Youth Ministry

Buschman

What type of relationships can be determined between extrinsic

motivators/factors and faith based youth group attendance?

Intern/Researcher: Joseph Buschman (left)

Mentor/Youth Pastor: Wilson Barber (right)
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 1

Research Concept Map

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 2

Table of Contents

Research Concept Map 1

Rationale of Study 3

Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations 4

Assumptions 4
Limitations 5
Delimitations 6

Definitions and Acronyms 7

Definitions 7
Acronyms 8

Foundational Sub-Problem #1 9
Question 9
Summary 9
Lit Review 9
Conclusion 9
Reference Page 10
Plan on using a couple sources from my seven sources and a new source. 10
Supporting Evidence 10
Plan on using the supporting evidence from the seven sources and having Wilson sign off on
my new sources as well as a copy of the source highlighted. 10

Foundational Sub-Problem #2 11
Question 11
Summary 11
Lit Review 11
Conclusion 11
Reference Page 12
Plan on using a couple sources from my seven sources and a new source. 12
Supporting Evidence 12
Plan on using the supporting evidence from the seven sources and having Wilson sign off on
my new sources as well as a copy of the source highlighted. 12

Foundational Sub-Problem #3 13
Question 13
Summary 13
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 3

Lit Review: 13
Conclusion 18
Reference Page 20

Applied Sub-Problem #1 21
Question 21
Hypothesis 21
Criteria to support/not support Hypothesis 21
Assumptions/Limitations/Delimitations Specific to the Sub-problem 21
Assumptions 21
Limitations 22
Delimitations 23
Criteria to Collect Data 23
Procedure 24
Data 24
Data Tables 25
Data Analysis 26
Data Visual 26
Survey 26
Conclusion 27
References 27
Supporting Evidence 27
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 4

Rationale of Study

When looking at the numbers, the millennial generation is the least church-attending or

faith based generation in the history of the United States. Many millennials may have attended

church at some point then have decided to stop going. Head pastors around the country believe

that this issue can be resolved through better youth ministry programs with the upcoming

generation (The Priorities, Challenges, and Trends in Youth Ministry, 2016). Youth ministry is

a time where a person sets his or her foundational beliefs on religion. Some may find deep faith

while others retain ideas that church-going people are hypocrites and nothing good comes from

religion. With more investment in youth ministry, pastors believe students will have a stronger

foundation in their faith and will be less likely to leave the church later on in life. The research

on youth group attendance is the first step into the investment of youth ministry. It needs to be

known why students will show up or not show up to youth ministry events because that is where

the foundation begins. It is important to look at the external factors because students who are

intrinsically motivated to go to youth group will have steady attendance while other students may

be persuaded to come or not to come by external factors. The societal impact of this research is

to find out when a student makes the conscious decision to show up or not. This research then

may lead to future research on how to combat the the factors that deter students away from

attending.

The Priorities, Challenges, and Trends in Youth Ministry. (2016, April 6). Retrieved from

https://www.barna.com/research/the-priorities-challenges-and-trends-in-youth-ministry/#
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 5

Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations

Assumptions

That every student is a believer and has faith in Jesus.

All students answer the questions truthfully.

All the students who participate in the service generally want to attend youth group.

Each person only takes the survey once.

Each respondent has experienced each extrinsic factor at least once.

The measurements used are valid.

There is random selection based upon the random selection of students who may show up

to youth group the night the survey is given.

Limitations

Must take survey answers as if all participates answered the questions truthfully.

Students have the choice to take the survey or not, creating self-reporting.

The only information being used to measure are responses to the survey not any observed

behaviors.

The sample will be limited by the number of students who choose to do the survey at the

one chosen youth event.

The time for the survey to be completed will be limited to two hours during the youth

event.
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 6

The diversity of participants is limited to the students who show up that specific night at

the youth group event.

Limited to people who have access to internet to take the survey.

Delimitations

Not taking into account different levels of intrinsic motivation because intrinsic

motivation is hard to measure and extrinsic factors are what changes attendance week to

week.

Studying only RUMC Youth because Wilson wants the research to be for the church, and

it decreases variables with demographics and streamlines the process.

Only controlling common external factors because that is what truly makes a difference

in week to week attendance compared to external factors such as weddings.

Not doing traditional statistical analysis because it is hard to make to find specific trends

for this type of data.

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 7

Definitions and Acronyms

Definitions

Youth group event- Any event during the week that is sponsored by the youth ministry

program at Roswell United Methodist Church such as: Sunday night worship, Bible

studies, and etc.

Intrinsic Motivation- A behavior a person carries out because they feel an internal reward

from it.

Extrinsic Motivation- A behavior a person carries out because there is an outside

influence in their behavior such as money.

Extrinsic Motivators/Factors- The aspect that is causing the extrinsic motivation of the

person such as the actual reward of money. Can be a negative aspect.

Negative Extrinsic Motivators/Factors- Factors that would likely decrease attendance

such as bad weather.

Factor Category- The category given to each factor and used to take a factor category

average.

Faith based youth program- Any youth program, 6-12th grade, that revolves around a

religion.

Foundation- The deepest beliefs a person holds in their faith, and what they rely on in

times of struggle.

Faith- The complete belief or trust in a God/Gods that is not visible or tangible.
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 8

Attendance- The number of bodies present at a youth event excluding adult staff and

volunteers.

Relationship- The influence of each extrinsic factor -based upon survey responses- has on

the attendance.

Church- The Christian body as a whole or Roswell United Methodist Church depending

upon context.

Strength of Influence- The rating on a scale of 0-10 on how likely a positive or negative

extrinsic factor will change a students choice to attend youth group or not.

Acronyms

RUMC- Roswell United Methodist Church

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 9

Foundational Sub-Problem #1

Question

What is the best method to take accurate youth group attendance?

Summary

The best way to take accurate youth group attendance is using a mixture of technology

and people. A computer program, that counts attendance and keeps attendance statistics,

is used that students can check into each time they come to an event. Volunteers are also

implemented at each entry point of the event that welcome students and encourage them

to sign in.

Lit Review

Plan on writing a one to two page literature review using 2-3 sources.

Conclusion

Taking accurate attendance at a personal event can be very difficult especially through

polls because people tend to overreport. It is important to have a electronic system

because it keeps attendance records automatically and is easily accessed. People must be

implemented because student will not be willing or will forget to sign in without someone

encouraging them.
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 10

Reference Page

Plan on using a couple sources from my seven sources and a new source.

Supporting Evidence

Plan on using the supporting evidence from the seven sources and having Wilson sign off

on my new sources as well as a copy of the source highlighted.

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 11

Foundational Sub-Problem #2

Question

Why is a faith based youth program important to each student and the church?

Summary

A faith based youth program is important to students because it creates a solid foundation

in their faith. This foundation is also very important to the church because a solid

foundation makes a dedicated member for life. This is important because the trend being

observed with millennials is people falling from their faith as they reach their late

twenties and early thirties because the foundation is not there to keep the person a

believer their whole life.

Lit Review

Plan on writing a one to two page literature review using 2-3 sources.

Conclusion

With the millennial generation being the least faith-based generation ever, head pastors

and religious leaders are starting to invest in youth programs to solve this issue. It has

been found that building a solid faith foundation when a person is young is the best way

to ensure that they will continue to believe.

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 12

Reference Page

Plan on using a couple sources from my seven sources and a new source.

Supporting Evidence

Plan on using the supporting evidence from the seven sources and having Wilson sign off

on my new sources as well as a copy of the source highlighted.

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 13

Foundational Sub-Problem #3

Question

How do extrinsic motivators/incentives affect a faith based youth group (weekly youth

activities) attendance?

Summary

Youth group attendance fluctuates based upon the students who are not strong in their

faith. The ones with deep intrinsic motivation will maintain consistent attendance. There

are two types of extrinsic motivators that affect youth group attendance. One type are

motivators the youth ministry uses to pull students in such as games and prizes. The other

type of extrinsic motivators are the ones that cause students not to come to youth group

such as too much school work or sports. These two types of extrinsic motivators decide

whether attendance will rise or fall.

Lit Review:

Youth ministry is an always changing field. Popular ministers from around the world are

consistently writing books on how to build a successful youth group. Over the course of time,

youth ministries have changed their methodology on how to keep numbers high. The problem is

numbers of people attending youth groups or church is dropping (The Priorities, Challenges,

and Trends in Youth Ministry, 2016). Many churches are struggling to keep numbers of

students attending youth events near consistent over a three year span. Why are people not going
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 14

to church anymore? There are many factors at play. How can youth group attendance be raised?

These questions can not be simply answered by some revolutionary way a guy wearing tight

jeans and a t-shirt composes his or her youth group. Many books attempt to crack the code to

youth ministry, but Gant (2008) points out that developing a youth ministry tactic that will reap

higher numbers differs church to church (p.61). Youth group attendance is always changing

because at the root of every decision a person makes there are extrinsic motivators/incentives

which can either influence students to come to youth group or cause students not to show up.

Before focusing on extrinsic motivators, it is important to point out that some students

will attend youth group no matter the extrinsic motivators. Thompson and Thornton say that

when speaking about students in a classroom setting, ... learning is intrinsically motivating,

rewarding, exciting and real benefit to the student (2002). Intrinsic motivation often takes place

when one can see the relevance to their learning, have a feeling as if they are responsible for

their learning, and their learning meets needs and desires of themselves (Thompson & Thornton,

2002). This is true not only in a classroom, but also in youth ministry. A student that finds a

benefit to coming to youth events and have a sense that the youth event is important for their

own spiritual growth will always attend. They have their own personal reason to show up to

church or youth group no matter the externalities. There are plenty of these kids in each youth

group; these students are the kids that Gant (2008) refers to as, World changers (p. 28). Giving

students -who are intrinsically motivated to show up- leadership positions is a fantastic way to be

sure that they continue to grow in their faith. Although plenty, the majority of students that youth

groups are attempting to reach are ones who do not believe or may not be strong in their faith.

The point of every church group is to make disciples. Getting students who have no faith or weak
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 15

faith are the students that a youth group wants to gain. As an analogy, high school students often

are motivated to do well based upon grades, referrals, and parents while college students have all

the freedom they want to decide whether they want to work hard in school or not (Thompson &

Thornton, 2002). The external motivation high school students receive often breeds an intrinsic

motivation for the student wanting to succeed in college. Youth ministry is no different. They try

to use external motivators to get students there, and then have the students grow in faith to the

point they are internally driven to come.

External motivators are used around the country to get people to attend anything. In the

simplest form, they are an incentive in the form of an advertisement. Wilson Barber, the assistant

youth minister at Roswell United Methodist Church, duties include discipleship, curriculum,

programming, and relational ministry (personal communication, February 26, 2017). The one

that is interesting to me is programming. It is a really obscure way of saying advertising. This

aspect of his job includes events such as Tuesday Morning Devotion which is held at Chick-fil-A

where Mr. Barber utilizes the external motivator of Chick-fil-A to get students to learn just a

little bit about the Bible. He is also in charge of creating events during the summer which

incorporate games such as capture the flag where students who might not be deep in their faith

will still attend. Barna research backs the work that Mr. Barber does because in the research they

conducted there is a stress on programs outside of youth group. According to youth ministry

leaders, mission trips and overnight retreats tend to be the best programs for students to grow in

their faith and have a better chance at returning to youth group (The Priorities, Challenges, and

Trends in Youth Ministry, 2016).

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 16

The external motivators in the previous paragraph are positive external motivators. All

the activities and programs are there in order to attract students that dont usually come to youth

group. Kao would say that these events are used to align external incentives with intrinsic

motivation (2015). Students who are driven by extrinsic incentives at first will eventually find

intrinsic motivation to come to youth group making them a consistent student which increases

overall attendance. The dream of every youth ministry program would be for this to work always

and have students come for fun at first, find their faith, become leaders, and help attract other

students to come. This system is not always the case though because with a positive there must

always be a negative.

It is established knowledge that higher developed nations tend to have lower religious

attendance. In the United States right now, this effect can be seen as millennials are attending

church at a lower rate than any other generation ever (The Priorities, Challenges, and Trends in

Youth Ministry, 2016). There is also the fact that in America there is research showing that

church attendance is much lower than the numbers being reported. In experiment done at a large

church in the Bible Belt, there was a 59 percent rate of attendance overreporting after all

numbers were adjusted to account for ways people may have misreported their attendance

(Marlar & Hadaway, 1999). These numbers are for sure applicable to youth group as youth

ministry attendance tends to follow the same attendance trend of the overall church. The reason

for such low youth group attendance is the negative external motivators. The incentives for

students not to come to youth group.

There is a fine balance for every decision a person makes. In economics, this idea is

cost-benefit analysis where one must decide if the opportunity cost of going to youth group is
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 17

worth it or not. For those with firm faith, there must be something else that holds a greater value

to them for them not to attend which is very rare. Those with no or little faith -the ones youth

ministry programs are attempting to reach- are easily persuaded against not going to youth group

because they hold very little intrinsic motivation to come. The real game for a youth ministry

becomes how to make the most positive external motivator in order to outweigh all the negative

external motivators a student may have. These factors that keep students from attending youth

group are vast and are the majority of the reasons that youth group attendance either falls or stays

stagnant.

Benjamin Kerns and Barna Group both take a look at why students are not attending

youth group. Kern's argument is that students along with their parents see fellowship, gathered

worship, church, and youth group as electives (2014). Before students who attended youth

group, either wanted to be there or were forced by their parents keeping attendance very

consistent. Now, society has changed so much that church events are at the very bottom of most

students and parents list of important things. Low attendance is often being bred by the parents

in this generation. Although parents should not force their kids to attend youth group, they often

stress other priorities before it to their children and are not easily convinced to drive their child to

Bible study on a Wednesday night after a long day of work. These parents may be deep in their

own faith, but they now miss the importance of the spiritual food a student needs who is new to

their faith. Parents look past the fact that their faith was often developed by a youth ministry

program and view youth group as an elective resulting in little attendance by their child which

results in fewer relationships within the youth group, and once the child feel on the outs there is

little incentive for them to commit (Kerns, 2014). Attendance grow when their is authentic
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 18

community being built within a youth group which is impossible when students and parents view

it as an elective.

The research conducted by Barna Group is echoes many of the same points that Kerns

make. Instead of concluding that people view youth group as an elective, Barna instead

concluded that parents and students have the idea of youth ministries as a consumer product

(The Priorities, Challenges, and Trends in Youth Ministry, 2016). Both ideas are very similar

in the fact that youth group begins to be an afterthought that students and parents evaluate such

as an experience such as a sporting event compared to a spiritual event. The three common

challenges that youth pastors say they face with attendance dropping is busyness of youth, lack

of interest from parents, and breakdown of parents (The Priorities, Challenges, and Trends in

Youth Ministry, 2016). These seem to be the major negative external motivators for students

not to attend youth group, and why youth groups often have declining attendance numbers.

Conclusion

The fact that overall church attendance is declining is very sad, and many churches are

looking to their youth ministry programs to ensure a future for the Christian religion in the

United States (Barna). Attendance of students to a churchs youth group is influenced by the

competition between extrinsic motivators that are used to attract students to youth group and

motivators that drive students away from attending youth group. This information can be used to

tailor programs that will exceed the negative external motivators and help youth ministries reach

students that need to grow deeper in their faith. The problem with this research is the motivators

hold different values to each person, and each person is somewhere different in their faith. It is
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 19

very difficult to exact value for this type of data that has different immeasurable values to

different people. There is also not a lot of information that looks at extrinsic motivators

specifically in the youth ministry field. Answering the sub-problem of how extrinsic motivators

effect youth group attendance helps answer the overarching research question of: At Roswell

United Methodist Church (RUMC) Youth Program, what relationship exists between youth

group attendance and students extrinsic motivators? This sub-problem lays down foundational

research for some types of extrinsic motivators that may increase or decrease youth group

attendance. Some of the reasons may be the reasons students decide to attend or not attend

RUMC youth group.

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 20

Reference Page

Gant, J. (2008). Youth Ministry. A. Hamilton (Ed.). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press

Kao, A. C. (2015, December). Driven to care: Aligning external motivators with intrinsic

motivation. Health Services Research, 50(6), 2216+. doi:10.1111/1475-6773.12422

Kerns, B. (2014, April 15). What Happens when Parents and Kids see Youth Group as Simply an

Elective?. Retrieved from

http://orangeblogs.org/orangeleaders/2014/04/15/what-happens-when-parents-and-kids-s

ee-youth-group-as-simply-an-elective/

Marler, P. L., & Hadaway, C. K. (1999). Testing the attendance gap in a conservative church.

Sociology of Religion, 60(2), 175. Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=mari36952&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE

%7CA55208518&asid=1d856bd4bba7feff2109efd38b364ad6

The Priorities, Challenges, and Trends in Youth Ministry. (2016, April 6). Retrieved from

https://www.barna.com/research/the-priorities-challenges-and-trends-in-youth-ministry/#

Thompson, B. R., & Thornton, H. J. (2002). The transition from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation

in the college classroom: A first-year experience. Education, 122(4), 785+. Retrieved

from

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=mari36952&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE

%7CA90188953&asid=0f9e6279d64af7c51d949d15012fde8e

W. Barber, personal communication, February 7, 2017

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 21

Applied Sub-Problem #1

Question

What do current RUMC students report as the average relative importance of each

category of negative extrinsic factors that affect attendance?

Hypothesis

Students report lack of time and other priorities as the most frequently cited factor

categories for not attending a youth group event.

Independent variable: Lack of time and other priorities

Dependent Variable: Attending a youth group event

Criteria to support/not support Hypothesis

The hypothesis will be supported if average values for the lack of time category and the

other priorities category are greater than all the other categories and fall in the mildly

influential category or very influential category.

Assumptions/Limitations/Delimitations Specific to the Sub-problem

Assumptions

That every student is a believer and has faith in Jesus.

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 22

All students answer the questions truthfully.

All the students who participate in the service generally want to attend youth group.

Each person only takes the survey once.

Each respondent has experienced each extrinsic factor at least once.

The measurements used are valid.

Limitations

Must take survey answers as if all participates answered the questions truthfully.

Students have the choice to take the survey or not creating self-reporting.

The only information being used to measure are responses to the survey not any observed

behaviors.

The sample will be limited by the number of students who choose to do the survey at the

one chosen youth event.

The time for the survey to be completed will be limited to two hours during the youth

event.

The diversity of participants is limited to the students who show up that specific night at

the youth group event.

Limited to people who have access to internet to take the survey.

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 23

Delimitations

Not taking into account different levels of intrinsic motivation because intrinsic

motivation is hard to measure and extrinsic factors are what changes attendance week to

week.

Studying only RUMC Youth because Wilson wants the research to be for the church, and

it decreases variables with demographics and streamlines the process.

Only controlling common external factors because that is what truly makes a difference

in week to week attendance compared to external factors such as weddings.

Not doing traditional statistical analysis because it is hard to make to find specific trends

for this type of data.

Criteria to Collect Data

Conduct a survey at a large youth group event at RUMC that tests different negative

extrinsic factors that may affect youth group attendance. The first part of the survey will

address demographics. The second part of the survey will address possible situations

where the student chooses if they would attend youth group or not, and the third part

would have each student rate each factor on a scale of 0-10 on how likely it is to effect

their attendance.
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 24

Procedure

On March 26, the link to the survey created will be given to each small group leader at

RUMC Youths Sunday night worship service. When the students are sent to their small

groups. Once in the small groups, the students will be instructed by their leaders to

navigate to the link provided on their phones or any other device that can access the

internet. Once the students receive the link, there will be no further instructions by the

small group leaders. The students will proceed to take the three part survey which

includes: a demographics section, a section that asks if the respondent would attend based

upon the described situation, and the section where the respondent rates each positive and

negative extrinsic factor on a scale of 0-10 on how likely it is to influence his or her

attendance to youth group. Each factor will be given a category such as other priorities

such as dinner with friends. The data will be compiled by the survey creator. The set of

data that is used is the ratings. Each factor will be receive an average score on its strength

of influence. Those averages are then used to take an average for each factor category.

Any factor category with the score in the range of 8-10 will be deemed as very influential

to attendance. Any factor category with the score 6-7.99 will be deemed mildly

influential to attendance. Any factor category with the score 4-5.99 will be deemed

slightly influential to attendance, and any factor category with the score 0-3.99 will be

deemed not influential to attendance at all. The same situations will be made from part

two of the survey to see what scores correlate with a student attending or not. The second

section of the survey is to provide validity to the experimental determination based upon
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 25

values received in the third part of the survey and to see what scores means a student

wont come or not. If more than fifty percent of the respondents answered one way or the

other to each situation given within part two of the survey, than whatever way the

majority answered is the deemed the response to the situation.

Data

Data Tables

Survey Responses Part 2

Situation Given Attendance (Yes or No)

Survey Responses Part 3

Factor Strength of Influence Category

 Youth Ministry
Buschman 26

Summary Data Table Part Three

Factor Average Strength of How influential to

Influence per Category attendance?

Validity Data Table

Situation Attendance based on part 2 of Attendance based on part 3 of

the survey. the survey.

Data Analysis

Data Visual

Survey

https://surveyplanet.com/58c604260a9cd7784f9590a6
 Youth Ministry
Buschman 27

Conclusion

References

No specific references.

Supporting Evidence

Will use screen shots of my survey and pictures of giving the survey at my church.