1. Valuegenesis2 Ten Years Later: A Study of Two Generations
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Valuegenesis2 Ten Years Later: A Study of Two Generations
Hamlet Canosa Vice President for Education Columbia Union Conference

2. Conventional wisdom declares …
“any church is only one generation away from extinction!”
PFA: 8/10/04

3. Ellen G. White shares …
“Why should not labor for the youth … be regarded as missionary work of the highest kind? It requires the most delicate tact, the most watchful consideration … The most kindness, courtesy, and the sympathy which flows from a heart filled with love to Jesus, will gain their confidence, and save them from many a snare of the enemy … We should seek to enter the feelings of the youth, sympathizing with them in their joys and sorrows, their
PFA: 8/10/04

4. The Task is Ours! Ellen G. White shares …
conflicts and victories. We must meet them where they are if we would keep them … Let us remember the claim of God upon us to make the path to heaven bright and attractive.”
The Task is Ours!
PFA: 8/10/04

5. Valuegenesis2: Scope of Study
Study: NAD-based, 6th – 12th graders
21,000 surveys – 16,000 completed
16 page questionnaire – 396 items
After “cleaning” the data (non-Adventists), 10,000+ respondents
VG2 results compared to VG1 results of 1990 (longitudinal comparisons of data)
Ethnicity: 15% multiracial; 22% Latino/Hispanic; 29% Black/African-American; 32% White
PFA: 8/10/04

6. Valuegenesis2: Demographics
80% from 2-parent families; 20% from one-parent families and an additional 20% from divorced families
Of total sample, 77% of fathers and 92.5% of mothers are SDA Church members
47% of census – male; 53% female
Avg. age of baptism for SDA students – 11.6 yrs.
22% not baptized; 42% baptized under 12 yrs
PFA: 8/10/04

7. Reasons to Rejoice COMMITMENT TO JESUS: IMPORTANCE OF FAITH: PRAYER:
90% (6-12) claim a commitment to Jesus
IMPORTANCE OF FAITH:
“How important is religious faith in your life?”
58% (50%); 2% - not at all
PRAYER:
74% say it is “important to spend time in private thought and prayer”
1/day – 73% (53%); 1/wk – 91% (66%)
PFA: 8/10/04

8. Reasons to Rejoice SHARING ONE’S FAITH (EVANGELISM):
“How comfortable in sharing … personal faith?”
59% encouraged others directly to believe in Jesus
40% encouraged another to join Adventist faith
IMPORTANCE OF FAITH:
“How important is religious faith in your life?”
58% (50%); 2% - not at all
PFA: 8/10/04

9. Reasons to Rejoice GRACE ORIENTATION:
“I know that God loves me no matter what I do.”
95% across all grade levels
“The way to be accepted by God is to try sincerely to live a good life.”
45% (60%)
STAYING CONNECTED TO GOD (Topics):
“Gaining a deeper relationship with God.”
81% (76%) – interested/very interested
The Bible.
67% (65%)
“Talk to my friends about faith. ”
61%
PFA: 8/10/04

10. Reasons to Rejoice/Thoughts to Ponder
IMPORTANCE OF BEING AN ADVENTIST:
“How important is it to attend a church of my own denomination?“
71% (75%) – important/extremely important (see themselves as committed Christians)
26% (9%) – not important
Denominational loyalty seems to be waning
“Would you choose an Adventist Church if you moved to another location?“
88% (90%) said they would
PFA: 8/10/04

11. Reasons to Rejoice MPORTANCE OF BEING AN ADVENTIST:
“Chance of being an Adventist at the age of 40. ”
74% (72%) “good to excellent”
I6% (7%) “small chance”
1% (2%) “no chance”
COMMITMENT TO ADVENTIST BELIEFS:
“The best news is that Adventist youth continue to prize the Adventist theological heritage; they accept its beliefs and values.”
PFA: 8/10/04

12. Reasons to Rejoice/Thoughts to Ponder
COMMITMENT TO ADVENTIST BELIEFS:
“ … as students get older, they are more able to understand some of the more complex doctrinal statements of the church.”
i.e., Millennium 40% (6th) to 64% (12th)
Only two doctrines decrease in belief status as students age.
Ellen White fulfilled prophetic predictions
42% (46%)
Adventists as the remnant church
43% (53%)
PFA: 8/10/04

13. Adventist Standards 3 TYPES: Substance Abuse (temperance)
91% (91%) – “no” to illegal drug use
80% (91%) – “no” to tobacco use
84% (87%) – “no” to beer/liquor use
82% (85%) – “yes” to exercise daily
Adventist Way-of-Life Standards
90% (88%) – observe the Sabbath (agreed)
77% (68%) – sex should occur only in marriage
60% (65%) – wearing of modest clothes
PFA: 8/10/04

14. Adventist Standards 3 TYPES: Adventist Way-of-Life Standards
18% (18%) – Adventist rules/standards don’t make sense
29% felt that “Adventists are loaded down with too many restrictions”
Popular Culture Standards
“ … this particular area of obedience is the weakest and most vague regarding overall support.”
PFA: 8/10/04

15. What about At-Risk Behaviors?
Drink Alcohol:
Never - 12 mos.
Once/12 mos.
7th/8th Graders:
86%
14%
9th/10th Graders:
72%
28%
11th/12th Graders:
65%
35%
Total %:
77%
23%
Use Marijuana:
96% 4%
88%
12%
84%
16%
90%
10%
Use Cocaine:
98% 2%
5+ Drinks in a Row:
94% 6%
87%
13%
81%
19%
Hit or Beat Someone:
47%
53%
55%
45%
70%
30%
56%
44%
Shoplifted:
83%
17%
Use Tobacco:
93% 7%
85%
15%
80%
20%
Eating Disorder:
76%
24%
78%
22%
PFA: 8/10/04

16. Family Attitudes: Good News!
SCALE: My family life is happy
Definitely disagree:
7th/8th Graders: 5%
9th/10th Graders: 6%
11th/12th Graders: 4%
Total %:
Tend to disagree:
10%
11%
Not sure:
13%
12%
Tend to agree:
38%
42%
44%
41%
Definitely agree:
34%
27%
31%
32%
PFA: 8/10/04

17. Family Attitudes: Good News!
SCALE: There is a lot of love in my family
Definitely disagree:
7th/8th Graders: 3%
9th/10th Graders: 4%
11th/12th Graders: 2%
Total %:
Tend to disagree: 7% 6%
Not sure:
11%
12% 8%
10%
Tend to agree:
27%
34%
31%
Definitely agree:
53%
44%
49%
50%
PFA: 8/10/04

18. Family Attitudes: Good News!
SCALE: I get along with my parents
Definitely disagree:
7th/8th Graders: 5%
9th/10th Graders: 6%
11th/12th Graders: 4%
Total %:
Tend to disagree:
10%
11% 9%
Not sure:
12% 8%
Tend to agree:
36%
40%
41%
38%
Definitely agree:
31%
39%
37%
PFA: 8/10/04

19. Family Attitudes: Good News!
SCALE: My parents often tell me they love me
Definitely disagree:
7th/8th Graders: 3%
9th/10th Graders: 5%
11th/12th Graders: 4%
Total %:
Tend to disagree: 7% 6%
Not sure: 8%
Tend to agree:
23%
27%
29%
25%
Definitely agree:
64%
53%
54%
60%
PFA: 8/10/04

20. What influences our Youth?*
A lot None
Your parents 78% 3%
Your friends 51% 4%
Christian faith 48% 17%
The Bible 44% 15%
Bothers/Sisters 40% 11%
Your teachers 34% 12%
Church pastors 27% 17%
Music 25% 21%
Television 13% 24%
PFA: 8/10/04
* G. Barna, Third Millennium Teens, p. 18

21. Faith Maturity
Over the past years there has been a 100% increase in mature faith, crossing vertical faith (prayer, meditation, Bible study, etc.) with horizontal faith (sharing, caring, witnessing).
PFA: 8/10/04

22. Faith Maturity
I help others with their religious questions and struggles. 40% (30%)
I seek out opportunities to help me grow spiritually. 55% (40%)
I feel a deep sense of responsibility for reducing pain and suffering in the world. 40% (45%)
I give significant portions of time and money to help other people. 26% (18%)
I feel God’s presence in my relationships with other people. 56% (47%)
PFA: 8/10/04

23. Faith Maturity
I feel my life is filled with meaning and purpose. 70% (66%)
I show that I care a great deal about reducing poverty in my country and throughout the world. 28% (50%)
I apply my faith to political and social issues. 42% (31%)
The things I do reflect a commitment to Jesus Christ. 61% (75%)
I talk with other people about my faith. 49% (42%)
PFA: 8/10/04

24. Faith Maturity
I have a real sense that God is guiding my life. 49% (42%)
I am spiritually moved by the beauty of God’s creation. 75% (75%)
PFA: 8/10/04

25. Prayer
“It is important to spend time in prayer.” 40% definitely agree; 35% tend to agree
“Prayers alone are as important as church prayers.” 38% definitely agree; 28% tend to agree
“Do you pray other than at church or before meals?” 73% said “once a day or more”
PFA: 8/10/04

26. SCALE: Read the Bible “once a day or more.”
Bible Reading
SCALE: Read the Bible “once a day or more.”
Note the significant drop!
PFA: 8/10/04

27. SCALE: Reading “once a day to once a week”
Reading E. G. White
SCALE: Reading “once a day to once a week”
A troubling development
PFA: 8/10/04

28. SDA Youth: Troubling Statistics
60% (47%) felt sad or depressed during the last month.
17% (16%) have been physically abused by an adult to the extent that they sustained scars, black and blue marks, etc.
20% have been sexually abused one or more times.
15% (13%) had made multiple attempts at suicide.
11% (17%) have had one or more experiences of sexual intercourse (“gone all the way, “ “made love”)
PFA: 8/10/04

29. What can we do?
Provide a grace-oriented presence in which youth can grow and identify with the Kingdom of God.
Build on their growing understanding of how God saves humanity by clear teaching, compassionate mentoring, and active experiences that reflect the love and grace of God in all of the relationships we have with our youth.
Encourage private devotions for each young person.
PFA: 8/10/04

30. What can we do?
Stress the importance of a personal relationship with God and a thorough involvement with God’s word and the writings of the Church.
PFA: 8/10/04

31. What about our Schools?
Students are positive about the interest that their teachers take in their personal lives.
Students see teaching in Adventist schools as good.
70% agreed that teachers praised them when students worked hard on their homework.
70% agreed that they “liked” school.
PFA: 8/10/04

32. What about our Schools? TEACHERS SHOULD REMEMBER:
When schools have a positive school climate, when teachers are interesting, when discipline is fair, when teaching is considered good, and when teachers both praise and listen to students, the more intrinsic the religious experience becomes for students.
PFA: 8/10/04

33. SCALE: Teachers are interested in their students
What about our Schools?
SCALE: Teachers are interested in their students
PFA: 8/10/04

34. SCALE: The teaching is good
What about our Schools?
SCALE: The teaching is good
PFA: 8/10/04

35. What about our Schools?
67% (70%) agreed that Adventist schools should be a top priority among Adventist leaders (74% at the 12th grade level).
“Is your school exciting or dull?” – 48% responded positively, 22 saw their school as dull.
In a similar “bipolar” question, 64% versus 16% saw schools as warm rather than cold.
PFA: 8/10/04

36. What about our Schools?
In a query of Christian education as “inclusive and fair” in this environment, 46% of students saw their school in a positive light, 17% were critical about its exclusiveness.
When asked, “How far will you go in school?” 64% of Adventist students responded that they wanted a baccalaureate degree before ending their educational experience.
PFA: 8/10/04

37. A Way to the Future
REUNITE WITH MISSION AND MESSAGE:
Re-vision the Adventist Church for family action and values, school mission and purpose, and church involvement and beliefs.
Find ways for the Church to interpret its beliefs into relevant actions.
Help young people with their witness to Christ and sort out their
PFA: 8/10/04

38. A Way to the Future
REUNITE WITH MISSION AND MESSAGE:
own reasons to be an Adventist in the midst of the Christian world through dialogue and critical skills.
Stress the unique Seventh-day Adventist beliefs with our biblical explanations and relevant applications.
PFA: 8/10/04

39. A Way to the Future
REUNITE WITH MISSION AND MESSAGE:
Determine whether a grace-orientation is central and growing among our youth and in our church.
Continue to make central God’s love and grace in all of our actions.
Help young people to place their “works” in proper perspective in constructing …
PFA: 8/10/04

40. A Way to the Future their personal theology.
REUNITE WITH MISSION AND MESSAGE:
their personal theology.
Reevaluate the 3 types of standards – with a view of understanding the values they express and the reasonableness of the logic which affirms them.
With a view to enforcement of Popular Cultural Standards …
PFA: 8/10/04

41. A Way to the Future
REUNITE WITH MISSION AND MESSAGE:
in Adventism, we must strive for relevance and consistency in application, targeting the family as the proper place for these to be discerned and looking for creative ways to explain these contemporary choices to young people.
PFA: 8/10/04

42. A Way to the Future Encourage meaningful and engaging family worship.
EMPOWER AND INVOLVE:
Encourage meaningful and engaging family worship.
Help the church meet the worship needs of the young people in the congregation.
Encourage and provide help for young people in building a regular, personal devotional life, …
PFA: 8/10/04

43. A Way to the Future
EMPOWER AND INVOLVE:
rich in prayer, Bible reading, devotional practice and family and personal worship.
Provide … exciting and life-challenging programming in our churches.
Identify ways in which young people can participate in …
PFA: 8/10/04

44. A Way to the Future
EMPOWER AND INVOLVE:
the faith life of the religious education institution, family worship activities, and local congregational ministry and mission.
Don’t neglect a strong pre-teen, youth, Pathfinders, and young adult ministry through programming in schools and congregations.
PFA: 8/10/04

45. A Way to the Future
EMPOWER AND INVOLVE:
Provide an active ministry which includes … service and community involvement to a greater extent.
Involve youth in creative, up-to-date mission-oriented activities and altruistic involvement in their church and school …
PFA: 8/10/04

46. A Way to the Future
NURTURE AND SUSTAIN:
Increase the time that parents, teachers, pastors, and adult leaders talk to young people about their own faith.
Create materials for those in the significant transition years between 8th and 10th grade.
Nurture spiritual parents …
PFA: 8/10/04

47. A Way to the Future
NURTURE AND SUSTAIN:
who see their lives as important in focusing and modeling the Kingdom of God.
Help teachers in the school to replicate the attitudes of the Kingdom of God and the power of guaranteeing the faith of young people.
PFA: 8/10/04

48. A Way to the Future
NURTURE AND SUSTAIN:
Stretch the curriculum to include a rich balance of materials that explore one’s relationship with God and the world.
Change cold and unaccepting climates into warm,reinforcing ones by constant evaluation of points where the home, congregation, school, and young people intersect.
PFA: 8/10/04

49. A Way to the Future
ENRICH RELATIONSHIPS:
Stress building a close, personal relationship with Christ first, then explore doctrinal meaning and its implications in practice.
Rethink the climate issues in churches and schools to ensure an accepting, open, and warm environment in all areas of …
PFA: 8/10/04

50. A Way to the Future student contact, discipline, and learning.
ENRICH RELATIONSHIPS:
student contact, discipline, and learning.
Work with the churches who are not friendly to young people to find ways to involve, empower, and accept youth.
PFA: 8/10/04

51. A Way to the Future
WELCOME INNOVATION AND CHANGE:
Schools must encourage the value of critical thinking.
Students must become more involved in helping the school make necessary changes.
Faculty must be seen as open and accessible, interested in the deepest problems of …
PFA: 8/10/04

52. A Way to the Future
WELCOME INNOVATION AND CHANGE:
Their students, and willing to initiate dialogue and faith-talk in order to increase the instrinsic quality of the student’s religious life.
Everyone (faculty, board members, administrators, etc.) could evaluate both the warmth and thinking character of …
PFA: 8/10/04

53. A Way to the Future
WELCOME INNOVATION AND CHANGE:
the climates they create, their grace-orientation and attitudes, and their own support for Christian standards to see if those who come into their purview see God’s love permeating the relationships and environment.
PFA: 8/10/04