oining and emaining - circlecircle.adventist.org/files/jae/en/jae201779033910.pdf · academic...

Given the effort and thecosts involved, Seventh-day Adventist parentssometimes wonder: “Does

Adventist education truly make a dif-ference? Do the benefits gained out-weigh the expenditure? is sending mychild to the Adventist school an ex-pense or an investment?”

Pastors and other church leadersalso ponder: “is Adventist educationtruly evangelism? Does it justify theresources that we invest? if so, howcan we present a persuasive case forAdventist education to parents andother church members?”

Writing to church leaders and edu-cators, Ellen White declared that theall-important issue in Adventist edu-cation is the conversion of the stu-dent.1 While there have been studies,

such as the CognitiveGenesis re-search,2 which have examined theacademic performance of students inAdventist schools, this article willfocus on two key outcomes: acces-sion and retention—joining the Ad-ventist Church and remaining in thedenomination.

So what do we know about accessand retention, and the role of Sev-enth-day Adventist education? inshort, there is a consistent and impor-tant relationship between attendingan Adventist school and the likeli-hood that a child or youth will jointhe Adventist Church and thenchoose to remain a member. We’lltake a look at the evidence.

Joining the Churchin the biblical model, conversion

is expressed through baptism.3 Bap-tism, in turn, is a public statement ofone’s desire to formally join thechurch. is there support for the roleof Adventist education in accessionto the church?

Adventist education is the longestand largest evangelistic event held bythe Adventist Church. it is also one ofthe most effective.

Depending on the country andthe educational system, the durationof a school day can range from fiveto nine hours, and a school year canrange from 160 to 260 days.4 An in-dividual student could attend an Ad-ventist school from a single year toperhaps 16 years or more. At mini-

39http:// jae.adventist.org The Journal of Adventist Education • Apri l-June 2017

B Y J O H N W E S L E Y T A Y L O R V

JOINING AND REMAINING:A Look at the Data on

the Role of Adventist Education

mum, if a student attends an Ad-ventist school for just a single year,this represents an evangelistic op-portunity of at least 800 hours. Touse evangelistic terminology, thisequates to a person attending anevangelistic series two hours pernight for 400 nights. if a student,however, continues in Adventist ed-ucation from 1st grade through uni-versity studies, the evangelistic po-tential could increase to more than37,000 hours.

in Adventist education, 5,705evangelistic sites specialize in chil-dren 5-12 years old, with 51,965evangelists and 1,188,910 persons at-tending each day. Also, 2,336 evan-gelistic sites focus on adolescents 13-16 years old, with 36,711 evangelistsand 583,946 in attendance. For youthand young adults, there are 167 evan-gelistic venues, with 14,103 evangel-ists and 142,530 attending. All told,Adventist education represents morethan 8,000 evangelistic sites, withmore than 100,000 evangelists in-volved and nearly 2 million in atten-dance each day.5 Certainly, it is thelargest evangelistic endeavor of thechurch.

is it effective? Each year for thepast 10 years, there have been at least30,000 and in some years, more than50,000 students in Adventist schoolsbaptized during the school year, pri-marily in culminating events such asa Week of Prayer. The total for the2006-2015 period was 427,313 bap-tisms.6 To look at it another way, thisis equivalent to a typical-size confer-ence being established each yearthrough the evangelistic ministry ofAdventist education.

While only a few studies havecompared attendance at Adventistschools with the baptismal rate ofchildren from Adventist families, theones that have examined this connec-tion concluded that Adventist educa-tion does make a significant differ-ence in terms of children and youthjoining the church.

A 1990 study, for example, ana-lyzed 844 children and youth from Ad-ventist families in the Southern unionConference of the North American Di-vision.7 Of those children and youthwho had no Adventist education, 40.1percent were never baptized. Of thosewith one or more years of Adventisteducation, 15.4 percent were neverbaptized; while in the group with 11or more years of Adventist education,

only 3.1 percent were never baptized(see Figure 1).

Another study conducted in 1985of 807 children and youth from Ad-ventist families in the Lake unionConference of the North AmericanDivision found similar results.8 Ofthose children and youth with noAdventist education, 38.3 percentnever joined the church. in thegroup with some Adventist educa-

40 The Journal of Adventist Education • Apri l-June 2017 http:// jae.adventist.org

No Adventisteducation

1+ years Adventisteducation


Neverbaptized

Baptized

15.4%

Figure 1. School Attendance and Baptism Source: Kenneth James Epperson study

84.6%96.9%

3.1%

40.1%

59.9%


Some Adventisteducation

12 grades Adventisteducation

4.6%

95.4% 100.0%

0.0%

38.3%

61.7%

Neverjoined thechurch

Joined thechurch

Figure 2. School Attendance and Church MembershipSource: Warren Minder study

tion, 4.6 percent never joined thechurch, while 100 percent of those inthe sample who studied all 12 gradesin Adventist education joined thechurch (see Figure 2).

Remaining in the ChurchWhile joining the church is foun-

dational, retention is equally impor-tant. Sadly, many of those who jointhe Adventist Church subsequentlyleave the denomination. Over thepast 50 years (1965-2015), for exam-ple, there have been 34,385,004 ac-cessions in the Adventist Churchworldwide. During the same period,13,737,205 people left the church.9

This represents a net loss of 39.95percent. in effect, for every 10 peoplewho joined the church, four haveslipped away.

The ratios are no better for youngpeople. in the Youth Retention studythat attempted to track more than1,500 baptized 15- and 16-year-oldsin the North American Division for10 years (1988-1998), results indi-cated that in most of the demo-graphic groups, at least 40 to 50 per-cent had left the church by theirmid-20s.10 Tragically, we are not justlosing one of 10 coins, as describedin Jesus’ parable.11 We are losinghalf of the coins! The questionposed by the prophet Jeremiah be-comes increasingly poignant:“Where is the flock entrusted toyou, your beautiful flock?”12

We turn now to the matter of theretention of children and youth inthe Seventh-day Adventist Church.Over a span of some 25 years, atleast seven studies have examinedthe role of Adventist education in re-tention, with the most recent re-search reported in 2014. Some ofthese studies have focused on spe-cific regional populations, while oth-ers are more global in nature. Somepresent a snapshot in time, whileothers have taken a longitudinal ap-proach. While each has inherentlimitations, as do all studies, to-gether they present a picture that isconsistent and clear.

One of the largest studies wasthe set of Valuegenesis surveys, con-ducted over a 20-year period, from1990 to 2010.13 Valuegenesis1 datafrom 2,267 12th-grade Adventist stu-dents in Adventist schools in theNorth American Division, for exam-ple, showed that the more years ofAdventist schooling, the greater theperson’s reported loyalty to the Sev-enth-day Adventist Church, his orher belief in the fundamental teach-ings of the church, and his or herintention to remain an Adventist atage 40. in the 2010 Valuegenesis3

survey, 81 percent of all students in-dicated that attending an Adventistschool was the most important fac-

tor that had helped them developtheir religious faith, with the Ad-ventist school ranking more highlythan any other factor (see Figure 3).Across all three Valuegenesis studies(1990-2010), a full 75 percent of Ad-ventist students in Adventist schoolsbelieved that the chances of their re-maining in the Adventist Church atage 40 were good to excellent.

We have noted the Youth Reten-tion study, which endeavored to fol-low high school students for 10 years,utilizing a sample about evenly di-vided between students in Adventistschools and in non-Adventist schoolsin the u.S. and Canada. One of thekey findings of this research was thatthe number of years in an Adventistschool was positively related to com-mitment to Jesus Christ and to com-


Attending an Adventist school

Family I grew up in

Mother’s faith

School weeks of prayer

Father’s faith

Grandparent’s faith

Adventist summer camps

Student weeks of prayer

Pathfinders

My Bible teacher

Bible classes in school

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Figure 3. Faith Development Factors

Very much

Not at all

Source: V. Bailey Gillespie, Valuegenesis3

mitment to personal Bible study, aswell as to the statements “My rela-tionship with Christ is stronger now”and “Religion is important in mylife.”14 Furthermore, intention tomarry an Adventist in students whoattended an Adventist school wasnearly twice the proportion of thosewho had not attended an Adventistschool (83 percent vs. 46 percent, re-spectively). At the 10-year mark, theprobability of leaving the AdventistChurch was 3.9 times greater forthose who had attended non-Advent-ist schools, compared to those whohad attended Seventh-day Adventistschools (see Figure 4).

Several doctoral dissertations havestudied retention in the context ofAdventist education. in KennethJames Epperson’s study, children ofAdventist families in the Southernunion Conference who had no Ad-ventist education were 4.5 timesmore likely to have infrequent or nochurch attendance, compared tothose who had 11 or more years ofAdventist education (see Figure 5).15

This is a significant finding, giventhat a lack of active involvement inthe church is often a precursor toleaving the church.16

in 1990, Robert Rice carried out alongitudinal study in which he com-pared baptized Adventist youth insouthern California who graduatedfrom public high schools and thosewho graduated from Adventist acade-mies.17 Thirteen years after gradua-tion, 37 percent of those who hadgraduated from public high schoolsremained in the church, comparedwith 77 percent of those who hadgraduated from Adventist academies(see Figure 6). Rice also found thatthose who had graduated from Ad-ventist academies were twice as likelyto pay tithe (50 percent vs. 26 per-cent), twice as likely to attend an Ad-ventist church service regularly (59percent vs. 32 percent), twice as in-clined to educate their own childrenin an Adventist school (59 percent vs.29 percent), and nearly three timesmore likely to have married an Ad-


Figure 4. Youth Retention Study Source: Roger L. Dudley study




20.8%

79.2% 90.7%

42.0%

58.0%

Infrequentor no churchattendance

Regularchurchattendance

Remained in the Adventist Church 10 years later

Probabilityof leavingthe church:

4.5x morelikely

3.9xgreater

Yes No

Non-Seventh-day Adventist schools Seventh-day Adventist schools

91%

9%35%

65%

9.3%

Figure 6. Retention and Baptism Source: Robert Rice study

Public high schoolgraduates

37%

18%

63%

23%

38%

7% 77%

13%5%

Never baptizedNo longer a memberMember not attendingBaptized and attending

Adventist academygraduates

6%

{

{Figure 5. Church AttendanceSource: Kenneth James Epperson study

ventist spouse (78 percent vs. 27 per-cent), compared to those who gradu-ated from a public high school.18

Warren Minder’s study, conductedin the Lake union Conference, alsoconsidered retention, identifyingthose who joined and remained, andthose who joined but subsequentlyleft the church.19 in sum, only 50.8percent of those youth from Adventistfamilies who had not experienced Ad-ventist education joined and re-mained in the church, compared to98.2 percent of those who had stud-ied all 12 grades in Adventist schools(see Figure 7).

The Center for Creative Ministryrecently conducted a global qualita-tive study in which 925 former or in-active church members were inter-viewed. Findings indicate that only17 percent of lapsed and ex-mem-bers had received any form of Ad-ventist education, compared to 56percent of those who were currentmembers.20 This threefold differenceprovides evidence that those whohave not experienced Adventist edu-cation are disproportionately morelikely to become inactive or leave(see Figure 8). The study concludedthat one of the greatest retention is-sues for the Adventist Church relatesto young adults rising into the mid-dle class. These were individualswho joined the church when theywere younger and had less educa-tion. As their education, predomi-nantly in non-Adventist institutions,progressed, however, they quit at-tending regularly and eventually leftthe Adventist Church.

Global studies conducted by theGeneral Conference Office ofArchives, Statistics, and Research in2013 and 2014 have also revealedkey differences between ex-membersand current members in terms of theproportion who have attended Ad-ventist schools.21 Current memberswere twice as likely to have Seventh-day Adventist tertiary educationcompared to ex-members who had

studied at the tertiary level. Currentmembers who had secondary educa-tion as their highest education were2.5 times as likely to have studied inan Adventist school, compared toex-members who had secondary ed-ucation as their highest level ofstudies. Finally, current memberswho had elementary education as

their highest education were threetimes as likely to have studied in anAdventist elementary school, com-pared to ex-members who had ele-mentary education as their highestlevel of studies (see Figure 9). Thismay suggest that early Adventist ed-ucation is an especially powerfulfactor in retention.



Some Adventisteducation

12 grades Adventisteducation

16.4%

78.9%

98.2%

50.8%

Never joined

Joined butthen left

Joined andremained

1.8%0.0%

Figure 8. School Attendance of Former and Inactive MembersSource: Center for Creative Ministry study

3x

4.6%

10.9%

38.3%

Current members

Only SDAeducation

Othereducation

Lapsed Adventistmembers

17%

83%44%

56%

Figure 7. Retention and MembershipSource: Warren Minder study

ConclusionAlthough further research, particu-

larly in specific populations aroundthe world, would be beneficial, theresearch that we have presents a per-suasive conclusion: Adventist educa-tion is a consistent and importantpredictor of children and youth join-ing and remaining in the Seventh-dayAdventist Church. As Ellen White ob-served: “in the highest sense, thework of education and the work ofredemption are one.”22

in essence, Adventist education ismission. Through Adventist educa-tion, children and youth experienceaccession and retention, for the ulti-

mate purpose of redemption (see Fig-ure 10). Consequently, the Seventh-day Adventist Church must reaffirmand uplift the central role of Advent-ist education in the evangelistic mis-sion of the church.

The prophet isaiah wrote: “Allyour children shall be taught by theLord, and great shall be the peace ofyour children.”23 The Hebrew wordtranslated “peace” in this passage isshâlôm. While shâlôm does includethe concept of peace, it incorporatesmuch more—safety, well-being,health, prosperity, and happiness.Shâlôm is what we want for our chil-dren and youth. There is a condition,

however. in order to experienceshâlôm, our children and youth mustbe taught by God.

Taught by God. Through Seventh-day Adventist education. �

Adapted from a presentation at the2017 Pan-African LEAD Conference inKigali, Rwanda, February 15-19, 2017.

John Wesley Tay-lor V, EdD, PhD,serves as an Asso-ciate Director ofEducation in theGeneral Confer-ence Departmentof Education in

Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A. Hisgrandfather, John Wesley Taylor III,joined the Seventh-day AdventistChurch while attending an Adventistacademy, and later, as a physician,served as a missionary in SouthAmerica and in Inter-America. Sincethat time, three generations have beeneducated in Adventist schools, haveremained in the Adventist Church,and together have provided more thana century of service to the church.

NOTES AND REFERENCES1. Ellen G. White, Fundamentals of Chris-

tian Education (Nashville, Tenn.: SouthernPublishing, 1923), 436.

2. CognitiveGenesis was a longitudinalstudy conducted from 2006 to 2009, involv-ing more than 800 Adventist schools in theunited States, Canada, and Bermuda, withapproximately 52,000 participating studentsin grades 3-9 and grade 11. Standardizedachievement test results indicated that stu-dents in Adventist schools in the u.S. out-performed the national average in all sub-jects; for all grade levels, school sizes, andethnic groups; and regardless of abilitylevel. Furthermore, the more years a stu-dent attended an Adventist school, thegreater the improvement in performance.This “Adventist advantage” in educationbecame the subject of a PBS documentaryThe Blueprint by award-winning producerMartin Doblmeier. Further information on


Ex-Members

Stayed: 3x 2.5x 2x

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

84.5%

15.5%

53.9%

46.1%

85.7%

14.3%

64.9%

35.1%

93.1%

6.9%

87.0%

13.0%

Only SDA Education Other Education

CurrentMembers

Ex-Members

CurrentMembers

Ex-Members

CurrentMembers

Figure 9. School Attendance of Current Members Source: General Conference Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research

{

Elementary/Primaryschool attendance

{ {

Secondary/Highschool attendance

Tertiary: College/university attendance

Figure 10.

In Adventist education, children and youth experience. . .

Accession Retention Redemption

the CognitiveGenesis study may be found in“CognitiveGenesis (CG): Assessing Aca-demic Achievement and Cognitive Abilityin Adventist Schools,” Journal of Researchon Christian Education 21:2 (2012): 99-115by J. Thayer and E. Kido. A summary isalso available at http://adventisteducation. org/assessment/cognitive_genesis/overview.

3. Matthew 3:6, 11; 28:19; Mark 1:5;16:16; Luke 3:3; Acts 2:38, 41; 8:12, 13, 36-38; 13:24; 16:31-33; 18:8. unless otherwiseindicated, all Scripture quotations in this ar-ticle are taken from the New InternationalVersion (NiV). Holy Bible, New internationalVersion®, NiV® Copyright © 1973, 1978,1984, 2011 by Biblica, inc.® used by permis-sion. All rights reserved worldwide.

4. “School Days Around the World”:https://norberthaupt.com/2012/04/20/school-days-around-the-world/; “School DaysAround the World” (June 2015) infographic:http://elearninginfographics.com/school-days-around-world-infographic/. Total number ofhours in school can range from 15,200 in Fin-land to 37,400 in China, which holds therecord for both highest number of hours perday and highest number of days per year, at 9and 260 respectively.

5. General Conference Office of Archives,Statistics, and Research, 2016 Annual Statis-tical Report: 152nd Report of the General Con-ference of Seventh-day Adventists® for 2015:http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR2016.pdf.

6. Statistics provided by the Departmentof Education, General Conference of Sev-enth-day Adventists.

7. Kenneth James Epperson, The Rela-tionship of Seventh-day Adventist SchoolAttendance to Seventh-day AdventistChurch Membership in the Southern UnionConference. EdD dissertation, Loma Lindauniversity, 1990. in this study, 300 familyunits were randomly selected from theSouthern union Conference of the NorthAmerican Division, and 210 families re-sponded, representing a return rate of 70percent. Of the individuals in the study, 40percent had never attended an Adventistschool. Children and youth from Adventistfamilies who were baptized into the Ad-ventist Church had attended an Adventistschool for 8.06 years on average, whilethose children and youth who were neverbaptized into the Adventist Church had at-tended Adventist schools for an average ofonly 2.42 years, yielding a significant rela-tionship (p

sis of the Youth Retention Study data. TheYouth Retention study (Roger Dudley) beganin 1988 with 1,523 baptized Adventist youthages 15 and 16 in the united States andCanada. These individuals were surveyedeach year in order to determine what fac -tors were related to staying or leaving thechurch. When the study ended 10 years later,783 (51.4 percent) of the original group, nowyoung adults, completed the survey. Dudleyspeculated that many of the young peoplewho dropped out of the study were nolonger church members.

15. Kenneth James Epperson, The Rela-tionship of Seventh-day Adventist School At-tendance to Seventh-day Adventist ChurchMembership in the Southern Union Confer-ence. EdD dissertation, Loma Linda univer-sity, 1990. Further analysis yielded a posi-tive relationship (p

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