Category: Uncategorized

By Megan Yoshioka

What was the driest sermon you ever heard preached in church? For me, it was a sermon I heard when I was in high school about the fruits of the Spirit. A very kind, knowledgeable pastor who looked to be in his 70s prepared a long, doctrinal analysis of each fruit. As much as I wanted and tried to be engaged with those important messages, I just couldn’t do it. 

After church, I asked my mom what she thought of the sermon. She said it was different from what was usually preached, and she didn’t mind it. She said it was just “old school” and commented, “I haven’t heard a sermon like that in a long time.”

Apparently, different generations have different styles of ministry.

Southern Adventist University Religion Professor Elie Graterol has 17 years of pastoral experience in the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church and has witnessed to many people of varying ages. Over the generations, he noticed a change in the effectiveness of different ministry approaches.

For older generations, such as the Baby Boomers, acceptance of religious doctrines precede church membership and involvement, according to Graterol. However, in order to witness to younger generations, he saw a need for method adjustment.

“For Millennials, it’s mainly, ‘Yeah, what the Bible says is cool,’ but that must be preceded by a very strong sense of fellowship and belonging,” Graterol said. “Fellowship and belonging will open the door for a Millennial to embrace the Bible. In the past, it was the opposite. The Bible opened the door for a Boomer to belong in that particular group or church.”

Interning Pastor Xavier Baca also recognizes relationship building as an effective ministry tool. Baca has been interning for the Wahiawa and Waimanalo SDA Churches in Oahu, Hawaii, since August of 2020. Although most of his experience has been witnessing to younger people, he found a common denominator across all ages regarding ministry.

“I think the most important aspect, no matter what age, is giving people an experience with God,” Baca said. “If people have no experience with God in any type of religious activities or social gatherings in church, then it’s going to be harder for them to want to stay in a Christian church.” 

Baca found that building relationships with others is a successful way to help people experience God. He explained that once somebody forms a connection with another person, it allows that person to be an influence for God.

“Once that relationship is built up, then I truly believe that the influence can be put in,” Baca said.

In regard to witnessing to any generation, Graterol also emphasized the importance of maintaining a strong connection with God.

“When you are connected with the Spirit, you will attract people,” Graterol said. “If you are a genuine Christian, you will earn the respect of all the generations, regardless of their perspective and worldviews.”

By Frank Canizares

This podcast was recorded to showcase an SDA congregation’s efforts to bridge the generational gap. The soundbites were recorded at SuCasa Church— the Spanish-American Seventh-day Adventist church in Collegedale, Tennessee. Join me as we learn how SuCasa church bridges its demographic reality and congregation’s generational gap.

As you enter SuCasa church, and you go through the COVID protocols in the lobby, you are greeted by a reverent atmosphere, which reveals an older generation’s congregation. At the same time, a youthful spirit coming from the lower level invites you down. The lobby’s reverent atmosphere leads you on through to their main room where an older generation gathers for Sabbath school. But If you had allowed the youth spirit to navigate you to the lower level you would have found a younger generation’s Sabbath school gathering.

As I enjoyed my Sabbath experience during one of the intermissions, I had a chance to ask Carolina Bonilla—SuCasa’s youth director— what is her take on the generational gap and what they have done and are doing to bridge it?

“Our church is a very diverse church,” Bonilla said. “There are more than ten nationalities here. We have children, teens, young adults and adults. We have been successful, specifically throughout the past six years, at being able to give more participation to the youth. Before it was an adult-dominated church where the youth were mostly visitors. Now, they have more participation and even leadership roles.”

SuCasa church’s goal is to train its youth to lead.

“We are trying to disciple the younger generation so that they can lead our church,” Bonilla said.

She shares the first step she took to assess the younger generation’s needs.

“In my first year as a youth director, one of the first things that I did to know how the youth feels in relation to our church is I developed a survey,” Bonilla said. “And some of the questions that I asked were: ‘How do you feel when you come to our church?’ Fortunately, many of the young people said they felt welcomed and part of the family.”

She explained the church’s adoption ministry and how they try to fill the void students feel by being away from home.

“The previous youth director created this adoption program where students and young adults who don’t have family nearby can be adopted by our church family,” Bonilla said. “They invite them for lunch and just kind of take care of them as if they were their parents here. To make sure that if they need anything that there is a family here who is taking care of them.”

SuCasa’s administrators try to make themselves available to supply every student’s need — be it physical, spiritual, as well as emotional.

“We try to make sure that if there’s any young person struggling with something, they could come to us and to know we are there to help them,” Bonilla said.

They try to tackle the needs stated by the younger generation by assuming a proactive role.

“We have decided to create programs based on the needs they have stated they have,” Bonilla said. “There are young people who are struggling with depression, addictions. We are trying to tackle those topics with the people we invite or the programs we are making. Last month, we had a livestream. One of our youth directors is a psychologist. We were talking about how to take care of ourselves during this time of pandemic. They did such an amazing job. I am very impressed by the youth that attends this church. They are very capable, and they are willing to step up and help.”

As the Sabbath service continued throughout the day both generations gathered in the main room for the worship service where they sang, prayed, and listened to the word of God, as one congregation closing their generational gap.

By Frank Canizares

I arrived in the United States at age 14. And, while I was absorbing, questioning, and subconsciously building my core values, I developed into an Americanized reflection of my native Cuban culture. Yet, while I assimilated, I never felt that I fully belonged to the corresponding American generation for my age group, affectionately (and sometimes not so fondly) called the Millennials.

According to Chuck Underwood, an American generational expert,  my experience is not uncommon. During a recent presentation to Interactive Journalism students at Southern Adventist University, Underwood said the more of your formative years spent in America, the less you’ll belong to your native generation. The opposite is also true.

In one of his studies, Underwood states that there are four permanent phases of generational study: The formative years which mold our core values; the generation to which you’re born,  whose characteristics defines its members; the generational values that guide our decisions; and, the pre-generational years when we do not belong to a generation–from K-12. 

As we go through the  building years of our youth –  keeping and discarding some values- we ask ourselves these questions: Who are we? What do we believe? Finding the answer to these questions will determine how we’ll grow into adulthood and our set of core values. Inevitably, in the process we’ll become a reaction to the older generation. 

As an immigrant who has spent most of my life in the U.S. living in and surrounded by Hispanic culture, I have witnessed the loss of identity among immigrants, especially those who arrived at a young age. The stigma that the immigrant carries when trying to maintain his or her  roots while,  at the same time, engaging in American culture, is a daunting and complicated endeavor, and the results aren’t always predictable.

Some of the fundamental values ​​of my Cuban generation were lost in translation — a generation without hopes and aspirations where education has no value or meaning because it does not justify an economically stable future. By 1980–which marks my native Cuban generation—the Cubans that had stayed on the island because they sympathized with the government or couldn’t find a way to leave, had realized “The Revolution” failed. The biggest trademark of that failure was economics. Therefore, many in my cohort realized that education, because of the way the system worked, would not provide a prosperous economic future. They turned away from education and ventured into the black market and underground commerce.

It’s not fair to generalize, but a good chunk of that generation chose that route. After immigrating to the United States, my encounter with American culture dissolved the negative values ​​that seemed to define me. Because of the values I’ve adopted from American culture, I now have hopes and aspirations; and, I work towards them. I believe in the outcome of education and the kind of future it promises. I find meaning and purpose in life by nurturing my self-esteem. 

At the same time, I’ve managed to rescue some of the positive values of my native generation ​​because they align well with the values of my American cohort.  Like so many Millennials, I maintain a close relationship with my parents, remain active in the community and find meaning in contributing to society. At the same time, some values that define the Millennials, such as patriotism, activism and citizenship, clash with the extremes that were forced upon me while growing up under a dictatorship communistic regime. The impact of those negative experiences has prevented me from fully assimilating to American culture.

That’s why it’s not always helpful to define people by their peer groups. The core values defining a particular generation should not be a reason to typecast. Everyone is an individual, and the core values that we develop are defined by various experiences. I am a living example of one who does not fit the stereotype.

By Zach Roberts

The Seventh-day Adventist Church says it does not stand for racism. The denomination’s statement in an article posted on Adventist.org begins with an analysis of racism as a sin and how it remains in effect today. The third paragraph reads, “The Seventh-day Adventist Church deplores all forms of racism, including the political policy of apartheid with its enforced segregation and legalized discrimination.” 

That’s pretty clear. However, how does the denomination fare with racial landmarks? Based on my research, it seems they were pretty hit or miss. Ellen White, the denomination’s most prominent co-founder considered a prophetess by most members, said things that seemed like she, and the church as a result, were against racism in every facet. However, the denomination has struggled with segregated churches and other issues.

In a dissertation on SDA’s and race relations, Cleran Hollancid writes, “Racial division in the church is not only embarrassing to the faith, but actually impairs the quality of relations in society.” 

Division in the church, and everywhere, is seemingly at an all-time high right now. Within the church, division over women’s ordination and leadership remains a heated discussion. But since racial issues have become somewhat intertwined with politics, the division there, albeit probably more private, remains tense.

Here is a timeline of the intersections between race and the Adventist church:

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/2492031

Sources:

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2412&context=dissertations

https://www.adventist.org/articles/racism/

I was able to learn and gather information about the origins of Hispanic Adventism in the U.S while conducting research for our Interactive Journalism class at Southern Adventist University. The investigation led me to the first major volume ever written on the history of Hispanic Adventism in the North American Division, titled, “The Untold Story: 100 Years of Hispanic Adventism.”

The book was written by Manuel Vazquez in the year 2000 and published by Pacific Press Publications. I also found a study conducted by Juan Carlos Viera for Adventist.org in 2016.

Vazquez writes about the beginnings of the Hispanic church in the United States, stating:

“The Seventh-day Adventist work among the Hispanics in the U. S began in Sanchez, Arizona, in 1899, only 36 years after the Adventist Church was officially organized (1863). A bilingual Mexican Methodist pastor named Marcial Serna eventually became the first Hispanic Adventist pastor, raising up several Adventist congregations in the southwest region of the United States during his ministry” (15).

He also shares an anecdote about sister White, writing: “In 1913, Ellen White told Abel Sanchez, one of the first Hispanic Adventist members in the North American Division: ”It has been shown to me that the Spanish work will be placed at the vanguard and march at the head of the cause of God in the United States.”

This prophecy is literally being fulfilled today. From the 15 original members in the Spanish Church in Sanchez, Arizona, in 1899, the Hispanic membership in the North American Division has mushroomed to nearly 105,000 in 1999!” (15).

At the same time that the Hispanics were organizing in North America the church was fulfilling its commission to spread the Third Angel’s Message, found in Revelation 14.

Even before the launch of Serna’s ministry and White’s vision, Adventists were already evangelizing in Latin America.

Juan Carlos Viera in his study of Seventh-day Adventist education recounts that “Adventists arrived in South America by 1890. The first missionaries Elwin W. Snyder, Albert B. Stauffer, and Clair A. Nowling initiated a literature distribution program and began advocating for the development of the Adventist Gospel. Among the inhabitants an appeal to the Adventist message surfaced all around the continent.” (Seventh-Day Adventist Education.CIRCLE, 2016, circle.adventist.org/services/info/?topic=adventist_ed.)

As Hispanic Adventist converts continued to grow, the evangelistic work expanded to Florida, now the headquarters of the Inter-American Division, a sub-entity of the denomination’s General Conference that oversees the church’s work in Central America and the Caribbean. The division relocated from Havana, Cuba, to Miami, Florida, in April 1945.

Vazquez states: “While the change was aimed to take advantage of better communications and air transportation to all the Inter-American Division countries, it led to the beginnings of the Hispanic work in Florida” (308).

The Hispanic presence in Florida has become more pronounced in recent history. Vazquez shares that “between 1959 and 1962, over 215,000 Cubans fleeing the Castro regime found shelter in the United States. The second wave of immigration, which arrived in 1980 between April and September, brought more than 125,000 Cubans to the States. By the 1980s, 340,000 Cubans were living in South Florida in the Miami area. There were some Adventists among those leaving Cuba who considered the Spanish-speaking congregations in Miami to be a refuge in the new world.” (307).

The U.S Census.gov website shows that by March 1993 the Hispanic population in the U.S was 22.8 million, 8.9 percent of the total population. By 2018, the number, provided by the Pew Research Center, had grown to 60 million, showing the ten top metropolitan areas above the million in such places as Florida, California, Texas, New York and Illinois.

In their make-up, big Hispanic/Latino families can be very dynamic and diverse. These family members include “old country” elderly grandparents who do not speak English and who have not assimilated into the culture of the United States; bilingual, bicultural, educated, and professional middle-aged parents as well as young children who speak only English and are completely assimilated into the new community.

These dynamics and the diversity among the Hispanic diaspora in the United States contribute to the generational divide within the SDA church in North America.

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/2475479

In the past 15 years, the North American Division (NAD) of Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) has been experiencing a shift in generational demographics. The Baby Boomer generation surpassed senior generations as the NAD’s largest age group in 2013, according to a General Conference (GC) survey reporting age demographics of SDA members in North America.

Members from senior generations — those born before the year 1946 — are declining in numbers due to increasing age. The percentage of members belonging to the Millennial generation is also decreasing in the NAD. Generation X and younger generations — those born after 1994 — fluctuate in membership percentages.

According to Monte Sahlin, vice president for Creative Ministries of the Columbia Union Conference of the SDA denomination, fluctuation could be due to survey method differences between the GC and the NAD. 

These results differ from the NAD’s 1980, 1989 and 1996 demographics. During that time period, members from the Greatest Generation, also known as the World War II generation, started declining in membership percentage, and the Silent Generation, the generation between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers, fluctuated in percentage. However, the combined percentage of the World War II and the Silent generations was still greater than the Baby Boomers’ increasing numbers. Along with the Baby Boomers, Gen Xers increased in percentage each year. Data was not gathered for Millennials and younger generations during that time, as most members from those generations were not born yet.

I created a timeline of the NAD’s generational demographics from 1980 to 2018. The 2008 and 2018 NAD survey percentages and the 2013 GC survey percentages were provided in a presentation by Sahlin to our Interactive Journalism class. The 1980, 1989 and 1996 percentages were obtained from Sahlin’s 1998 report, “Trends, Attitudes and Opinions in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America.”

Click the image below to view full details of the timeline. The timeline is interactive, so make sure to click each tab for more information.

By Josue Vega

Memory lane can be a rough road. 

I was reminded of this truth this week as I prepped for one of the most sobering interviews of my life. My friend and I are going to revisit a dark time in his life. A time when he says someone violated him physically, emotionally, and spiritually. A time when his suffering was silenced in the name of Jesus.

My heart aches at the thought of bringing back these painful times. As I seek to talk about the generational divide and how each generation handles taboo topics, the line is becoming increasingly more clear to me, even without any quantitative research.

Simply put, here I am, a member of the younger generation, seeking to shed light on some issues that the older generation tried to bury.

This is not a general condemnation of the older generation’s way of thinking. It is an observation of how taboo topics are generally handled between the two generations. Generations is also a broad term because not everyone in the older generations thinks that way.  

So, what are some of the issues that need addressing?

Let’s take a deep breath. The waters may get murky from here on out.

In 2018, Christian polling firm Barna Group reported that the percentage of people who identify as atheist or agnostic doubled between people born from 1999 to 2015 and people born before 1946. Although engagement in faith practices such as prayer and Bible reading are similar throughout all generations, younger people are less likely than their elders to identify as Christian, according to another Barna Group study conducted in 2019.

Considering the huge role Christianity played in founding the United States, how did the religious identity of the country change so much within less than a century?

According to Chuck Underwood, a generational researcher and the founder of The Generational Imperative, Inc., World War II played a significant role in changing the United States’ religious mindset.

“After World War II, six million fighting people came home from the war with the mindset: ‘How can I worship a god who would let that war happen?’ Many came home and passed on that value to their Boomer kids, and Boomers to their kids, and so on.”

Although the mindset originated with the World War II Generation, aka “The Greatest Generation,” Underwood said this generation still embraced the traditional religion in which they were raised. The change in religious perspective more greatly impacted Baby Boomers’ lifestyle choices. 

“The prior generation said, ‘I need to fit my values to my religion.’ Boomers said, ‘I need to find a religion to fit my life,’” Underwood explained. “… Boomers wanted to explore or find faith or spirituality that fit more closely with their unique, core values. … [They] were the first to seek out a faith that fit their values, and they are still looking.”

Elie Graterol served the Adventist Church as a pastor for 17 years before becoming a full-time professor at Southern Adventist University’s School of Religion. While pastoring, he observed some of the traits Underwood reported among Adventist Baby Boomers.

Concerning Adventist conversion among Baby Boomers, Graterol said he saw mainly two patterns. He noticed that some Baby Boomers did not find fulfillment in pursuing self-gratification after rebelling against older generations’ values. They turned to the Church to find fulfillment and found it in Christianity. He also observed that some other Baby Boomers inherited their parents’ value of biblical principle and followed Adventism seriously.

Unlike the Baby Boomer generation, many people belonging to Generation X did not inherit a strong value of biblical principles from their parents, according to Graterol, who is also a member of Generation X.

“My generation was the result of this ‘free life’ of the Baby Boomers,” Graterol said. “A lot of unwanted babies are a part of my generation; a lot of divorce and brokenness are part of my generation. … So, my generation grew up without a point of reference simply because — and I am talking in a general way — they didn’t have parents — again in a general sense — who were with them and devoted time and attention and care and love toward them.”

Generation X grew up in a time where two-income households were more common, according to Underwood. Many Gen X children stayed at home alone while both their parents worked. In addition, Underwood noted that technology at that time was mostly solitary, unlike today when people can interact virtually through social media.

Because of this, Graterol noticed members of Generation X tend to value a sense of community in church. However, their desire for fellowship is not as strong as that of their successors, the Millennial Generation. 

“Millennials, in particular, they will not come to church looking for theology,” Graterol said. “If they are looking for theology, they will just research it in Wikipedia or Google because they have access to that. They come to church because they are broken. They are looking for a place to belong.”

The spiritual and emotional damage caused by World War II trickled down to younger generations in the United States and in the Adventist Church. As a result, people today may approach religion differently from previous generations. However, the root of the situation remains the same for all: a desire to fill an emptiness and heal the brokenness in their lives.