The Adventist Youth to Youth (AY2Y) model has had unusually consistent, excellent success in helping Adventist youth choose a drug-free lifestyle, make spiritual commitments, and become actively involved with leadership in their schools and churches. But there is more to be learned yet. The philosophy and operating principles of AY2Y offer some valuable and much needed strategies for other areas of youth ministry today. This paper proposes to apply these principles to the problems which the North American Adventist church faces with retaining and empowering its youth to become strong Christians and committed members.
Many evidences exist that the youth sector of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America is in jeopardy. Data from the Valuegenesis Study suggest that only a minority of youth expect to continue in the church when they are adults. This is a serious threat to the membership base of the North American church in coming decades. Equally bad news is the finding that students are not developing spiritual strength for their adult lives. In spite of the heavy investments the church is making in its educational institutions, faith maturity appears to suffer a developmental arrest about the sixth grade.
The lack of youth ministries in many Adventist churches has left youth without programs tailored to their interests and needs. In other churches, the primary strategy is an "adult to youth" program which is designed to control youth behavior rather than develop youth capabilities and commitment. Youth are not seen as a priority in church budgeting at any level; the very small number of youth pastors speaks to the low importance placed on youth ministry. Youth do not believe they are important to the Adventist church; they don't feel their viewpoint is listened to, they experience being "junior" church leaders as patronizing tokenism, and they find the discussions and attitudes of many adults to be out of touch with reality. Their response in many cases is to walk out when they become sufficiently independent to do so.
Although abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs is a doctrinal belief, and the Adventist church remains one of the most abstinent faith communities in North America, the relative silence in the church about drug-free living in recent years and denial about substance abuse problems is allowing some disturbing trends away from that abstinence value. Such erosion is not only spiritually debilitating but undermines the cornerstone of the Adventist health advantage: avoidance of drinking and smoking behaviors.
Intergenerational increases in alcohol use are documented from studies of adult church members by the Institute for the Prevention of Addictions at Andrews University1. Four separate studies on NAD college campuses have shown that 24-27% of Adventist college students are drinking2. The Valuegenesis data suggest that junior high youth may be increasingly involved with marijuana use3.
Adventist youth today come from homes which are apt to be troubled and dysfunctional as frequently as are non-Adventist homes. Among youth attending Adventist Youth to Youth Conferences, for instance, the discussion leaders of "family groups" (small, confidential discussion/support groups) find that at least half of the youth participants come from broken or unhappy homes. These youth need their church to be "family" for them because their own biological families are often impaired or dysfunctional. One study recently found that 18% of Adventist college students acknowledged sexual abuse before the age of 14.
Not all is gloom and doom in youth circles, however. The good news should be noted and capitalized on, wherever possible.
First, youth are spiritually hungry. Just because they are resistant to traditional exhortations about their behavior doesn't mean they are indifferent to spiritual things. Some open-minded adults with good listening skills have found that Adventist youth are earnestly seeking spiritual growth and want to know how to be friends with Jesus Christ.
Youth who do become involved with church programs, particularly if they are allowed to let their creative abilities and energy loose, are just as committed and talented as their pioneer predecessors who founded the Adventist church. Student missionary programs, Maranatha programs, and various task force opportunities demonstrate that given a chance, young people can solve problems many adults find intimidating.
And, there are some youth ministry programs which are working in outstanding fashion. Two of these are the Youth Summit and Adventist Youth to Youth. Both are non-traditional in design; both are highly youth-oriented rather than seeking to please adults. Both need encouragement and funding in greater degree.
Data on the rising involvement of Adventist youth with drinking and drugging prompted the development of the Adventist Youth to Youth program. AY2Y is a positive peer prevention program which not only is highly successful in drug prevention but also has been extremely effective in youth leadership development. The powerful impact the program makes on spiritual commitment as well as commitment to drug-free lives is well-documented4.
Since its initial pilot conference in 1988, AY2Y in North America has been introduced to youth in all NAD unions through 18 union-wide conferences for secondary students and 2 national collegiate conferences. In every conference evaluated, the results are the same: strong, vocal enthusiasm for the program by nearly every person attending (youth or adult). But lack of union leadership in prevention and funding problems have hampered its being established in most unions. In many academies, the program has thrived in a club or student organization format so long as a supportive trained adult was available; but faculty/staff turnover and lack of sufficient trained adults have been problems. The program has also aroused resistance from a small but vocal minority of conservative adults who are uncomfortable with youth-oriented programs and do not trust youth to direct programs for their peers in academies or conferences.
Bold and creative approaches are needed to meet the youth ministry challenge. This paper seeks to outline some of the possible areas where these approaches might be focused and tested. No church can afford to collectively grow gray without a continued infusion of dedicated and active youth who believe in its mission and are willing to commit to it. And the youth must have adult sponsors and advocates, such as the members of the Giraffe Society, who are willing to take risks with non-traditional methods in order to nurture and retain youth within the church.
The remainder of this concept paper discusses several needs which should be considered and in choosing strategies which are likely to be effective.
Youth cannot be lumped into one large category, ages 13-29. Many different segments exist. Here are some ways of looking at the market segments of the youth population:
Ethnic. Youth from different ethnic backgrounds not only grow up in culturally unique environments but receive significantly different youth ministries. These vary in degrees of youth leadership activity, conservatism, and philosophy about what church means.
Commitment. Youth vary in the degree of spiritual commitment and religious orientation:
Currently, most youth programs are targeted to the highly committed, e.g. Bible Conferences, Youth Congresses, etc. School administrators frequently select their delegates to such conferences from those youth whom they have "confidence in" as being positive representatives of their academy. Church programs also favor the committed. In many churches the "young people's meeting" is made up of only a small handful of youth and a majority of adults who are entertained by the program. The undecided and alienated hang out elsewhere or only show up for major events where the program promises unusually good entertainment. They are not involved; when they become adults they will seek their entertainment and friends elsewhere.
Educational Experience. Some youth have had little or no opportunity to be involved with the Adventist educational system. They have attended public schools most of their lives and have their social circles built around public school friendships. They are not comfortable with the kids who attend academy, nor do the parents of the academy kids see these youth as ideal companions for their offspring. The public school environment may offer excellent quality education, but it does not uphold nor inculcate Christian values or lifestyle. Most of these youth will fade out of the local church scene as they leave high school, marry non-Adventist mates, and establish their own homes. This sector amounts to about 40% of the elementary school age group, at least half of the secondary school group, and 60% or more of the collegiate group. With little programming designed for them, the church loses about half its youth on a routine basis.
The following recommendations grow out of what has been learned in the past 5 years of prevention ministry using the AY2Y model:
Efforts such as Bible Conferences and Youth Congresses may be well-suited to the audiences they attract. But the audience they don't attract should also be important to us for ministry. The church's heavy investment in Adventist education is vital to the future of the church. But this investment is often more directed by the concerns of Adventist parents than by the concerns and needs that youth have. And it does not presently reach half of the children and youth affiliated with the church. Programs which build youth commitment and leadership at the local level outside of the Adventist school system are also much needed.
One of the unique strengths of the AY2Y conferences is their ability to engage the interest of the uncommitted and alienated young person. Because the programming is not overtly religious, these youth are not turned off. They find the activities fun, they make new friends, they see youth "in charge" which is exciting . . . and they become involved. AY2Y has demonstrated repeatedly its life-changing power with the very segment that other programs fail to reach.
Another aspect of the AY2Y model is the focus it places on youth leadership. Also, the program content can continually be "re-invented" by each new youth cohort, keeping it dynamic and appealing.
AY2Y is a flexible, adaptable model because it focuses on facilitating youth to lead. Because youth can speak to their peer culture with greater ease, the program is readily appealing. The model also has the ability to adapt to both school-based and church-based clubs. Mini-conferences for less than 50 youth in a local church have been held, academy-based conferences have launched school terms, and very large conferences of 400-500 youth have been successful. Youth trained in the AY2Y family group method have even done outstanding "youth to adult" ministry at the 1991 Family Life Conference.
Youth find the experience of being staff at an AY2Y Conference an exciting and rewarding challenge because they not only get training in family group leadership, but an immediate chance to put it to use by the "practicum" of running a 3-4 day conference. As they gain experience, both in the conference and in local clubs, they naturally move into more advanced leadership levels, such as being administrative staff. And their ability to direct such a major endeavor, as young adults, has been clearly demonstrated in the Southern Union since 1990. Most recently, the ladder of leadership development has reached to forming teams of young adult prevention trainers; such a team conducted the first Summer School of Prevention and trained 45 Russian peers in prevention leadership in Moscow, June, 1992.
More attention to youth leadership development would be advantageous to other programs, as well. Such a strategy demands several elements be present: (1) effective training which involves sufficient time and qualified training staff, (2) leadership practicum to gain experience, and (3) adult mentors or coaches who are willing to support and develop youth leaders.
The Leadership Briefing further analyzes how the methods and strategies of AY2Y work and their outcomes.
Adults who are willing to stand back and let youth lead by adopting a supportive, back-stage role are scarce resources. Few adults are natural mentors. Becoming an effective adult mentor is extremely rewarding for the adult, but usually requires that the adult also be trained. All too often, such training is overlooked. Investment in such training multiplies the effectiveness of any program.
We have learned that adults who have participated in the AY2Y program as partners or "co-facilitators" with youth family group leaders are as enthusiastic about the program as the young people are. They often report that the conference was a life-changing experience for them. They ask to be staff again, a most uncommon occurrence in most youth ministries.
The endemic denial and recent years of silence of the Adventist community on substance use and abuse have contributed to a lot of ignorance, secrecy, unreality, and behavioral dysfunction on the part of church leaders, including youth pastors and directors. Frequently, the idea that drug prevention is "too narrow" to be the basis of youth ministry has led youth directors and school principals to decide to "broaden" it by diluting the emphasis on drugs, or to take piecemeal some elements of the AY2Y program and use them to "dress up" more traditional programs like Bible Conferences.
These attempts miss the mark in at least two ways. First, they are disconnected from the reality of teen issues in this addictive culture. Youth know where the issues are, and many of them revolve around decisions about drinking, smoking, or use of other drugs. Even premarital sexual activity is primed by drinking behavior in a high proportion of cases. They experience social expectations around drinking and drugging which are unknown to adults, even those who grew up in the 1960s, initial years of the Drug Era. Youth are often heard to say, "why don't the adults catch on? This is one of our biggest problems; its our friends who are dying and the adults just don't understand!"
Second, attempts to take the more "exciting" elements of AY2Y without the drug-related content is seen by many youth as an adult maneuver, continuing the "adult to youth" model but giving it a shiny new label. They are not fooled.
Finally, while some of the AY2Y principles of peer leaderships, small group dynamics, and active learning opportunities (as contrasted with passive audience sessions) may well be useful in other types of youth ministry to improve their appeal to youth, the need remains to meet the needs of each market segment.
1. McBride, D.C., Mutch, P.B., Dudley, R.L., and Julian, A.G. "Substance use and correlates among adult Seventh-day Adventists in North America." Technical Report 89-2. Institute for the Prevention of Addictions. Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI. 49104. 1989.
2. Unpublished data on college needs assessments, 1989-1991. Institute for the Prevention of Addictions, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI. 1992.
3. Benson, P.L. and Donahue, M.T. Valuegenesis: Report 1: A Study of the Influence of Family, Church, and School on the Faith, Values, and Commitment of Adventist Youth. Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute, Inc. 1990.
4. Mutch, P.B. and Slikkers, T. "1990 Adventist Youth to Youth conferences: a comprehensive evaluation report." Technical Report 91-1. Institute for the Prevention of Addictions. Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI. 1991.
For Complete Details on Local Club Operations: Get a Complete Manual:
A "how-to-do-it" manual designed for youth leaders of AY2Y groups. Contains information on how to start a group, leadership tips, family group planning, a complete set of family group activities, social events, outreach and service activities, resources, and a chapter for adult sponsors. Every club should have one!