Developing a Strategy to Increase Retention of Youth in Seventh-day Adventist Township Church, Umuokahia, Aba East Conference, Nigeria

Abstract

According to a report given at the 2014 first quarter Church board meeting that was conducted in the Seventh-day Adventist Township Church, Umuokahia, it was observed that up to 9 percent of baptized youth drop out of the Church each year owing to lack of a retention strategy. This condition could also be experienced in other sister Churches within the Conference, which is not a healthy development if the mission of the Church is to be sustained in this generation. The current nurturing programs in the Church have to be reviewed to determine what would be the effective way forward. Focus group interviews and questionnaires were the instruments used for data collection aimed at obtaining clearer information of the situation. The data collected were analyzed and led to the design of an intervention program that provided a strategy to increase the retention of the youth in the Church. The seminar and workshop materials for intervention were drawn from the Bible, the writings of E. G. White, and other Christian writers. This necessitated training for Church workers and youth leaders. The project was an evaluation of the implementation in the local Cchurch and revealed a positive result. First, a branch Sabbath school has started in a proximal government secondary school. Second, fifty-two of the youths have returned to the Church. Third, loss of Church membership has reduced to 4.2 percent thereby increasing the youth retention of the Church by 3 percent given the membership analysis of the last quarter of 2016. Fourth, there is a renewed zeal for evangelism among Church members, especially the youth. Fifth, teaching the young people as a process for baptism is going on.