an over used metaphor, but I really think that if the home, the church and the school work together we will do the best at keeping students involved in the church. We have a much better chance with these three working together than we do without it. Let me know what you think of the article and perhaps post your pros and cons of Adventist Education. How can we do better, how can we save the system, should we work to save the system?"As we are faced with the financial crunches at MCA it is easy for us to ask whether having the school is worth it. I have had the benefit of observing the impact Adventist Education has had over the last 9 years, specifically through MCA. I can not speak for MCA students that attend other churches, but I have kept track of the students who are part of our youth ministry. I have long been curious about whether there is a correlation between church attendance and being enrolled at MCA or another Adventist school. Over the past several weeks I have gathered data about 120 students who are either currently High School aged or have graduated from our youth ministry. For the current students separated them into four groups: Public School, Other Christian School, MCA, Other
SDA schools. Then I looked
at their attendance at church, those students I see at church more than twice a month I marked as involved, less than twice a month: occasional and those I don’t see over a two month period: not involved. Currently there are 35 students in the High School Ministry. As far as our average we are at an all time low of students from the youth group who attend High School at 43%. The average of our alumni who attended MCA is 53%. As you can see both with the alumni and our current students about 60% of the students are actively involved. Here is where the rubber meets the road however. The question to ask is ‘does going to MCA increase the chance of a student being involved in Church?’ Here is what the numbers say 83% of the students who attend an Adventist school are involved in church and the other 17% are occasionally involved. Of the students who do not attend an Adventist school the numbers are different, 35% are involved 17% are occasionally involved and 48% are not involved.The numbers are impressively stacked in MCA’s favor for our current students, but what about the 84 students who are alumni of our youth program. As you can see from the graphs 53% of our alumni graduated from MCA with a whopping 70% attending Adventist Education. What interested me was the difference in church involvement between those two groups. Historically has MCA been an influencer of future church attendance or involvement. I must admit that there are some assumptions with these numbers and that they are in no way 100% accurate, but I feel that the margin of error is within acceptable ranges. According to national polls of high school students, it is generally understood that 60% of students leave the church after graduating from high school. So that is a benchmark for us to look at. According to my data the students from our church defy those numbers, in our case 68% of our students who attend an Adventist school are still involved in church. This is contrasted with 44% of the students who did not attend Adventist high schools currently being involved in church! That is a big difference. Not only are we 28% above the national average with the kids that attend MCA the numbers for those who did not attend MCA are right around the national average. This tells me two things. First MCA is very important and is beneficial to the long term future of our church. Secondly this tells me that if students do not attend MCA we must to better at keeping them as part of the church. I hope as we consider the future of MCA and Adventist Education in the metro area we keep these numbers in mind, I am so grateful to the commitment of the Minnetonka church’s dedication to Adventist Education and to Youth Ministry. Our kids are important! Let’s keep fighting on their behalf and seeking God’s will for the future of our church."
6 comments:
How much room is there for a comment?! I found your article very interesting. Speaking as a former MCA parent I have a number of reactions to it. The first being, yes, I have personally noticed that those young people who attend our school have a greater propensity to be involved in church on a fairly continuing basis as they grow into young adulthood. I don't want to give precise statistics, but when my kids went to MCA, it was only a 10 grade school, so metro area Adventist high school was a non-entity. For most of the kids at that time Maplewood was not an option, only 2 or 3 went on to continue at Academy after 10th grade graduation, and many parents pulled their kids out after 8th grade and started them in public high school in 9th grade because what parent wants to set their kids up for greater difficulty by switching their high school program mid-stream? Predictably, a high percentage of the kids who attended MCA when mine did and who went into the public system ended up with major life crises that are still working themselves out.
On the other side of the spectrum, what disturbed me most then, and still does to some extent today, is that the Adventist education system seemed geared to keep "outsiders" out, and out of the reach of church youth ministry for reasons which follow. An "outsider" was any child not in our schools. In other words, when our church kids had to go into the public system, our Adventist school system still (and in most areas of the country still does) maintained a schedule that was geared more to teachers being able to get continuing ed. at Union college than it was to being inclusive of our public school kids in church and church school sponsored mission trips, community service projects and special events such as Academy Days, music fests, etc. Also, families who might have one kid in church school and one in public school couldn't have family times together. MCA was finally able to "pioneer" by adjusting the schedule to public school schedules so that church kids in public school had half a chance of being involved in church events. MCA also went it alone and became literally the only church and church school in the North American Division to broaden the school to 12 grades with the support of only one church. This increased the chances of more of our youth being able to stay in denominational education. The problem is, there is still no organized Division or union wide program for keeping kids that are in public schools involved with their church youth groups. Again Minnetonka and its dedicated youth pastors, you included!!, pioneered in trying to involve all of our youth. It is after all regular church involvement on a continuing basis at all stages of development that will give a better chance that they will be involved, and be leaders, as young adults. We need to have focused outreach programs for our students even when they leave Adventist education at whatever age, and one youth pastor can't do it alone.
MCA in its several forms has been a developer of dedicated Christians and church leaders for over 100 years, what a tragedy if financial considerations shut it down; we need as a church and as individuals to find a way only God can show us to keep MCA alive and vital, and we also need to find a way to develop dedicated outreach to our kids when their parents for whatever reason put them into public school. Often they will find Christian friends and teachers in public school as well, mine certainly did, but they need the continuing encouragement and involvement with their own church family.
You are so totally right...I think one of the big reasons that the kids who went/go to MCA have a higher level of church involvement has to do with one thing: relationships. When I first arrived here I heard the 'clique' word thrown around a lot. The MCA kids had a hard time embracing their non-school friends on the weekends. This is still a problem, but I'd like to think less so. I just reread an article in the February 2009 issue of the review that mentions that relationships are the #1 reasons that youth and young adults will stay involved in church. That is more important than music, doctrine, worship styles. One of our big challenges is helping those who don't attend MCA build relationships with their Adventist peers. That is where the other two legs of the stool are important. The church plays a big part in that, but so do parents. Parents help in getting their kids to Sabbath School and trips and activities will help with this issue. Thanks for your post!
Benji I agree with everything you said: If you send your kid through Adventist schools the probabilities are that he will stay and Adventist and are much higher that he will go to church.
But doesn't that beg the question:
SO WHAT?
What part of Jesus' teaching does it say that theology or attending church leads to salvation?
sorry..I meant to identify myself
G. Mark Smith
Mark, thanks for, as usual, rocking the boat. I think what I hear you saying is that discipleship has little to do with going to church or having a 'correct' theology. While I would partly agree with that, I would challenge that thought process. Attending church on it's own does not lead to salvation, for my study here it was merely an indicator. While I'll admit that might indicate a lot of things besides discipleship/spirituality at least they are getting there.
Church attendance also has a lot to do with one of my top 3 critical motifs in theology: Community. Fortunately for us, postmoderns are way into community, done right church models true community and that might be why students church attendance correlates with MCA attendance. The kids who go to our schools build a deeper community with each other and are more likely to want to continue that feeling. The other kids when they don't find community at church find it else where.
A few years ago, I did a telephone survey in Minnesota (I started with my church first) asking how many graduates of SDA schools were involved in out reach to the poor and sick ect or were involved in growing the kingdom....and the answer was:
None.
AS a congregation we spend over 75% of our disposable income on education and what we get for it ...at best...are people who come to church and financially support the denomination.
I asked myself, "What is the purpose of Adventist education"? to make more Adventists? Or make disciples of Christ?
I believe strongly that the "Church" owes its' children an education. But I think the existing system needs to be drastically redesigned to produce a different outcome.
G. Mark Smith
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