A Generational Divide - Understanding Perspectives in the Adventist Church
Collegedale Spanish-American Church — affectionately known as SuCasa — tries to bridge its generational divide. The congregation’s multigenerational worship format features two Sabbath services. The first service accommodates an older generation with a more traditional ambience based on hymns and a conservative approach to preaching. The second service caters to a much younger generation, with a dynamic praise team and a less structured format.
In recent years, SuCasa has made an effort to address its generational differences ... by creating multigenerational ministries and involving their ever-growing youth membership.
The church's story dates back almost 40 years to its beginning as the first Spanish church built in the state of Tennessee, as well as the first built on an Adventist college campus in the United States. In recent years, SuCasa has made an effort to address its generational differences. The congregation has done so by creating multigenerational ministries and involving their ever-growing youth membership. This growth has led to the church’s expansion to a new site with a building project geared toward youth ministry.
SuCasa church efforts seem to be paying off in the realization of a new building project, still under construction on seven acres of land, near the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church located in the heart of campus. The new facility will include rooms for classes specialized for the younger generation. Another feature would be a video recording studio in order to connect with their expanding online ministry. The building will be able to accommodate between seven to eight hundred people in the main sanctuary.
Throughout history there has always been friction between generations and their differences. The SDA church has not been the exception, which raises the questions: Is the SuCasa church situation a one-of-a-kind experience? Does the SuCasa approach offer a remedy for other congregations? How can churches go about not only developing successful youth programs but also integrating young people into leadership?
According to Anna Bennet — associate chaplain for the office of ministry and missions at Southern Adventist University — SuCasa seems to be implementing several of the key strategies outlined in Growing Young, a book published by Fuller Youth Institute that focuses on how congregations can effectively bridge the generational divide and help young adults feel a sense of meaningful belonging at church.
Even with successful youth programming, churches such as SuCasa should be intentional about integrating young members into the leadership structure of the church.
These six strategies listed in the book are:
However, even with successful youth programming, churches such as SuCasa should be intentional about integrating young members into the leadership structure of the church, according to Bennett. Questions churches should consider include:
According to Carolina Bonilla — SuCasa’s youth director — there are young people at the church who are struggling with depression, addictions and other issues. She said SuCasa is trying to tackle those topics through programming. SuCasa has been intentional about meeting the needs of younger members. The previous youth director created a ministry — an adoption program — where students and young adults who don’t have family nearby can be adopted by the church family. They invite them for lunch and take care of them as if they were their parents here.
During her first year as youth director, Bonilla developed a survey to assess how youths felt about the congregation. She said the feedback was generally positive and many of the young people surveyed said they felt welcome and part of the family.
On February 2021, the church hosted a live streamed event with one of their youth directors — a psychologist — who talked about how to take care of one’s mental health during stressful times such as the pandemic.
A study commissioned by the Seventh-day Adventist North American Division Office of Education showed a decrease in the Hispanic population from 2008 to 2018. The research was presented by Monte Sahlin, director of the Center for Creative Ministry, to an Interactive Journalism class at Southern Adventist University in 2019, and later reported on a blog by Southern student Estefania Sanchez-Mayorquin.
Sahlin attributes the 2018 decline to the political and economic environment in the U.S. at the time.
“If you think about the political environment in the United States then, you can understand why lots of Adventists who are immigrants did not want to answer any survey about information about themselves and their families, even though it’s anonymous,” Sahlin said. “One study that I did in the interim period with one local conference, they discovered a significant number of immigrants who, during the recession, actually went back to Latin American countries that they had come from because the economy that they had come from was better there than their circumstances in the United States.”
“They feel that the church is unfriendly to people with different attitudes, different opinions. That you have to fit into a fairly narrowed pattern or you are not welcome.”
-- Sahlin
In another presentation, this time to the Winter 2021 Interactive Journalism class on Feb. 17, 2021, Sahlin posed other reasons for the drop in percentage among those who identify more with younger generations. The presentation showcased how some congregations experience the consequences of generational differences.
“Other reasons are not understanding why it is necessary for religion to have structure and procedures, a feeling particularly in the teenage years,” Sahlin said. “They feel that the church is unfriendly to people with different attitudes, different opinions. That you have to fit into a fairly narrowed pattern or you are not welcome.”
In addition to the decline of Hispanics in the SDA Church is the abandonment of the church by young adults. This is attributed to the negative experience with institutions and organizations, according to Sahlin. The situation is a worldwide issue, he said. Organized religion has been abandoned by young adults not just in the U.S, but in Canada, Europe, and Latin America as well. In the United States, some patterns have to do with life experience. They graduate and move to another city, marriage, family, a lot of movement. One other thing that Millennial generation young adults do not understand about the Adventist bureaucracy is this business of transferring membership.
“Some of the decline also has to do with life transition,” Sahlin said. “We know that in the Gen-Xers group, people dropping out of church has a lot to do with divorce. Almost every case when that happens at least one quits attending church, if not both.”
"The generational divide isn’t just something we experience within the Adventist church, but across all faith communities and denominations. [...] The key question is: what do we do about it?"
-- Bennet
According to Growing Young, “Adults ages 18 to 29 comprised 17 percent of the adult population. Yet that same age group represents less than 10 percent of church attendees nationwide,” (16). The research reveals; “Across cultures, a major turning point for young people’s faith seems to be high school graduation. Multiple studies highlight that 40 to 50 percent of youth group seniors — like the young people in your church — drift from God and the faith community after they graduate from high school.” (17).
Bennett believes ….
“Well, I believe, based on the research highlighted above and much more throughout this particular book and others such as Faith for Exiles, the generational divide isn’t just something we experience within the Adventist church, but across all faith communities and denominations specifically within North America,” Bennett said. “The key question is: what do we do about it?”
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