MENTORING AT YOUNGER GENERATION CHURCH

Since the very beginnings of the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church, its founders envisioned the congregation to be a place that prioritized young people, nurturing them in a fellowship of love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

This passion has continued to run deep in the heart of this church family, so much so, that in 2004, then Senior Pastor Mike Tucker, started Younger Generation Church [YG] cultivating a space where young adults were to create a worship experience that resonated with their peers. Completely led by emerging adults and supported by adult members, this ministry flourishes to this day.

Mentoring has continually been part of the local leadership development strategy, but has also expanded to providing local church experiences for collegians and graduate students. In 2011, YG hosted a field school of evangelism for the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary; And each year YG provides Southwestern Adventist University [SWAU] theology majors with pastoral internship opportunities.

SWAU Pastoral Interns & Residents

For over a decade YG Church has collaborated with Southwestern Adventist University and Texas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in the field training of religion and theology majors.

In 2021, leaders began to wonder what if YG began to see itself as a “leadership laboratory,” not only for ministry-minded students, but for all young adults wherever their vocation may take them?

YG began to initiate conversations and “lean in luncheons,” where young adults could interact with leading corporate executives and Seventh-day Adventist administrators. Partnering with Southwestern Union of Seventh-day Adventists and SWAU, these conversations and opportunities continued to blossom and grow.

In 2023, YG focused this vision in dialogue with AdventHealth, admiring their leadership development program. YG felt they shared with AdventHealth a commitment to empowering emerging adults for influence their workplace; They also shared great hopes that young adults would be vitally engaged in ministry leadership in the local church context as well the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist faith community.

“Exposing our future leaders to ministry service in the local church context provides these young adults with a game changing experience. We tell our CEOs within AdventHealth that you aren’t just the Chief Executive Officer – you are the Chief Spiritual Officer. This means leading your team spiritually but also being involved in your local church. Starting this servant leader practice early on in internship will set them up for future success.” –Penny Johnson, President & CEO, AdventHealth Southwest Region

That Summer, YG launched the first pilot collaboration with AdventHealth Southwest, integrating discipleship focused opportunities for leadership interns and residents from Texas Health Huguley Hospital. Huguley Director of Strategic Operations, Arielle Powell, orchestrated the involvement of interns with Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“It is crucial for young emerging leaders to build a strong spiritual foundation. I was beyond blessed to work with Pastor Allan Martin and the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church to give our Summer interns the opportunity to learn the importance of living a Christ-centered life and being involved in the local church.”
--Arielle Powell, Director of Strategic Operations, Texas Health Huguley Hospital | AdventHealth

Holly Janzen joined YG/AdventHealth from Southern Adventist University; Daniela Patiño-Salguero from Southwestern Adventist University; and Brenden Watson from Oakwood University.

Brenden, Daniela, and Holly were delightful and were very engaged throughout the Summer. They asked great questions that revealed their heart for mission. They were brave and tried some things outside of their comfort zone. One such occasion was Daniela's interview for Arlington LIFE Today, one of the church's live intermission broadcasts, to which she was courageous and quite good on camera.

"As leadership Interns we were exposed to many areas that helped us grow in our professional journey. And as we experienced ministry shadowing with the Arlington Adventist Church, I realized the importance of young leaders being involved in local church to grow on their spiritual journey as well. Ministry shadowing gave us the opportunity to be exposed to various church involvement opportunities. We got to participate with VBS, an amazing experience in which I learned about the importance of intentionality in order to grow and nurture the upcoming generation. I'm very grateful to Pastor Allan for setting up all of these opportunities for us to serve and have fun." —Daniela Patiño-Salguero, AdventHealth Strategy & Marketing Intern, Texas Health Huguley.

As to selecting an outreach project, it was a bit surprising that the interns chose Vacation Bible School [VBS] in that it is the most time consuming of the various projects offered. However again, they impressed with their involvement and full engagement. The hope is these integrated internship experiences will remind the students throughout their future careers of the value of their local church involvement.

"Thank you for all that you and the rest of the church did for us as interns this Summer and caring for our spiritual growth! I enjoyed the shadowing experiences and being able to help out with VBS was a highlight of mine. I definitely agree that this is a powerful ministry that the church should continue to do with the interns here at Huguley Hospital. My takeaways from the Summer is what a leader in ministry looks like both at work and church and that people can serve Christ and be a part of ministry even behind the scenes." —Holly Janzen, CP-Finance Intern, AdventHealth | Texas Health Huguley

Near Summers’ end, Texas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists President, Dr. Elton DeMoraes, took the interns to lunch and provided quality time for conversation and to answer their questions. The discussion ranged from church organizational structure to personal reflections on ministry and family life.

“It was a privilege to meet with the leadership interns and learn about their aspirations. I applaud Texas Health Huguley Hospital and Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church for partnering to provide mentorship and internship opportunities to develop future full-time employees and engaged church leaders. We had a great interaction, and their questions showed their interest in learning.” –Elton DeMoraes, President, Texas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

YG has aspirations of expanding the mentoring opportunities to include young adults from more diverse vocational fields and to go beyond merely Summers. Last Fall, AdventHealth residents and SWAU campus ministry student officers enjoyed attending RightNow Conference with church leaders from all over the world. Summer of 2024 brings excitement as Alexander Antoine, AdventHealth Administrative Resident, reports 10-12 interns from across the country will be joining in collaborative experience. From all accounts, the pilot Summer was a grand success.

"Throughout this internship program with AdventHealth, I have been able to shadow not only in the hospital, but in the church as well. The other interns and I were able to meet with Pastor Allan Martin of the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church and he really emphasized the importance of being a leader not only at your job, but in your local church as well. Personally, the highlight of this ministry shadowing experience for me was volunteering for Vacation Bible School. Being able to witness the children of the community have smiles on their faces while they learned about God really warmed my heart. All in all, this ministry shadowing experience has been a success, and I highly recommend continuing this aspect of the internship process." —Brenden Watson, Management Intern, Texas Health Huguley Hospital