on social media platforms as paid ads. The data gathered included approximately 866,000 views in Columbia, Missouri, and the surrounding area. It was determined that the most productive platform for this approach was YouTube with Facebook a distant second. Twenty-five guests attended the live evangelistic series from the videos without indicating they had received a handbill. Nineteen of those were from YouTube and six were from Facebook. A slight majority, specifically 13, who came just from videos were in the target age range. Seven were Generation Z and six were Millennials. The results indicate older adults were also reached. Yet the percentage of young adult attendees was significant.

Conclusion

This project came to a successful conclusion. The plan to develop concise videos for Millennials and Generation Z and invite them to an evangelistic series was implemented and completed with promising results. This project has laid the groundwork for evangelists to have another successful method to draw a crowd.

Subject Area

Evangelistic work--Missouri--Columbia; Video tapes in evangelistic work; Seventh-day Adventists; Generation Y; Generation Z; Church work with Generation X; Church work with Generation Y

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/771/

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