Why Our Youth Are Leaving The Church...

And What To Do About It

There they go...over 50% before age 20. It is hard to admit, but ouryouth are leaving the church; by droves. The impact has been verytelling on the Seventh-day Adventist church membership in NorthAmerica where the average age is 52+. One thousand churches don’thave enough children to conduct Sabbath Schools. Disturbing as this percentage is, it does not seem to stir church members to action. This state of complacency and self-centeredness manifested by church members toward our youth is predicted in Revelation chapter 3 when itcalls our time in earth’s history Laodicea. The complacency of church members provides an open door for Satan to do his work.

How Do We Set The Course

We set the course by taking action.

Rationale
 The Adventist EDGE is about innovative change that will result in measurable school improvement. To do this the Southern Union has implemented a comprehensive improvement initiative of Adventist education PreK-12 and has set the course for excellence in all areas. This initiative is aligned with the North American Division Journey to Excellence and focuses on the essential core elements that identify the high expectation of what students should know and be able to do, as well as the preferred practices that support an effective ongoing school improvement process.

Central Component

The Adventist EDGE initiative is made up of three components: Central, Enabling, and Supporting. Each area focuses on specific needs. The Central Component focuses on learning and directly relates to the instruction process of what is taught, how it is taught and how learning is measured. The Central Component is broken down into the following categories.

Curriculum
In Adventist EDGE schools curriculum is no longer out-of-context and textbook driven, but is authentic, relevant, meaningful and standard-based. The Curriculum section is dissected even further into Early Childhood Education, Elementary and Secondary areas.

Right Way - Wrong Way

Is there a right way versus a wrong way to teach?

Teachers who understand how learning occurs will teach better and can better serve all the children God gave them to teach.

Ellen White counseled this:

"True education is not the forcing of instruction on an unready and unreceptive mind. The mental powers must be awakened, the interest aroused. For this, God's method of teaching provided. He who created the mind and ordained its laws, provided for its development in accordance with them."2

The Human Brain: In all of creation, is there a greater wonder? A single egg is fertilized. Within nine months it develops into a human being whose mind (unless impaired) has a mental capacity for carrying past achievements and future dreams to generations that follow.

What is Certification?

Denominational certification is the process whereby a person is recognized to be academically and professionally qualified to teach in Seventh-day Adventist schools. A teaching certificate with its endorsement(s) indicates that the individual has completed the qualifying requirements to practice the profession of instructing children and youth in a Seventh-day Adventist school setting.