YOUTH PASTOR, YOUTH MINISTRY, AND YOUTH ATTITUDE TOWARD THE CHURCH

Author(s): CHANG-HO C. JI and TEVITA TAMEIFUNA

Source: Review of Religious Research , March 2011, Vol. 52, No. 3 (March 2011), pp. 306-
322
Published by: Springer

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23055554

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 YOUTH PASTOR, YOUTH MINISTRY, AND
YOUTH ATTITUDE TOWARD THE CHURCH*

CHANG-HO C. JI and TEVITA TAMEIFUNA

LA SIERRA UNIVERSITY

REVIEW OF RELIGIOUS RESEARCH, VOLUME 52(3), PAGES 306-322

A large number of churches hire youth pastors or workers to support their mini
for adolescents and young adults. An empirical exploration of whether and how y
pastors influence youth attitudes toward the church and denomination remains t
done, however. This study, using a nationwide youth survey data set, attempts to
this research gap. The results affirm hiring a youth pastor or worker is an effec
way to develop and maintain quality programs in the church, which in turn ind
youth to remain faithful to the denomination. This study also confirms a positive li
between caring pastorship and youths 'attitudes toward the church, although it is
from obvious that most youth pastors successfully adopt relational ministry.

A national survey showed that 60% of American high school students consider reli
Personal religion
gion important in theirplays
lives, 50%aattend
majorreligiousrole
servicesin peoples'
regularly, and overlives,
80% including those of adolescents.
have some kind of religious affiliation (Wallace, Forman, Caldwell, and Willis 2003). In
spite of these statistics, however, there is also a growing concern among churches about
losing their youth to other religious and non-religious forces. According to Smith, Denton,
Faris, and Regnerus (2002), there was a 10% drop in Protestant religious affiliation from
1976 to 1996 among twelfth graders.1 Their study also showed an 8% drop in weekly church
attendance among twelfth graders during the same period and a 4% increase in those who
stated "rarely" and "none" for church attendance. Similarly, Hastings and Hoge (1976)
found that only 36% of youth had a positive attitude toward organized religion, and only
22% and 30% of those who grew up in Protestant and Catholic homes, respectively, rec
ognized their parents' religion as their own religious preference.
In an attempt to curb the decline of youth church affiliation, churches have looked for
ways to keep their youth in the churches. One popular strategy has been hiring youth pas
tors or workers, even though using a paid youth pastor or worker means a considerable
financial and resource commitment by a congregation to its youth ministry (Goreham 2004;
Kageler 2004). One widespread premise behind this commitment is that youth pastors or
workers would increase the frequency of youth activities, develop quality programs, enhance
youth perception of the church, and eventually keep them loyal to the denomination (Strom
men 1963). Nevertheless, little empirical evidence as yet exists pertaining to the impact of
youth pastors or workers on youth ministry programs and youths' decision to remain faith
ful to the denomination; with only a handful of research cases, that can be considered far
from conclusive (e.g., Hoge and Petrillo 1978).
The objective here is to examine the link between the presence of paid youth pastor(s)
or worker(s) (hereafter youth pastors) in a church to youths' attitudes toward the denomi

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Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry, and Youth Attidute Toward the Church

nation that the church belongs to. To this end, the article proceeds as follows. First, we
review previous studies on youth pastors and youth ministry in order to set up research
hypotheses for empirical testing. Second, we employ data from one nationwide youth sur
vey to estimate the association between youth pastorship and their general attitude toward
the church programs. Third, using the same data set, we analyze the connection between
this attitude and youth contentment with the church attended and their desire to continue
to affiliate with the denomination after graduating from a high school or moving to anoth
er place.

YOUTH DISAFFILIATION AND YOUTH MINISTRY MODELS

The source of youth participation in religious activities is one of the freque

issues in the American youth ministry literature. Dudley (1999) and Hog
(1978), for instance, conducted studies of Catholic and Protestant teenag
determinants of their church attendance and attitude toward the church. In t
main predictor for youth church attendance was parental religion, while p
cation, pastoral leadership style, and personal religious beliefs related clo
all attitude towards the church. A shift from organized religion to liberalism
was also an influential cause of the decision to leave the church (Hastings
On the other hand, O'Connor, Hoge, and Alexander (2002) examined the sa
program participation for church involvement at the age of 38. One youth va
a significant predictor of adult church involvement was youth group part
with the influence of spouse and personal religious commitment.
This previous research has correctly focused on the importance of person
attributes in determining youth involvement in religious activities. It doe
explain adequately the import of a youth pastor for youth attitude towar
tion, particularly the mechanism of how that relates to the youth attitude
ministry programs and their perception of youth pastors. For example, d
of youth pastors relate to the frequency and quality of youth programs?
pastors engender better youth perception of the worship services and chur
these changes lead to an increase in denominational loyalty? Personal religiosit
factors are important to youth support for the church, but youth pastors
have a pronounced connection with youth attitudes toward the church. It seem
ining how youth pastors associate with youth adherence to the church. Al
exploration of this issue is long overdue given that churches have routinely e
pastors in an effort to keep youth in the church and to bring back those who
(Kageler 2004).
As could be expected, in response to the increase of professional youth
variety of youth ministry models have been suggested (Cole 2001). Particul
useful in this regard is Canales' comprehensive exposition (2006) of eight y
paradigms: the models of friendship, spiritual awareness, servant leader
biblical hermeneutic, liturgical-initiation, social justice, and Christian disci
tral concern of the friendship model is to create and sustain quality relations
while the spiritual awareness model focuses on nurturing a deeper spiritua
ing a sense of holiness in the life of teenagers through self-awareness an
covery. Respecting and serving youth members with honesty and humility
to the servant leadership model, and the liberation model gives heavy atte

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 Review of Religious Research

call for compassion, justice, and peace. Biblical instruction of adolescents is pivotal to the
biblical-hermeneutic model; the liturgical-initiation model allows youth to experience the
supreme being through a church's liturgy and ritual activities. Additionally, the social jus
tice model calls for justice, peace, and service for those in need, while the goal of the Chris
tian discipleship model is to empower youth to experience God personally and internalize
moral values, which involves a call to holiness.
For the present study, Canales' thesis seems to be significant in two regards. First, there
has been little scientific research up to now on the efficacy of youth ministry models in
conjunction with youth attitudes toward the church, to which Canales' exposition assumes
that quality youth programs are closely linked. But, in an empirical sense, we know almost
nothing about the linkage between youth pastor and program development and their impor
tance to youth contentment with and support for the church and denomination.
Second, exploration of Canales' ministry models allows us to develop a hypothetical
theory for empirical testing on two fronts. A first presumption that emerges from the review
of the models is that effective youth ministry is attainable particularly when youth find their
pastors are caring, warm, and friendly. To begin with the friendship model, Canales pro
poses that a close pastor-youth relationship is the key to move youth ministry in a positive
direction; assuring the youth that their pastors are trustworthy friends and counselors is a
cardinal task for youth pastors. Similarly, Shelton (1983) and Warren (1989) assert that a
good relationship between youth and the pastors serving them is essential for the success
of youth ministry; youth pastors must be perceived by the youth members first as caring
and dependable leaders and secondly, as providers, counselors, and caregivers in the life
of the youth (see also Strommen and Hardel 2008). Aligned with this point of view is
Canales' servant leadership model that portrays Jesus as the ultimate servant-leader. This
view sees coercive and constraining pastorship as a formidable barrier to bringing out per
sonal commitment and denominational support among youth members. In this model, youth
ministry can have desired results only if a pastor becomes a living witness of servant lead
ership by caring, loving, and serving youth as did Jesus.
Presumably, quality programs that can create vibrant personal religion and the sense of
sacredness in the youth's spiritual life are equally indispensable for effective youth min
istry. This idea pertains first of all to the models of spiritual awareness and biblical hermeneu
tics. To Canales (2006), interesting and inspirational church activities are the backbone of
successful youth ministry. Youth leave a church or denomination for lack of meaningful
worship services or church programs (see Strommen and Hardel 2008). Also salient in
Canales' thesis is the bearing of thought-provoking programs for youth ministry. Effective
pastors investigate and interpret the scriptures and other literature and teachings so that they
have meaning and purpose for youths' religious experience and expression. Messages deliv
ered in worship services and church programs must be relevant and applicable to youth cul
ture and lifestyle. That is, adolescents who attend a church may broaden and deepen their
support for the church when its programs and worship services are accepted as interesting,
inspiring, and cognitively stimulating because they enlarge and stabilize the vision and faith
of the ones who attend the services. This supposition is also embedded in the liturgical-ini
tiation model that underlines the import of youth encounter with the divine. In this model,
youth support the church when they are connected with God through meaningful sacred
rites, liturgical events, and the celebration of religious services.

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Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry, and Youth Attidute Toward the Church

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Applying the ideas of Canales and others to the issue of youth attitudes
ination provides testable hypotheses of the structure of youth pastor infl
consider church programs and caring youth pastorship as mediators in
tude toward the denomination.

Specifically, this study first postulates that youth affiliated with a church with youth pas
tors more often take leading roles in the worship services and other activities and perceive
their programs as interesting and cognitively stimulating than do those in the churches with
out youth pastors. This notion is in line with the report that churches with youth pastors
generate increased leadership opportunities in church activities for the youth (Goreham
2004). It also coincides with Severe's contention (2006) that most youth pastors consider
program development and maintenance as pivotal for effective ministries and thus expend
considerable effort to create and sustain interesting and stimulating programs on behalf of
their youth members. Concomitantly, for the same reason hiring youth pastors is likely to
augment the frequency of youth programs, as previously found by Rubin and Billingsley
(1994) in their study of African-American ethnic churches. In our view, these combined
changes in turn lead youth to assess their church programs and worship services as valu
able and meaningful with respect to their personal and religious lives. The increased mean
ingfulness then boosts youth loyalty toward the denomination.
We are also interested in how youth's perception of their pastors relates to their attitude
toward the denomination. Research has repeatedly affirmed that one dominant attribute of
effective parenting and schooling is the creation of positive and safe environments for ado
lescents, allowing them to become confident and autonomous individuals and learners
(Santrock 2007; Snowman and Biehler 2000). We anticipate a probable parallel between
youth pastorship and parenting and schooling. The majority of youth pastors reportedly not
only believe that creating and maintaining a caring relationship with the youth are funda
mental to the success and growth of their ministry but also actually exert much effort to
bring about a church environment that is safe and responsive to the youth members (Severe
2006). Our expectation is that the majority of youth pastors, due to this perception and
endeavor, actually succeed in acquiring high levels of warmth and understanding with their
youth members and that the youth should value the warmth, affection, and responsiveness
that their pastors show toward them. Once youth pastors are recognized as warm and accept
ing, the youth subsequently respond to the caring pastorship in meaningful ways that pos
sibly engender high levels of denominational satisfaction and support. In short, the more
youth pastors are perceived as caring and friendly, the more likely it is that the youth delight
in and support the denomination.

METHODOLOGY

SAMPLE
A large questionnaire survey that provided the database for this article involv
twelfth grade students who were enrolled in the schools affiliated with the Seve
Adventist Church in the United States and Canada.2 The Adventist church is disti
from other Protestant churches by its observance of Saturday as the Sabbath, es
the separation of church and state, and the rigidity with which it upholds the parti

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 Review of Religious Research

their eschatological worldview (Lawson 1996; 1998; Morgan 1994). In other respects the
Adventists are similar to many mainstream Evangelical churches, supporting such Chris
tian tenets as the Trinity, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, salvation through Christ's atoning
death on the cross, repentance of sins, the second coming of Jesus, and resurrection and
eternal joy in heaven. Generally, the church is conservative on matters of morality and
ethics, including endorsement of modest dress and healthy life style, avoidance of pre
marital sexual intimacy, disengagement from many forms of contemporary entertainment,
and restriction on drug use and homosexuality. Given these facts, much of the findings from
the Adventist church are probably generalizable to other conservative Evangelical church
es (Dudley 1999).
The headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist church supported the survey and named
it the Valuegenesis research (cf. Gillespie, Donahue, Boyatt, and Gane 2004; Ji, Pender
graft, and Perry 2006). During the 2000 school year, a sample of about 30% of the 1,050
schools affiliated with the denomination was chosen by a stratified-random method that
ensured proportional representation of school type, size, and geographical location.3 Each
selected school appointed a survey administrator who oversaw the entire process of sur
veying all pupils in grades six through twelve. Some 21,000 questionnaires were sent, 16,000
of which were completed and returned to the surveyors. At each school, the survey took
place in a classroom setting according to the guidelines offered by the surveyors so that the
students received as identical and consistent a survey setting as possible. The survey was
made up of 396 items related to various aspects of family, school, church, friends, life-style,
and religion. Of the 396 survey items, the present study utilized 59 items related to doctri
nal orthodoxy, faith maturity, and religious orientations along with the items on youth pas
tor, youth program, and denominational loyalty.4
The final database available for the present study had 11,481 respondents. Female stu
dents comprised 53% of the sample. There was a balance across the age groups represent
ed: 44% of the respondents came from grades ten to twelve while the rest were identified
as seventh-ninth graders. In regards to ethnicity, 68% of the respondents represented non
white ethnic communities, which included 15% who identified themselves as multiracial.
The final male-female percentages in the sample were representative of the overall popu
lation in the whole school system under consideration, yet ethnic minority pupils were found
to be over-represented in the sample by about 10% as compared to their proportion in the
entire student representation (Ji, Pendergraft, and Perry 2006).

VARIABLES
In this study, youth attitude toward the denomination is operationalized
measure of the current level of youth satisfaction with the church attended
of anticipated loyalty toward the denomination. In detail, it is equal to the
three 5-point-scale items in the survey: "How satisfied are you with the de
the church you now attend?", "If you move to another city that has many c
which to choose, would you attend a church of the same denomination as th
now attend?", and " When you are 40 years old, do you think you will be
denomination of the church you now attend?" The responses to the first qu
from "very dissatisfied" (1) to "very satisfied" (5), while the responses to
questions ranged from "no chance" (1) to "yes, absolutely" (5). For validati
to the three items were subject to a factor analysis using a principal axis me

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Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry, and Youth Attidute Toward the Church

by a varimax rotation. Only one component was retained with eigenvalue = 1.81, account
ing for 60.21% of the total variance, and factor loading was greater than .74 for each item.
Scale reliability was assessed by computing an a coefficient, which produced .67 for the
three items.

The Valuegenesis survey questionnaire contains nine youth pastor and program-related
items. To begin with pastoral variables, the presence of youth pastor was grounded in a sin
gle dichotomous item (0 = no, 1 = yes) in the survey, which asked the youth whether or not
the church that they attended had a full-time or at least half-time youth pastor or worker.
The measurement of caring youth pastorship was taken from the mean score of three 6
point-scale items asking the youth how true it was that their youth pastors were warm and
friendly, cared about the youth, and knew the youth members well. Responses ranged from
"not at all true" (1) to "very true" (6). A factor analysis, once again, pointed to a one-fac
tor solution using the same extraction and rotation methods as those for denominational
loyalty above. This single component explained 77.86% of the variance with an eigenval
ue of 2.34, and the factor loading was greater than .84 for each item. The reliability esti
mate was .85 for the three items.

Turning to the program-related variables, program meaningfulness was tapped from one
dichotomous question (0 = no, 1 = yes) in the questionnaire that asked if the samples found
the programs and activities meaningful at their church. Related to this item were two 6
point survey questions that asked the youth whether the programs at their church were inter
esting and made them think. Responses could vary from "not at all true" (1) to "very true"
(6). On the other hand, one item that addressed whether or not youth and young adults reg
ularly took leading roles in the worship services at their church served as the measure of
youth leadership role in the church. This item had a "no" (0) or "yes" (1) response. Addi
tionally, frequency of youth program was assessed based on one questionnaire item that
asked if there was a regular youth ministry program in the church, an item ranging from
"never" (1) to "more than once a week" (5).
Apart from the youth ministry variables, the present analysis considered five personal
religiosity variables in order to control their potential effects on denominational loyalty and
perceived meaningfulness of church program: vertical and horizontal faith maturity, doc
trinal orthodoxy, and intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity.5 For faith maturity, the twelve 5
point items in the Valuegenesis survey were taken from the Faith Maturity Scale (cf. Benson,
Donahue, and Erickson 1993; Ji 2004). Ji, Pendergraft, and Perry (2006) conducted a valid
ity study on the twelve Valuegenesis items, which yielded a two-factor solution of vertical
and horizontal faith maturity. The seven items loaded on the first factor plus the five items
loaded on the second factor were named Vertical and Horizontal Faith Subscales, respec
tively. For the analysis, in keeping with Ji and his colleagues' proposal, the mean scores of
the five and seven items were then calculated for use as the scores of horizontal and verti
cal faith, in the order specified. The doctrinal orthodoxy score came from the mean of eight
6-point Likert scale items in the survey pertaining to general Protestant orthodox beliefs.
Their factor structure was also examined by Ji and others, and the results showed a clear
single-factor solution. On the other hand, in the Valuegenesis survey, the measures of intrin
sic and extrinsic orientations were derived from Allport and Ross's Religious Orientation
Scale (1967). The intrinsic religiosity estimates were grounded in nine 5-point Likert scale
items in the survey for which the factor analysis by Ji, Pendergraft, and Perry (2006) clear
ly pointed to a one-factor solution. Thus, the mean of each of the nine items was comput

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 Review of Religious Research

ed to obtain the intrinsic religiosity score. Similarly, the mean score of eleven items relat
ed to extrinsic religious orientation served as an index of extrinsic religiosity, a measure
designed to emulate the degree to which a respondent embraces utilitarian Christianity.
Finally, the Valuegenesis data contain four measures of student demographic attributes:
grade (0 6-9 grades, 1 10-12 grades), gender (0 male, 1 female), ethnicity (1 white, 2 black,
3 Asian, 4 Hispanic, 5 others), and region (1 northeast, 2 midwest, 3 west, 4 south, 5 Cana
da). The analysis took these demographic variables into account. This decision was justi
fiable based on previous studies of adolescents in that age, gender, ethnicity, and the location
of residence were found to have associations with youth religiosity and denominational
loyalty (Gunnoe and Moore 2002; Sloane and Potvin 1983; Wallace, Forman, Caldwell,
and Willis 2003).

ANALYSIS

PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS
The results of frequency and descriptive analyses for youth ministry and relig
ables are shown in Table 1. Approximately 60% of the sample indicated their
at least one youth pastor, while 66% said that their church programs were meani
the respondents were asked how true it was that the programs were interesti
them think, they reported a mean of 3.99 and 3.80, respectively, indicating th
ments were "somewhat true." When asked if the youth oftentimes took leader
worship services at their church, 67% said, "Yes." In regards to the frequency
grams in their church, 17% of the respondents answered that they never had
grams, 29% indicated once a month, 10% every two weeks, and 41% every we
than once a week. In addition, the samples recorded a mean of 4.29 for caring
torship, which posits that the youth pastors as a whole practice caring pastors
to "some" extent. On the other hand, the mean score for youth denominationa
4.07. This meant that on average, the samples were "satisfied" with the den
the church they were attending and they would "probably" attend a church o
denomination when they are 40 years old and if they move to another city.
For personal religiosity, some indications of the average-level religious orie
the sample were demonstrated by the means that ranged from 2.98 to 3.69 on
scales for faith maturity and intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity. In contrast, the
were highly orthodox in terms of their doctrinal faith; they scored a mean of 5
point response-format scale.

PREDICTING YOUTH MINISTRY AND CHURCH PROGRAMS

In what follows, our analysis proceeds in two stages. An initial stage pertains t
youth pastors succeed in increasing the frequency of youth programs in a chur
which we undertake to assess the importance of youth pastors to the quality of
grams, tapping youth evaluation of their church programs. Upon completing th
ses, we continue to the second stage in which youth pastors and youth programs are
in terms of whether and how they determine the extent of youth contentment wi
port for the denomination.
Table 2 summarizes the results of estimating differences in church programs
the youth with and without youth pastors in their church. The subjects attendin

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Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry, and Youth Attidute Toward the Church

with youth pastors, as anticipated, tended to portray their church programs as more inter
esting and more thought-provoking than did those attending a church without youth pas
tors. Churches with youth pastors also offered youth programs more regularly than did those
without youth pastors. In a similar fashion, the former allowed youth members to take lead
ing roles in worship services more frequently when compared to the latter.
Next, we expected several factors to have positive effects on the meaningfulness of
church programs: the presence of youth pastor, frequency of youth programs, interesting
and thought-provoking programs, taking leading roles in worship services, and caring youth
pastors. To test this expectation, two sets of hierarchical regression were used, in which we
also examined if addition of the youth ministry-related variables substantially improve the
prediction of perceived program meaningfulness beyond that afforded by demographic and
personal religiosity variables.
The results, which are given in the upper tier of Model 3 A in Table 3, suggest that enter
ing five youth pastor and program-related variables to the equation with demographic and
religiosity variables resulted in a substantial increment in R2 of .18, while adding five reli
giosity variables to the demographic-variable-only equation raised it by .15. This result sug
gests that youth pastor and frequent quality programs not only contribute in a marked manner
to the prediction of youth attitude toward church programs but also the degree of their con
tribution is as great as the one for personal religiosity.
The results of the final Model 3 A expansion are summarized in the lower tier of Table
3. The summary shows that youth pastor, youth leadership in church services, and frequent,
interesting, and thought-provoking programs were all positively linked with perceived
meaningfulness of church programs, as expected. For control variables, the levels of intrin
sic religiosity, extrinsic religiosity, and vertical faith positively related to the extent to which
youth felt positively about the church programs. Gender and ethnicity were also signifi
cant: females and whites tended to define their church programs as less meaningful than
did males and multi-ethnic samples, while Asians and African-American groups were like
ly to remark more positively about their youth programs as compared to the referent group.
Besides, junior high school students assessed the programs to be more meaningful than did
senior high school students. Horizontal faith and doctrinal orthodoxy were found to be non
significant, however; this was also the case for the impact of geographical region.
In addition, we anticipated a positive impact of caring pastorship on youth perception
of church program meaningfulness. Hence, summary statistics solely for the youth who
attend a church with youth pastors are given in Model 3B of Table 3 after adding perceived
caring youth pastorship to the predictor variables in lieu of the presence of youth pastors.
As for Model 3A, entering caring youth pastorship and four program-related variables to
the model of personal religiosity and demographic control variables increased R2 .15, despite
the loss of five degrees of freedom, roughly equivalent to the . 17 for the addition of per
sonal religiosity variables to the initial demographic-variable-only prediction model.
From the parametrics, caring youth pastorship was significant and positive, supporting
our anticipation that the youth are more likely to define their church programs as mean
ingful when their youth pastors are thought of as caring and accepting. In addition, as in
Model 3A, perceived meaningfulness of youth programs had positive associations with
youth leading roles in worship services, frequency of youth programs, and interesting and
thought-provoking programs, along with intrinsic religiosity, extrinsic religiosity, and ver
tical faith maturity. Interestingly, doctrinal faith turned out to be significant after the replace

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 Review of Religious Research

Table 1

Frequency and Descriptive Statistics for Youth Ministry and Personal Religiosity

Variables f %

Presence of Youth Pastor in Church (Yes) 6,832 59.49

Meaningfulness of Youth Program (Yes) 7,583 66.05
Youth Taking Leading Roles in Worship (Yes) 7,642 66.56

Frequency of Youth Programs in Church

Never 1,972 16.91
One a Month 3,313 28.86
Every Two Weeks 1,199 10.44
Every Week 3,689 32.13
More than Once a Week 1,027 8.95

M SD Min. Max.

My church has interesting youth programs. 3.99 1.24 1 6

My church programs make me think. 3.80 1.27 1 6
Youth Attitude toward the Denomination 4.07 .75 1 5
Caring Youth Pastorship 4.29 1.16 1 6

Intrinsic Religiosity 3.62 .66 1 5

Extrinsic Religiosity 3.22 .46 1 5
Horizontal Faith Maturity 2.98 .79 1 5
Vertical Faith Maturity 3.69 .76 1 5
Doctrinal Orthodoxy 5.77 .50 1 6

Note. N = 11,481.

ment of the presence of youth pastors with caring youth pastorship.

PREDICTING DENOMINATIONAL LOYALTY

We next proceed to youth attitude toward the denomination they attend. A

Table 4 first presents the results of two expansions of the initial full-sample equ
4A). As shown in the upper tier of Model 4A, adding five personal religiosit
increased R2 from .01 to .35, a ratio much greater than the .02 increase for th
youth pastor and program meaningfulness. This gap postulates that, as a whol
case for program meaningfulness, personal religiosity is much more powerfu
pastor- and program-related variables in explaining youth attitude toward the de
Turning to individual parameters, in the lower tier of Model 4A, meaningfu
served to boost the levels of denominational satisfaction and support among th
data, however, failed to support the idea that youth pastors have a direct link
attitude toward the denomination. Besides the pastor and program variables, y
toward the denomination was noted to become more positive as the levels of
giosity, vertical faith, and doctrinal orthodoxy increased, while extrinsic reli

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Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry; and Youth Attidute Toward the Church

Table 2

Group Differences in Church Programs between Youths with and without Youth
Pastors and the Association between Youth Pastors and Youth Leadership in
Worship Services

Presence of Youth Pastor

Yes No

M SD M SD t df

Frequency of Youth Programs 3.14 1.23 2.45 1.28 28.83* 11, 119
Programs are Interesting. 4.09 1.24 3.86 1.23 9.54* 11,296
Programs make me thinking. 3.88 1.27 3.68 1.25 8.25* 11,280

Regular Leading Roles in Church Services

Yes No Total

Presence of Youth Pastor

Yes 5,016(73.87%) 1,774(23.16%) 6,790
No 2,579(57.45%) 1,910(42.55%) 4,489

Note. *p< .001.

inversely associated with denominational loyalty an

found to have little to do with youth attitude towar
and senior high school students were more loyal to
tive counterpart groups. Students in the southern and
ty to the denomination than those in Canada.
Next, we look at the estimation of the significance o
results in Model 4B of Table 4 show that entering p
tial demographic-variable-only model increased R2 from
to .39 when program meaningfiilness and caring you
ond equation. This once again affirms the previous o
more powerful in accounting for youth attitude tow
tor- and program-related variables. We next notice t
nificant, and its relationship with youth denomination
direction. That is, youth tend to show high levels of c
ination when they perceive their youth pastors bein
caring pastorship, the coefficient estimates of the oth
tical to the one illustrated above in Model 4A.

Table 4 also includes partial correlation coefficients to help estimate the relative impor
tance of the key predictors. In general, intrinsic religiosity and doctrinal faith displayed the
largest coefficient, each uniquely explaining roughly 6% of the total variance of youth atti

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 Review of Religious Research

Table 3

Logistic Regression Summary Predicting Youth Attitudes toward Church Programs

Model 3A Model 3B

Hierarchical Regression
Step/Predictors R AR Chi-Sq R AR Chi-Sq

1. Demographic .04 .04 325.51* .04 .04 175.26*

2. Personal Religiosity .19 .15 1564.85* .21 .17 1018.28*
3. Youth Pastor & Program .37 .18 10086.05*
3. Program & Caring Pastor .36 .15 1813.39*

Summary of the Final Model B SE B SE

Constant -3.79* .37 -4.46* .47

Female _ I ] ** .05 -.10 .07
Senior -.61* .05 -.53* .07
White -.16** .07 -.18 .09
African-American .21** .11 .17 .15
Asian .23** .11 .22 .14

Hispanic .04 .10 -.04 .14

Northeast -.02 .12 .19 .18
Midwest -.17 .11 -.11 .16
West -.11 .09 -.02 .13
South -.17 .10 -.10 .14
Intrinsic Religiosity .24* .07 .21* .09
Extrinsic Religiosity .31* .09 .59* .12
Horizontal Faith -.04 .04 -.02 .05
Vertical Faith .27* .05 .38* .06
Doctrinal Orthodoxy .04 .05 .19* .07
Presence of Youth Pastors .29* .05
Leading Roles in Worship .46* .05 .46* .07
Frequency of Youth Programs .30* .02 .20* .03
Program: Interesting .46* .03 .43* .04
Program: Thinking .30* .03 .27* .04
Caring Youth Pastorship .17* .04

Chi-Square (df = 20) 3291.02* 1813.39*

-2LL 10086.05 5664.86
Pseudo R Square .37 .36
Correct Prediction (%) 77 79

Note. *p<.01; **p<.05; dependent variable: church program meaningflilness (0 no, 1

yes); Model 3A: all samples; Model 3B: samples attending a church with youth pastors.

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Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry, and Youth Attidute Toward the Church

Table 4

Summary of Hierarchical Ordinary-Least-Squares Regression Analysis Predict

Youth Attitude toward the Denomination+

Model 4A Model 4B

Hierarchical Regression
Step/Predictors R AR F R AR F

1. Demographic .01 .01 16.57* .02 .02 11.18*

2. Personal Religiosity .35 .34 401.70* .35 .33 235.76*
3. Pastor & Meaningfulness .37 .02 371.35*
3. Meaningfulness & Caring Pastor .39 .04 241.61*

Summary of the Final Model B SE r B SE r

Constant .88* .09 .78* .11

Female -.01 .01 -.01 .01 .02 .02
Senior -.08* .01 -.07 -.07* .02 -.07
White .08* .02 .05 .06* .02 .03
African-American -.03 .02 -.01 -.05 .03 -.02
Asian -.03 .02 -.01 -.06 .03 -.03
Hispanic .03 .01 .01 .04 .03 .02
Northeast .01 .01 .00 -.01 .04 .00
Midwest .08* .03 .03 .11* .04 .04
West .06** .02 .02 .05 .03 .02
South .11* .02 .04 .13* .03 .05
Intrinsic Religiosity .44* .02 .27 .41* .02 .26
Extrinsic Religiosity -.21* .02 -.11 -.21* .02 -.12
Horizontal Faith .01 .01 .01 -.01 .01 -.01
Vertical Faith .12* .01 .10 .09* .01 .08
Doctrinal Orthodoxy .35* .01 .26 .32* .02 .24
Presence of Youth Pastor .01 01 .01
Program Meaningfulness .22* .01 .16 .17* .02 .12
Caring Youth Pastorship .12* .01 .20

R Square/Adj. R Square .37/.37 .39/.39

F 371.35 *
241.61 *

df 17, 10820 17,6485

Note. +ordinary-least-squares method; */K.01; **p<.05; Model 4A is based on all

samples, while Model 4B is based on only those who reported to attend a church with a
youth pastor or worker.

tude toward the church. This was followed by caring youth pastorship (4%), meaningful
program (1%), and extrinsic religiosity (1%). It is noteworthy that the presence of youth
pastors accounted for nearly zero percentage of the variance. Put another way, conventional
personal religiosity and caring pastorship have more direct bearings on youth attitude toward

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 Review of Religious Research

the denomination when compared to other variables. Also, caring pastorship is more dom
inant than meaningful programs and the mere presence of youth pastors in a church in shap
ing youth attitude toward the denomination.

DISCUSSION

YOUTH MINISTRY
In view of the data, as expected, youth pastors serve to increase the frequen
programs as well as to advance church program quality by making them mor
and thought-provoking, which subsequently helps youth regard overall church
programs with favor. The finding that adolescents tend to feel church programs
ingful when they are frequently allowed to take leading roles in the programs
our expectation.
This is important for two reasons. First, improved youth attitudes toward c
ices and programs, as our analysis demonstrate, is likely to translate into you
for the denomination that they currently attend and thus reduce the likelihood
ing the denomination. Second, findings that youth pastors increase the frequen
programs may resonate with the findings of earlier qualitative research conte
majority of modern youth ministers devote a large amount of their time and eff
ing and developing new methods, programs, and activities (Severe 2006). On
cern in the literature is the so-called "ministry methods monster" phenome
pastors are pressured to be always "cutting edge" to have programs and servic
to the new generations of youth and thus habitually explore new methods wit
consideration of their relevance to ministry vision and philosophy. Consequen
pastors can feel helpless and even at the mercy of endless stress produced b
keep developing and adding new programs to their ministry. Notably, our da
frequent programs and program maintenance endeavor nevertheless benefit th
tor as well as his or her church in general as they tend to generate interesting, s
and valued church programs that subsequently arouse youth support for the
grams and denomination.
As for caring pastorship, the data offer qualified evidence of caring pastor
ity: the sample reported a mean of 4.30 on the six-point caring-pastorship scale
pastors, according to Severe (2006), greatly value relationships with their you
and believe that they should devote time and energy to relational ministry with
bers. Unfortunately, however, reaching this goal is regularly compounded b
administration, and various routine tasks, subverting pastoral priority on relation
and even demoting relationships to little more than a means to the end of keep
the church. This note has implications because it may provide an understandin
why the youth pastors under consideration obtained a mean score equivalent t
of the possible maximum score. Our data provide further information once th
categorized into three groups based on their caring pastorship scores with the
less than 2.5 ("not at all or probably not true"), the second ranging from 2.5 t
ly or somewhat true"), and the last more than 4.5 ("true or very true"). The ca
shows that only 41% of the youth pastors were given a mean score greater th
6% and 53% received scores of less than 2.5 and 2.5-4.5, respectively. Put othe
a youth perspective, many youth pastors fail to demonstrate caring pastorshi
our youth pastors, as those interviewed by Severe (2006), are unable to focus

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Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry, and Youth Attidute Toward the Church

al ministry due to their allocation of time and energy for administrative and other routine
tasks. This failure is troublesome granted a close link between perceived caring pastorship
and youth denominational attitude to the extent that youth perceive their pastors are con
cerned with them, youth tend to be satisfied with and adhere to their denomination.

PERSONAL RELIGIOSITY

Aside from youth ministry variables, this study also shed light on perso
relation to youth denominational attitude. Our results on personal religio
ventional religiosity such as intrinsic religiosity, doctrinal orthodoxy, and
youth to be content with and remain loyal to the denomination. In contr
giosity is inversely tied with youth satisfaction and support for the chu
ing may not come as a surprise considering extrinsic religiosity's opportuni
attitudes toward religion. In addition, the data show that horizontal faith h
whether or not one holds fast to his or her denomination. In our view, this
potential off-balance emphasis of traditional Protestant churches on the rel
God and people over social teachings such as justice, equality, and pove
previous studies, on average, Protestant youth education rarely engages
such as justice and peace education; the weight of their ministry predomina
study and personal relationship with God. This is especially distinctive i
with Evangelical churches (Goreham 2004; Rubin and Billingsley 1994).
Evangelical youth ministry is heavily geared toward a vertical dimension
has implications for the present paper given that the church under conside
a major Evangelical denomination in the United States. Possibly, the resp
levels of horizontal faith find their accent on social service and justice a
tinctive place in the church's youth ministry and religious education, n
verbal and doctrinal stress on love for the poor and oppressed. This disa
be so large that horizontal faith, as our data posit, fails to statistically r
port for the denomination.
This study also sought to compare the influence of personal religiosit
istry on youth denominational attitude. The results indicate that youth
are less important to the account of youth attitude toward the denomina
of 15% as compared to personal religiosity. This is to suggest that youth
istry bear roles in shaping youth denominational attitude, but their sig
smaller in magnitude than that of personal religiosity on youth attitude. E
however, the data show that youth pastorship and ministry play quite criti
mining the extent to which youth find church programs meaningful an
er, these findings present a picture of youth pastorship and youth min
adolescent attitude toward the denomination indirectly, rather than dire
their attitude toward the church they attend and its religious programs.

CONCLUSION

Under conditions of frequent youth disaffiliation, many churches hire you

workers to help youth develop high levels of youth satisfaction and support fo
This article demonstrates that indeed, youth pastors or workers may have sign
on youth attitude toward the denomination. They appear initially to contribu

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 Review of Religious Research

opment and maintenance of quality programs—increasing the frequency of youth programs,

accomplishing interesting and thought-provoking program ministry, and enhancing youth
leadership in church services. The increased value of church programs then serves to work
out high levels of church satisfaction and anticipated loyalty in youth who may otherwise
choose a denomination different from the one they now attend when they move to anoth
er city or get older. And in churches in which youth pastors succeed in developing a caring
relationship with the youth, adolescents are more likely to remain satisfied with and faith
ful to the church and denomination that they currently attend.
These results have implications for multiple fields of youth ministry study. First, they
add to the list of determinants found to influence youth commitment to church and denom
ination. As with personal religiosity, family backgrounds, and other demographic attrib
utes, hiring youth pastors or workers makes a difference in youth ministry. Further, hiring
youth pastors or workers is a means that is rather readily available to many churches, even
though it requires a financial and resource commitment from the church. Second, this study
features the importance of caring pastorship. There is reportedly a consensus among youth
pastors that a quality relationship between pastors and the youth is a key component in pro
pitious youth ministry. This consensus nevertheless seems to be true to a rather limited
extent in building up a good pastor-youth relationship because the data show that almost
40% of the youth failed to rate their youth pastors as caring and accepting. Granted this
reality, research needs to give more attention to means of accomplishing the pastoral objec
tive of relational ministry, helping youth pastors build caring and empathetic relationships
with the youth members. This call also brings together deliberation of careful recruitment,
training and mentoring of youth pastors, and support for youth ministry.

NOTES

*Chang-Ho C. Ji, School of Education, La Sierra University, 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside, C
cji@lasierra.edu. The researchers thank V. Bailey Gillespie, who not only allowed us to use the Valuege
but also offered valuable support for and comments on this study.
1 Within the same period of time, there was also a 1% drop in Catholic religious affiliation, a 1% g
ish religious affiliation, and a 5% gain in those who indicated "other" and "none" for their religious af
2 As of 2005, the denomination's membership numbered close to 13 million baptized adult membe
wide, and it is reportedly one of the fastest growing Protestant churches. For statistics on the church
official doctrines, see http://www.advenstist.org.
3 Since the data were exclusively taken from denominational schools, a question may come to min
youth pastors are more important to those who attend denominational schools compared to those in pub
A Lutheran study proposed that youth attending Lutheran parochial schools tend to be involved mor
church activities than do their counterpart Lutherans attending public schools (Johnstone 1966). The
this discrepancy may be found in other studies showing that denominational-school students are gen
ly satisfied with their school and that this satisfaction has to do with their interactions with teachers
in the school, which in turn engenders frequent church attendance and great contentment with the c
whole (Ji 2010). This implies that youth pastors may exert more influence on youth attitude toward t
when the youth attend its denominational schools. A caution may thus be necessary in applying the pr
to religious youth in public schools.
4 Apart from demographic information, the items covered in this study include the following Va
survey items: 1-12 for faith maturity; 61-62 and 69-74 for doctrinal orthodoxy; 110-111 and 145 for
tional loyalty; 213-214,276-278,280 for youth pastor and youth program; 213-216 and 218 for caring
torship, and 311-329, 338, and 457 for intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations.
5 One may correctly suggest that the growth of youth religiosity and spirituality will be greater in
with youth pastors, asserting the need to additionally consider a hypothesis for youth pastorship and p
giosity. The data used for the present study, however, do not satisfy the basic condition of time order and

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Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry, and Youth Attidute Toward the Church

a condition required to establish a sequence between youth pastorship and personal religiosity. The changes in
personal religiosity begin to take place long before adolescents work with youth pastors and partake of their min
istry (Fowler 1981; Markstrom 1999; Oser and Scarlett 1999). Further, it develops slowly over a long period of
time. In the data, the respondents were asked if their church had youth pastors at the time of the survey, while per
sonal religiosity had formed sufficiently to be measured prior to the questionnaire survey. Therefore, unlike the
other relationships that have theoretical and time-related bases to justify causality, we may not safely assume and
estimate that youth pastorship affects personal religiosity based on the present data.

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