A Conference Acts on Young Adult Needs, Appoints a Director of Young Adult Ministries
By AT News Team, March 13, 2015: The South Central Conference has appointed Pastor Lola Moore as director of young adult ministries, a precedent-setting step “in response to meeting the needs of young adults,” according to a report in the North American edition of Adventist World. Moore is a young adult who has served as pastor of a two-church district in the Panhandle area of Floria.
“Moore is a very gifted pastor,” stated Pastor Dana Edmond, conference president. She is a lifelong Adventist with “a heart for ministry” and is well known as an excellent preacher and leader. The goal for the new department “is not just to understand the needs of young adults but to challenge them to assume their responsibility in building up the cause of Christ; to engage them so they don’t simply leave when they encounter something they dislike.”
South Central Conference is located in the United States and is part of the Southern Union Conference. It includes 158 congregations across five states; Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and the western portion of Florida known as “the Panhandle.” It has about 33,000 church members and is one of the Regional Conferences formed by historically African American churches in 1946 but with congregations of several other ethnicities today.
The decision to create an office of young adult ministries in the conference staff came after a study that began months ago. Two young adults among the conference employees were assigned to do some research with two key questions: “Why are young adults no longer attending or being involved with the church? … Why does the church seem more concerned with guarding tradition instead of authenticity?”
A key tool in the research was a study commissioned by the denomination’s North American Division and conducted by the Barna Research Group. It include both a survey and focus groups across North America among young adults who attend Adventist churches and those who have dropped out.
“The Barna study revealed that young adults do not feel the same burden of church tradition as does the older, more established church,” reported Adventist World. “Young adults often disengage from local churches because of the way they do ministry [and] often don’t see … the global perspective [of the denomination], but see the church primarily from a local perspective.”
The South Central Conference study found that each age group had a department except for young adults, so the executive committee voted to create the office and transfer a minister to direct the department. To keep the department focused on local ministry, the plan includes the concept that once Pastor Moore moves to Nashville (Tennessee) where the conference office is located, she will select one of the Adventist congregations in the area and spend part of her time developing a young adult ministry there.
“Young adults are the lifeblood of the church,” stated Edmund. “They are the ones who must lead within the next few years. If young adults are not engaged in the church, something is empirically wrong with the church or with the relevancy of the church ministry.”
Several other conferences have expressed an interest in the concept and are involved in assessments of the needs in their own territory. A few of the largest conferences, such as the Southern California Conference, have had a young adult department for a number of years.
The second question in the article is a definite clue as to what the underlying agenda will be when they ask: “Why does the church seem more concerned with guarding tradition instead of authenticity?” This question itself suggests not only an attack on traditional Adventist beliefs and practice but sets the precedent for wholesale ‘compromise’ in a desperate attempt to formulate manmade doctrines and lower church standards in order to appease the whims and fancies of young people. Having said that, I would also say that there are many young people who are faithfully walking with the Lord and who are involved in Church leadership, activities and programs; but in order to appeal to their disinterested counterparts and make the Church a relevant part of their lives such programs will have to compromise standards by default. Had they chosen to reach young people the old fashion way: that is, the old rugged cross, then there would be no need to compromise. Christ changes them and there would therefore be no need to lower Church standards.
This was previously done when they got rid of Joe Crews and his Amazing Facts program on student campuses by complaining it was too heavy for students thereby giving way for liberal forums to wreak havoc in the way they have influenced youth. Now it has gone full circle – but instead of doing what is right, they want to further compromise, making matters worse.
Next, The NAD and then some Annual Spring Council or GC committee will vote a GC Young Adult Ministries leader and the world Church will have to comply with the centre of the universe in order to appease the church bully on the playground (the NAD). What many fail to realise is that even young adults, professional or otherwise, need to be saved just like everybody else. If that was being done there would be no need for reactive ministry programs like this. Traditional Adventism is proactive because it uses the biblical methods of soul winning and this would include saving young adults. Again, the Christ or Culture dichotomy does ‘emerge’ in all of this.
Trevor: Pastor Moore is a godly person with good motives and probably will not be doing any of the dreaded things that you fear, nor leading the church down the slippery slope that you are so quick to envision. Contrary to the suspicions of Joe McCarthy, there was not a communist under every rock.
“This distorted idea of patriotism occured again after World War II. Obsessed with finding communists under every rock, Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee, like Don Quixote jousting with windmills, hysterically raised America’s temperature to the boiling point by lashing out at perceived enemies of the state. McCarthy charged that communists had infiltrated the State Department, but he offered little or no evidence. The communist with hunt that ensued ruined many reputations and careers…. But this crisis in American history, like others before it, finally faded out, and McCarthy ended his days in alcoholic oblivion.” (Less About Me; More About We, by Daniel C. Bruch with Thomas W. Striete, p. 38)
Sal, while I disagree with most of Trevor’s post, having known someone who was falsely imprisoned during the McCarthy era and what it did to his life, I personally take offense to this comparison. Trevor’s opinions do not even come close to McCarthyism. As Christians, we should be able to post our disagreements without likening someone we disagree with to Joseph McCarthy.
Comparing those who are constantly bringing up Adventist conspiracy theories of various types with Joe McCarthy anti-communist is inspired. Much of the naming of the same kind of broad-brush “enemies” list is at the core of the approach.
(By the way, the current “Amazing Facts” operation should more properly called “Amazing Fiction.”)
There’s not a Jesuit under every rock, either. http://TinyUrl.com/JesuitWitchHunt
Innovation is always of the devil, and we are often shortsighted.
* Columbus will fall off the edge of the earth because “the earth is flat.” – Zacharia Lilio, 1490s
* Astronomy is nonsense and “Galileo is a heretic.” Everyone knows “the sun revolves around the earth.” Pope Paul V, 1616
* “Railroad carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 mph . . . . The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.” – Martin Van Buren, 1829
* “Well-informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the human voice over wires.” Boston newspaper, 1865
* “Everything that can be invented has already been invented.” – Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899
* “The automobile has reached the limit of its development.” – Scientific American, 1909
* “Any customer can have a {Model T] car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” – Henry Ford, 1909
* “The aeroplane is the invention of the devil and will never play any part in such a serious business as the defense of a nation.” – Sir Samuel Hughes, 1914
* “There is no hope for the fanciful idea of reaching the Moon because of insurmountable barriers to escaping the Earth’s gravity.” — Forest Ray Moulton, astronomer, 1932
* “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” – Ken Olson (Digital Equipment Corp.), 1977
* “No one will need more than 640 kilobytes of memory in a personal computer.” – Bill Gates, 1981
* “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” – Steve Ballmer, 2007.
Pastor Moore may be slight in stature, but she is a giant for God. She delivers a triple-whammy: she can preach, pray, and sing. She is anointed, inspiring, passionate, and authentic. She will be a blessing in the new ministry assignment. http://www.LolaMoore.org/meet-pastor-lola-moore/
We’re so quick condemn others and justify ourselves. A non-SDA ministry has posted a list of “false teachers” or “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” It’s ironic that practically every major Christian minister and best-selling Christian author is on that list. I guess what this means is: “Everybody is wrong except me.”
Likewise, various factions of Adventism love to point fingers at each other. What it amounts to is: “Whatever I like is OK. Everything else is of the devil.”
I am reminded of the doting parents at their son’s Army boot camp graduation. Observing her son in the marching drill, the mother proudly exclaimed: “Oh look, Harry! Our son is the only one marching in step!”
It seems to me that God’s people of old would ask of Him for direction. Inquire of the LORD for yourselves. You will be amazed at His leading.
As this relates to women’s ordination indirectly, don’t miss Martin Weber’s article at https://atoday.org/women-in-leadership-a-logical-and-theological-mandate.html#comment-9687