New young adult devotional book

Fitzgerald: ‘I have a heart for young people to own the mission of their church’

A new devotional book titled “Calling” by Troy Fitzgerald, University Church youth and collegiate pastor, has recently been released.

This 52-week devotional book has one reading per week with activities given for the rest of the week in order to help the reader gain a deeper understanding of the week’s theme.

This devotional book is the first of a set of five books for young adults that address the issue of young adult disengagement in the church. After conducting five years of research interviewing young adults ages 19 to 30 from all over the world, Fitzgerald arrived at five basic faith tasks that are viewed as important by the majority of survey participants. Each of the five books will focus on one of these five faith tasks: calling, convictions, community, commitment, and compassion.

The first faith task, calling, is described as finding an understanding of God’s plan and finding one’s calling from a biblical standpoint. Fitzgerald began research on the faith task of calling in his role as director of LeadOut Ministries, an organization devoted to producing resources for children and young adults. Through LeadOut, Fitzgerald has been working with the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Youth Ministries department on this five-volume devotional set.

“There is very little written for people in the young adult season of life,” said Fitzgerald. “I do this because young people tend to deepen in their commitment and in their faith when they work, argue, create, and build for Him, for something they believe in.”

Once Fitzgerald had the five tasks, he organized a retreat for students from all over the world, letting them brainstorm and study together over biblical data regarding each task. They narrowed down the data and produced content on themes and studies that Fitzgerald wrote about for each weekly devotion. Each faith task was chosen based on what Fitzgerald discovered through his research to be most important to young adults, and each reading was based on what students found to be most important to them regarding each faith task.

“We’re watching young people struggle to discover their place, commitments, and their core values and how to apply them ethically, spiritually, and emotionally. The process of developing this book was about giving students a chance to participate in such a way that they have a sense of ownership of the message they’re sending out to their brothers and sisters. This is the essence of LeadOut Ministries,” said Fitzgerald.

“Calling” can be obtained through the General Conference Youth Department or by contacting leadoutministries.com.

 

Posted October 29, 2015.

In addition to being the University Church youth and collegiate pastor, Fitzgerald is also the director of LeadOut Ministries.