Evangelizing Young Adults Bill Cork

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EvangelizingYoung AdultsBill Cork
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The Graying of Adventism

• Median age of US
• 36
• Median age of Adventists
• 51
• Episcopal 60
• PCUSA 54
• ELCA 54
• RC 47
• Hispanics 26

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Age Profile
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Age by Generations
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Dropping Out

• LifeWay study of 1000 Protestant young adults
  (18-30) April-May 2007.
• 70 drop out before age 23.
• 2/3rds have returned to some degree by age 30
• (divided between those who attend sporadically
  and those who attend 2x month)

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Young Adults Today

• I Am Special
• Follow My Dreams
• Mobile
• Cultural Diversity Assumed
• Technologically Hardwired
• Pragmatic
• Materialistic

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Young Adults Today

• Extended Adolescence
• High Expectations
• Sexual Disconnection
• Hooking Up
• STDs
• Relationships Matter
• Soul Mate

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Young Adults Today

• Spiritual Hunger
• Biblically Illiterate
• Personal Experience Central
• Moral Relativism
• Desire to Serve
• Crime Statistics Down
• Better Relationships with Parents

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Questions

• Are we in the same place as young adults?
• Literally?

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Houstons Young Adults Where they are and
arent.
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Seventh-day Adventist Churches in Houston
Seventh-day Adventist Churches in Houston
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Questions

• Are we in the same place as young adults?
• Literally?
• Worldview?

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Postmodernism

• Jean-François Lyotard, La Condition Postmoderne,
  1979
• I define postmodern as incredulity toward
  meta-narratives.

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Questions

• Are we in the same place as young adults?
• Literally?
• Worldview?
• Will the traditional SDA approach work?
• What might be more effective?

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How did you become an Adventist?
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Resources

• Center for Secular and Postmodern Studies
• http//www.reframe.info/
• Adventist Christian Fellowship (ministry to
  public college students)
• http//www.acflink.org/
• The Word on Campus
• http//www.adventsource.org/as20/product.aspx?ID3
  5683
• IGNITION young adult blog (NAD)
• http//ignitionblog.wordpress.com/
• Center for Creative Mininstry
• http//www.creativeministry.org/
• NAD Demographic Profile, 2008 http//creativeminis
  try.org/transaction_detail.php?id228