Catholic Young Adult Ministry Needs in San Francisco

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Catholic Young Adult Ministry Needs in San
Francisco

• Jill Stapleton
• May 10, 1999

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Jill Stapleton

• As the Archdiocese searches for a Young Adult
  Ministry Coordinator, it is critical that we also
  examine the needs of San Franciscos Young Adult
  Catholics.
• I have worked for 2 years on San Franciscos only
  Archdiocese - wide Young Adult Event, Fall Fest.
• I am currently the only person employed by the
  Archdiocese who focuses exclusively on Young
  Adult Ministry.
• I am a candidate for entrance to the Sisters of
  the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• I have 6 years corporate project management
  experience.
• I am a student at San Francisco State
  University, majoring in Urban Studies.
• Through Research Methods, Urban Studies course
  number 492, I have academic research methods
  training.

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Literature Review

• Web Sites
• The US Catholic Bishops Young Adult Ministry
  site http//www.nccbuscc.org/laity/ygadult/index
  .htm
• The Oaklahoma Citys Diocesan plan to implement
  Sons and Daughters of the Light
  http//www.okcatholic.org/youngadults/yaplan.html
• The website of the Corpus Cristi Fellowship, a
  Catholic young adult group http//www.stedward.co
  m/ccf/
• The full text of As the Third Millennium Draws
  Near, Apostolic Letter of Pope John
  Pahttp//www.christlife.org/Jubilee2000/jubilee.ht
  ml
• The official Vatican website http//www.vatican.v
  a/

• Books and Articles
• Chapple, Christopher (Editor). The College
  Students Introduction to Theology. Michael
  Glazier, 1993.
• Gelpi, Donald L. The Conversion Experience A
  Reflective Process for RCIA Participants and
  Others. Paulist Press, 1998.
• Hoover, Brett C. Losing Your Religion, Finding
  Your Faith Spirituality and Young Adults.
  Paulist Press, 1998.
• Long, Jimmy. Generating Hope A Strategy for
  Reaching the Postmodern Generation. Intervarsity,
  1997.
• McCarthy, Timothy G. The Catholic Tradition
  Before and After Vatican II 1878-1993. Loyola
  Press, 1994.

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Research Problem

• The needs of todays young adult Catholics are
  different from those of older generations. The
  Archdiocese of San Francisco needs to develop new
  and different ways of meeting those needs.
• In order to discover what programs will reach out
  to young adults, this research seeks to
• Describe programs that have been successful on
  the parish level.
• Explain why those programs are successful.
• Point to new and different ministries that should
  be explored by young adult ministry.
• For the purpose of this research, a successful
  parish level program is operationalized as
• Programs with significant stable membership.
• Programs with high satisfaction ratings on this
  researchs surveys.
• Programs with high involvement with broader
  community groups.

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(No Transcript)
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Results from prior research
How well do you understand the Churchs position
on the death penalty? Red - Have some
Idea Green - Know the Churchs position Blue -
Understand the Churchs position
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Research Objectives and Hypotheses

• Research Objectives
• Explore the depth and breadth of San Franciscos
  young adult Catholics knowledge about the
  Church.
• Recommend effective venues for ongoing young
  adult education and discussion about their faith
  and their Church.
• Recommend topics for education and discussion by
  young adult Catholics about their faith and their
  Church.
• Research Hypotheses
• This research hypothesizes that there is a
  positive relationship between knowledge and
  faith.
• This research also hypothesizes that because some
  of their faith teachers were pre-Vatican II and
  some were post Vatican II, todays young adults
  dont know what the Churchs current doctrine and
  dogma teachings are.
• Finally, this research hypothesizes that young
  adults do not currently have easy and consistent
  access to this information.

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Research Methods

• Face to Face Interviews
• Panel Study
• Participant Observation
• Standardized Testing
• Telephone Survey

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Telephone Interviews

• A sample of 600 young adult Catholics will be
  selected from registered parishioners in San
  Francisco.
• The sample will be stratified based on race,
  parish and age to ensure that a representative
  group is chosen.
• A six page survey instrument will be developed.
• The survey will be pre-tested for clarity.
• The survey will contain a small number of open
  ended questions which explore the respondents
  church experiences, education and ideas for young
  adult ministry.
• The survey will take between 10 and 15 minutes.
• Approximately 30 interviewers will need to be
  selected and trained for this research.

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Standardized Testing

• The Faculty of St. Patricks seminary will devise
  a 3 page standardized test.
• The test will cover the basics of Catholic dogma,
  doctrine and Vatican II.
• The test will be given to 300 young adult
  Catholics in the San Francisco Archdiocese.
• The sample will be chosen in the same way as the
  sample for the surveys, but will not include the
  young adults that were surveyed.
• This will be exploratory research, to investigate
  the theological sophistication of San Franciscos
  young adults in a completely anonymous setting.

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Panel Study

• A diverse group of 30 young adults will be
  selected from different parishes in the
  archdiocese.
• The group will be randomly selected from enrolled
  parishioners, and will not participate in either
  the telephone survey or the standardized testing.
• The sample will be stratified for race, parish
  and age to ensure a representative panel is
  chosen.
• The 30 young adults will be randomly divided into
  three separate panels.
• Each Panel will meet once a quarter for a year to
  discuss their participation in their parishes and
  the archdiocese.

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Participant Observation

• I am a participant in small group RENEW 2000
  faith sharing. In that role, I discuss faith
  matters with other young adults for several hours
  each week.
• In addition, the leaders of other young adult
  RENEW 2000 groups will be interviewed and
  observed.

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Quasi - Experiments

• A series of Lectures, discussions and events will
  be produced in which the same topic is presented
  in three different formats.
• Participants will be required to participate in
  follow up group discussions and interviews to
  evaluate the interest level of the audience and
  the effectiveness of different formats.

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Thank You