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Indiana University of Pennsylvania Knowledge Repository @ IUP Theses and Dissertations (All) 7-23-2013 Young Adults' Spirituality: How Church Leaders Are Addressing Spiritual Needs of Young Adults in Small Rural Churches Brunilda Martínez Indiana University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at:http://knowledge.library.iup.edu/etd Recommended Citation Martínez, Brunilda, "Young Adults' Spirituality: How Church Leaders Are Addressing Spiritual Needs of Young Adults in Small Rural Churches" (2013).Theses and Dissertations (All). 99. http://knowledge.library.iup.edu/etd/99 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Knowledge Repository @ IUP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (All) by an authorized administrator of Knowledge Repository @ IUP. For more information, please [email protected], [email protected]. YOUNG ADULTS’ SPIRITUALITY: HOW CHURCH LEADERS ARE ADDRESSING SPIRITUAL NEEDS OF YOUNG ADULTS IN SMALL RURAL CHURCHES Dissertation Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Brunilda Martínez Indiana University of Pennsylvania May 2013 © 2013 Brunilda Martínez All Rights Reserved ii Indiana University of Pennsylvania School of Graduate Studies and Research Department of Sociology We hereby approved the dissertation of Brunilda Martínez Candidate of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________________ ________________________________________ John A. Anderson, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology, Chair _______________________ ________________________________________ Valerie J. Gunter, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology _______________________ ________________________________________ Barbara J. Denison, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Shippensburg University ACCEPTED _________________________________________ _____________________ Timothy P. Mack, Ph.D. Dean School of Graduate Studies and Research iii Title: Young Adults’ Spirituality: How Church Leaders Are Addressing Spiritual Needs of Young Adults in Small Rural Churches Author: Brunilda Martínez Dissertation Chair: Dr. John A. Anderson Dissertation Committee Members: Dr. Valerie J. Gunter Dr. Barbara J. Denison Many main stream religious denominations are alarmed about the constant decreasing of membership in their congregations. Small rural churches are experiencing a shift in attendance in which the members of the congregation are getting older and no new members are being received. Strategies to reach out to a younger generation seem to fail and discerning the strategies to be used to accomplish the goal is a complex paradigm. The purpose of this study was to identify the attributes that contribute to the lack of young adults’ participation in small churches in rural areas in Pennsylvania. The developments of strategies to reach young adults depend on the way leaders view the concepts of spirituality and religiosity. Church leaders are developing programs and strategies based on the necessity to fulfill the spiritual needs of young adults. The spiritual needs are being defined by older adults without the input of the young ones. The failure of outreach efforts is reflecting the call for an understanding of the young adults’ spirituality. There is one church that is having a successful young adult ministry. The leadership, pastor and group attendants were interviewed in order to identify the components of their success. Also, church leaders of two other churches and non-church young adults were interviewed to explore the correlation in their concepts of spirituality and religiosity. Through interviews I was able to gain a better understanding of the differences and similarities between church leaders and young adults in the meanings of being spiritual and being religious. The iv findings indicated that it is hard to clearly define the two concepts by individuals. The spiritual needs of young adults are more individualistic but at the same time relational. They also want to be active in holding events that can benefit others. The research revealed that the young adults are being spiritual but not in the same way that the older generation defines “being spiritual.” The majority of the young adults interviewed recognize the difference between being spiritual and being religious. This understanding of the two concepts leads the young adults to be somewhat clear in their spiritual needs and what they need to do to fulfill those needs. v ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to thank my family for their support, especially my husband Ramon for being patient when I was not able to be with him or sit on the front porch just to look at the people that pass by. We are getting old, you know. I am so grateful that my congregation understood my time and efforts with all the challenges of being a new pastor in a merger setting. Also, I would like to thank the invaluable support of my dissertation committee: Dr. Anderson, Dr. Gunter, and Dr. Denison. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the chair of my committee, Dr. Anderson. There were many times that I was ready to give up but he kept encouraging me, saying “you can do it”. Gracias. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. THE PROBLEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Concepts Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Focus and Scope of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Significance of the Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Researcher’s Positionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Pre-Modern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Structural Functionalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Émile Durkheim’s Social Realism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Durkheim’s theory of origin of religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Functions of religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The sacred and the profane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Collective effervescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Religion and community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Max Weber’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Traditional authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Traditional action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Value rational action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Berger and Luckmann, Sacred Canopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Modern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Rationalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Instrumentally Rational Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Legal-Rational Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Rational Authority and Bureaucracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Disenchantment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Multiculturalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Secularization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Religious Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Postmodernism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Spirituality and Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Theoretical Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Supporting Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Rational choice theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Cohort theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Generational cultures and differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Traditional stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 New generation stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 vii Chapter Page Conceptual Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 III. PROCEDURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Research Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Sampling and Sampling Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Data Collection Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 Credibility and Trustworthiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 IV. FINDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Auxiliary Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Church Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Leadership Without an Active Young Adult Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Charles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 Barbie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Carsie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Blondie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Leadership With an Active Young Adult Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Sally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Pam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Lisa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Church Goers Young Adult Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Spirituality and Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Church Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Future Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Non-Church Goers Young Adult Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Town A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Spirituality and religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Church involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Future church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Town B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Spirituality and religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Church involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Future church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 viii Chapter Page Town C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Spirituality and religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137 Church involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Future church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148 Limitations to the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Similarities and Differences Among Interviewees Perceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Similarities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Misconceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Connection with Sociological Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 V. DISCUSSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Research questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Research Question One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Research Question Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161 Research Question Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161 Research Question Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Suggestions for Church Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179 Appendix A - CHURCH LEADERS INTERVIEW GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Appendix B - CHURCH LEADERS DEMOGRAPHIC DATA SHEET . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Appendix C – YOUNG ADULT CHURCH ATTENDEES GUIDE QUESTIONS . . . 183 Appendix D – YOUNG ADULT NON-CHURCH ATTENDEES GUIDE QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Appendix E – YOUNG ADULT DEMOGRAPHIC DATA SHEET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Appendix F - INFORMED CONSENT FORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Appendix G – VOLUNTARY CONSENT FORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Appendix H – ADVERTISEMENT FLYER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 ix

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