On April 8, 2023, Dan Linrud, Oregon Conference president, joined a group of around 60 young adults in Holden Convention Center for the second annual Dinner with Dan event.
Hosted by Oregon Young Adult ministries, the night began with worship music and a message from one of our newest pastors, Jose Saint Phard, who began serving at Oasis Christian Center in Vancouver, Washington, this spring.
More than a dozen young adults shared what was on their hearts, pushing the conversation well beyond the allotted time before breaking for supper and continuing in smaller groups long after.
Tendo Tsikirai, Adventist Community Church member, shared, “I think what seasoned leaders get wrong about us a lot of times is they often think we’re all the same. They put us into one big box and think there’s one formula that will ‘fix’ us."
"As I’ve discovered, even in our church, we’ve had to split into an older young adult group and a younger young adult group," Tsikirai continued. "But even then, you have people from different backgrounds, ethnicities and all kinds of stuff that makes you different from someone else. I think that gets missed a lot of times — that we aren’t the same.”
Other responses from the gathered group spanned a wide variety of topics. Some shared fears of being disfellowshipped for beliefs that fall outside their local church teachings, while others shared concerns about mental health and more loving church communities. However, the desire that came through most commonly was for a fully embodied faith that extends beyond the programs and worship events.
“We want to hear about Jesus, but we don't just want to hear about Jesus in church,” said another young adult. “We want to see how Jesus affects how we deal with angry people over the phone."
We want to see how He affects those conversations we have with our coworkers who are going through a difficult time," the young adult continued. "How are you supposed to maneuver through those? I've seen God work in my life in those settings. It would be nice to have more conversations on how we can share God’s love in a practical, everyday way.”
Dinner with Dan was an incredible opportunity for intergenerational worship and dialogue, as well as a chance for young adults from a wide variety of local churches to connect and begin to create plans to address needs and gaps they’ve identified in the broader church community.
We are so grateful for all the young adults who joined us for this event these past two years, and we look forward to many more conversations like this in the future.
