2022 NAD Young Adult Ministry Advisory

NAD ONETEAM YOUNG ADULT MINISTRY ADVISORY // FEB 28, MON, 2:30PM CST
The 2022 NAD OneTeam Advisory Summit, February 26-28, are fully virtual this year. We were looking forward to meeting in-person in Dallas but with the responses from our preliminary survey, and the concerns of many who could not make the trip, we have made the decision to host them virtually. To register and receive more information, click the above icon or go to OneTeamPlaybook.org

All those leading ministry to Young Adults [post-high school through pre-parenthood], whether as a student officer/leader, volunteering, or in a professional ministry capacity are welcome to attend the Young Adult Ministry Advisory, Monday, February 28th, 2:30-4:30PM CST. Once you have your login, you can access the zoom room, and agenda.

The role of the advisory is to provide input, feedback, and discussion related to the activities, initiatives, and services of the NAD in matters pertinent to young adult ministry.

ADVISORY WORK PRODUCT

To aid in your participation in the advisory, I’ve provided some limited assets relevant to the agenda items. This is not official work product, just my efforts to help inform you as to the topics we will be discussing.

2. Adventist Youth Institute Collaborative & Continuing Education

The most recent descriptors I have for this comes from February 2019, as to conversations with the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, located at Andrews University, Berrien Springs.

Vision – Facilitate a collaborative network of entities; to develop resources from research and train leaders; who disciple children, youth, and young adults to become disciplers.
Purpose – Facilitate a collaborative network of entities
Objectives – To develop resources from research and train leaders
Outcomes – Disciple children, youth, and young adults to become disciplers

Preliminary goals include:
1. From the network of youth training, evangelism, resources already implemented in our division, form our collaborative work
2. Regular communication with administrators
3. Develop doctoral students who are self-perpetuating
4. Create a resource development cycle similar to Fuller Youth Institute’s cycle – see Ron’s sketch
5. Have regular research material coming from reliable desirable sources
6. Every university have some type of course on youth ministry
7. NAD Ministerial include a descriptor under evangelism to be tailored for youth ministries
8. Everything permeated with discipleship across the lifespan

3. University Student Leaders Advisory Report

There are five student networks that the North American Division (NAD) Young Adult Ministries department works with. These five networks combined make up the NAD University Student Leaders Advisory that:

1. Serves as an Advisory to the NAD Young Adult Ministries Committee
2. Is a voice to administrators at all levels of leadership (Church, Conf, Union, Division, GC)
3. Gives input to, and serve on advisories of different ministries of the North American Division

Advisory Members
The members of the NAD University Student Leaders Advisory are the student leaders and sponsors of the networks listed below. Additional student leaders may participate by invitation.

• ACF Public Campus Student Association – represented by ACF SA Officers & ACF Student Advisor
• Adventist Campus Ministries Students – represented by Student Leaders & CM Officer/Advisor
• Adventist Campus Student Associations – represented by AIA Officers & AIA Advisor
• SDA Theological Seminary Student Forum – represented by SSF Officers & Faculty Advisor
• University Graduate Student Associations – Represented by Student President & Faculty Advisor

4. Young Adult LIFE Resources Development

To aid in the advisory conversation, I would offer below the following backdrop:

Young Adult Ministry as Young Adult Leadership Development: Back in late 2018 through Summer of 2020 the NAD Young Adult Ministry Focus Group had robust discussions about the lack of clarity and branding confusion being experienced by young adult ministry in the constellation of YPAC. We began conversations about re-constituting the branding of young adult ministry as Young Adult LIFE. This blog post gives some evidence of field testing the concept: https://arlingtonadventist.com/new-blog/2020/8/26/young-adult-leadership-development

Young Adult LIFE at NAD Playbook 2020: The first proof of concept field test was in the programming we provided for the Virtual NAD Playbook, which was met with very positive reviews: https://arlingtonadventist.com/new-blog/2020/10/15/young-adult-life

#YALIFE Resources & Research: Given further evaluation to the Young Adult L.I.F.E. model and refining the nomenclature, we spent time reviewing how ministry resources might be categorized and reviewed in the construct. We gave study as to how this categorization might be helpful to the field and how it lined up with previous research on emerging adults and young adult ministry; https://arlingtonadventist.com/new-blog/2021/2/22/young-adult-life-resources

Young Adult LIFE Edition of 71.5 Magazine: And just recently we had produced a special edition of 71.5 magazine [https://www.715youthmag.com/], specifically for the roll out of the Young Adult LIFE paradigm.

The Young Adult LIFE branding was launched nearly a decade ago, and even with nominal defining of what it was, the brand itself has remained fairly resilient over time, being adopted by young adult groups both inside and outside of Adventism.

As a discussion point for the advisory, might we consider Young Adult LIFE being the name/paradigm of what we formerly called "young adult ministry," and if not, what is the role and placement of Young Adult LIFE in our ministry language and practice.

5. Young Pastors Network

Who
1. Young Pastors who are age 30+ and younger
2. Youth Pastors by title or job description
3. Young Adult Pastors by title or job description
4. Senior Academy Chaplains & Bible Teachers

Send Names, Name of church or school where they serve, and Email to Tracy/wood@nadAdventist.org

Why – Purpose
Support, Mentor, and Serve the young pastors, Youth pastors, YA pastors throughout the NAD by each level of leadership (conf, union, division)

What – Focus
Provide a network of pastors who gather for “Youth Pastor Days” by their Conference Youth Director or Representative

1. Provide ministry resources and training in how to use them
2. Develop a Union-wide network that enables cross-Conf support and mentoring
3. Develop a NAD-wide network for continued education and ministry support