"What is the purpose of a first-year medical student?"
Seconds felt like an eternity as I stood in silence, searching for an answer that would not come. My attending physician, watching patiently, eventually answered his own question: "To become a good second-year medical student."
It seemed like a simple answer, but as my attending laid out the stages of training—a second-year medical student’s goal is to become a good third-year student, a third-year prepares for fourth, a fourth year for internship, internship for residency, then residency for independent practice—I began to understand the deeper meaning. Medicine isn’t a single leap toward competence; it’s a series of deliberate steps, each built on the last. At every stage, the goal is not to arrive, but to become.
Do we hold to the same principle when it comes to preparing young believers in the faith? In medicine, each stage of training is intentional—structured not merely by time, but by readiness, mentorship, and a deep understanding of development. Yet within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the approach to spiritual maturity for children and youth often follows a different trajectory.
The prevailing model is largely age-segregated. Children are placed in Sabbath School classes based strictly on chronological age, progressing from one class to the next without meaningful evaluation of spiritual maturity or engagement. By the time they reach the end of high school, many have completed a baptismal class—often treated as the singular marker of spiritual readiness—but few have been prepared for the responsibilities and rhythms of adult church life. The transition into the main body of the church is vague, largely unacknowledged, and frequently unsupported.
This disjointed handoff raises difficult questions. Are we unintentionally creating a spiritual vacuum at the very point where young people need a rooted identity and purpose in our faith community? Could the rigid structure of age-based programming, absent individualized mentorship and intentional integration, be a contributing factor to why so many young people disengage after adolescence?
Unlike the medical model, where every step is measured, purposeful, and supervised, the church often operates on the assumption that chronological progression alone will bring spiritual growth. But spiritual maturity, like professional competence, cannot be mass-produced on schedule. It requires relationship, reflection, growth, and application. Without these elements, we risk producing young believers who are informed but not transformed, affiliated with the church but not integrated into it.
Perhaps it’s time to reimagine discipleship—not as a series of age-related checkpoints, but as a relational, developmental journey marked by milestones of maturity and supported by the intergenerational life of the church. Only then can we truly prepare our youth, not just to move to the next Sabbath School class, but to become faithful, lifelong members of the body of Christ.
One common response to the exodus of youth from the church has been to extend the "youth group experience" into young adulthood. Churches create young adult services—separate from the main congregation—featuring contemporary music, casual atmospheres, and age-targeted messages. They offer a sense of community and relevance, addressing the cultural and generational disconnects that young people often feel in traditional settings.
Although these gatherings are well-intentioned and often effective in drawing interest, the underlying problem remains: these efforts, while seemingly innovative, continue the very pattern they are trying to resolve. Age segregation is simply prolonged. The youth who once felt sidelined in church now find themselves in a parallel track—still separate from the broader church body, and still without meaningful integration into its life, mission, or leadership.
The consequence is predictable. Instead of young people leaving the church after high school, they may delay that departure until their late twenties or early thirties. The church may retain them a few years longer, but it has not truly equipped them to stay. The issue is not whether young people attend a service—traditional or contemporary—but whether they are being formed into disciples who understand their place in the church and are prepared to serve within it.
Young adults do not need spiritual extensions of the youth group culture; they need real opportunities to share, to lead, and to contribute meaningfully within the body of the church. They need older mentors to walk with them and responsibilities that both challenge and affirm their spiritual maturity.
Unless the church shifts its focus from age-based accommodation to intentional integration and leadership development, we risk watching the new generation drift away—not because they were ignored, but because they were never truly included.
Right now, baptism is often treated as an endpoint—a measurable milestone serving as objective proof of church growth and spiritual success. But in truth, baptism is not the finish line; it is the starting gate.
Scripture consistently frames the life of faith not as a static achievement but as a dynamic journey. “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). A genuine relationship with God is one marked by continual growth, increasing clarity, and deepening transformation.
Paul likens this journey to a race (Hebrews 12:1–2), with Jesus as the finish line toward which we run with endurance. John the Revelator employs the metaphor of engagement—the church as the bride preparing herself for the wedding supper of the Lamb. A wedding is not the culmination of a relationship, but the beginning of a lifelong, intimate union. In the same way, baptism is not the conclusion of spiritual development, but the “yes” to Christ’s proposal—an initiation into a lifelong covenant of discipleship.
Each metaphor—path, race, engagement—underscores the same truth: baptism is but one step of an eternal journey with Christ. It marks the moment we publicly declare our allegiance to Him, and what follows should be a process of growth, guided by the Word of God and empowered by the Spirit.
Paul outlines this process in 2 Timothy 3:16, reminding us that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Modern translations clarify that, “all Scripture is God-breathed”. The purpose of Scripture isn’t simply to inform but to transform, shaping believers into mature disciples that reflect Christ in character and mission.
Just as God gave Adam life by breathing into him, God also breathed His Spirit into the men who wrote the Bible. The result is good news for us all, and in 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul summarizes this Gospel in four words: doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction. These four steps explain what it truly means to follow Christ:
Doctrine – The Gospel begins with truth, which the Holy Spirit reveals through Jesus ("I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"), through the Bible ("Thy word is truth"), and through God’s commandments ("All thy commandments are truth"). This is where we learn who God is and how we relate to Him.
Reproof – As we grow in understanding, we begin to see ourselves more clearly in the light of God’s truth. The Spirit convicts us of sin, showing us how far we’ve fallen from God’s ideal.
Correction – That conviction leads us to seek salvation. Jesus, through His death and resurrection, offers us reconciliation with God—what the Bible calls “atonement.” It involves not only forgiveness, but also the restoration of the image of God, a character-building process that starts at baptism and continues into eternity.
Instruction – True discipleship does not end with personal salvation; it leads us to share what we've received. “The very first impulse of the renewed heart is to bring others also to the Savior” (5T 385.4). As Revelation 12:11 says, “They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” Jesus commands us to go and make disciples—to preach the gospel through our lives and words.
Paul concludes in 2 Timothy 3:17 that this process exists “so that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Imagine how different our church could be if it were filled with complete Christians, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
When we guide our spiritual young (both new converts and children alike) through the four steps of the gospel, we give them more than information—they will experience a transformation of their hearts, of their minds, and of their character. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Those raised to know Jesus—the Way, the Truth, and the Life—will not easily walk away from Him.
Joel 2:28 speaks of a time when God will pour out His Spirit on all—young and old, men and women. Just as Adam’s body received the breath of life, and the body of Scriptures were God-breathed, the church—the body of Christ—will also be filled with the Holy Spirit in the last days. “Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions...”
If we believe the latter rain is coming, we must prepare now. Unity in the church cannot grow where age-segregation keeps us apart. While age-specific ministries have their place, their purpose must always be to lead all—young and old—into unity in Jesus Christ.
So, what is the true purpose of a Christian? It’s not just to be saved, but to ever move upward: to grow in the knowledge of the truth, to live less for self, to be transformed, and to lead others into the same experience with God.
****
“Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling.”