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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
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Churches" (2013).Theses and Dissertations (All). 99.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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