Youth Speak: The Church Listens

Twenty-three participants invested three days in October 2012 to brainstorm as a think tank on the topic of keeping and reclaiming youth in the Seventh-day Adventist church. The group was composed of pastors, researchers, practitioners, and academics. Three subtopics quickly emerged in the discussions. The first one dealt with why 50% of youth and young adults are leaving the church. Second, the groups dealt with how to keep them in the church. The final topic was how to reclaim those who left. This book includes papers and resources featured at the conference: The Youth Speak: Research papers dealing with why some youth and young adults leave the church and some stay, and how to attract more of them to come back. The Church Responds: Case studies of churches that are attracting youth and young adults back to the church. This section includes several reflection papers on specific churches that are successfully reaching the younger generation. Appendices: Papers dealing with Church of Refuge, an association of churches devoted to actively keeping youth and bringing back those who have left. Among the 10 papers included in this book, you will find powerful ministry ideas presented by Roger Dudley, Barry Gane, Ron Whitehead and Jeff Boyd, and more. Topics include building a church that retains its young adults, how to attract young adults to the church, and creating a culture of acceptance.https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/sem-books/1027/thumbnail.jp