Bringing Home our Adventist Prodigals

Studies agree that the church is losing a significant proportion of its young people. This trend is hurting families, congregations and the church as a whole but very little seems to be done about it. Now is the time to do so. Back in the 1990’s the church last looked at restructuring youth ministry — following a commission on youth, the autumn council of 1992 voted a six point plan including revival, recovery, evangelism and nurture. A strategic plan was also authorized but the aspect of recovery has only recently begun to gain significant attention. Now is the time to make this a priority. In this paper, I will outline a model of family-based youth ministry that is part of a long term strategy for retention and recovery. This is placed in a setting of Churches of Refuge, where the model and strategy can be utilized to maximum effect. Historically the church has always been a place of refuge and it needs to be so again today. The Church of Refuge initiative is born with this in mind and is based on a model of cities of refuge as recorded in Deut. 19 where people could flee for safety. In this context a Church of Refuge is one that is intentional about ensuring that young people are protected, valued and involved. In the Trans-European Division a strategic plan incorporating both criteria and action steps for such churches has been developed and is included in the Appendix of this pape