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Making Jesus known to young people
Mo Mansill, Nat ional Youth Co-ordinator, provides food for thought about how the church can respond nationally, regionally and locally to the challenges and opportunities facing Presbyterian youth ministry.
Three years ago, ten PYM youth workers got together and asked the question “How can we be more effective at making Jesus Christ known?” With the harvest being so ripe and resources being so few, we knew our response couldn’t be random. It needed to be intentional and informed, and it needed to relate directly to the grass roots youth ministry being done round the country. So the next questions that emerged were: What are we working with? Where are we at? What do our front line youth leaders need the most? We realised that we needed a snapshot of where PYM was at that would inform us, so that any national projects we worked on would more directly respond to the apparent gaps and needs in Presbyterian youth ministries around the country. We were primarily interested in obtaining information about:
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Young people aged between 11-25 who are involved in Presbyterian and Uniting youth ministries
Who is working with our young people
What our young people are being ‘fed’
How much our youth ministries are engaging with the wider community
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<typohead type="3">Methodology </typohead>
During the period December 2003 – March 2004 key youth contacts for each Presbyterian and Uniting church were contacted. In most cases, this person was the key youth worker or youth leader in a parish. In other cases, it was the minister or a key leader in the church. Of the total 435 parishes that were contacted, 369 churches responded and 66* parishes did not. *12 of these are Te Aka Puaho parishes.
Selected survey results follow; for full results, contact the PYM office.
<typohead type="4">How many churches have young people in pastoral care? </typohead>
Of the 369 parishes that participated in the survey, 273 have at least one young person in pastoral care and 91 parishes have no young people in their pastoral care.
<typohead type="4">How many churches have young people in programmes? </typohead>
Of the 369 parishes, 104 parishes have no young people in regular programmes. Of the remaining 265 parishes, the following numbers of young people are involved in programmes:
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1-9 young people: 77 parishes
10-19 young people: 80 parishes
20-39 young people: 59 parishes
4 0-59 young people: 24 parishes
60-79 young people: 12 parishes
80-99 young people: 8 parishes
100+ young people: 5 parishes
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<typohead type="4">How many young people are in youth groups or under pastoral care? </typohead>
See graphic 1
<typohead type="4">Where are our young people? </typohead>
See graphic 2
<typohead type="4">Who is caring for our young people? </typohead>
70 parishes have paid youth workers
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90 youth workers are employed by churches, either full or part-time
2 paid youth workers: 10 parishes
3 paid youth workers: 3 parishes
5 paid youth workers: 1 parish
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<typohead type="4">There are 1071 volunteer youth leaders in Presbyterian Churches </typohead>
<typolist>
15-25 leaders: 8 parishes
5-14 leaders: 73 parishes
4 leaders: 31 parishes
3 leaders: 33 parishes
2 leaders: 46 parishes
1 leader: 47 parishes (the poor sods!)
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<typohead type="4">Other things to note </typohead>
Of young people in pastoral care, 57 percent are female and 43 per cent are male.
<typohead type="4">What study materials are being used within our youth groups? </typohead>
Youth group study materials come from a variety of sources: 143 parishes write their own, 36 use only set programmes, and 111 parishes collate their studies from different resources; some use a combination of these approaches.
Graphic 1
Graphic 2
Click on the graph to view a larger version
What do the results mean?
We can discern a lot from the survey results. Here are four issues that stand out to me that I believe we should be responding to as a church, locally, regionally and nationally:
<typohead type="4">1. The drop-off – or rather “drop-out” from the church as young people get older. </typohead>
These figures simply illustrate what we already suspected. We can take heart that research 1 indicates young people aren’t necessarily dropping out of their faith when they stop going to church. But while young people drop out from church, they still yearn for places and people which give them identity and belonging 2 . And, certainly, belonging to a faith community is integral if young people are to grow a faith which sees God as more than just a word. Creating places where young adults (those aged between 18-25) continue to feel inspired to grow in their faith in God and challenged to follow and serve Jesus remains an important challenge – yet it is one that too often doesn’t make it to the top of the priority list for churches locally, regionally and nationally. An exception is Dunedin , which is undoubtedly due to the significant ministry of Student Soul, the Presbyterian Church on the University of Otago campus. Other regions can and should be challenged by their example.
<typohead type="4">2. The number of youth leaders serving in the Presbyterian Church – but also the number who are isolated. </typohead>
We continue to grow a remarkable number of high calibre leaders. We are truly blessed to have a significant number of people wanting to make Jesus Christ known to young people across the country. Two questions emerge for me: Firstly, the most common complaint for youth leaders is that they feel isolated – what is the church doing locally, regionally and nationally to let their youth leaders know they’re part of a team of over 1,000? Secondly, 1,000 youth leaders is a significant proportion of the leadership in our church. How and when do we recognise and give space for youth leaders to have a voice in the life and direction of our church?
<typohead type="4">3. The gender imbalance in our youth ministries. </typohead>
In my experience, groups are more likely to have gender balance if the leadership also has a gender balance. We might be challenged with the question, “Does the gender of our leadership in the church reflect the balance of people in our church?” At the same time, we can and should be challenged by the fact that there are fewer boys in our youth ministries, and that there is a need to intentionally provide role models for them as well as people who are gifted at nurturing them in their faith.
<typohead type="4">4. The diversity of material we are feeding our young people – and the amount of people that are inventing and reinventing resource material. </typohead>
Gone are the days of a standard curriculum; Presbyterian churches are feeding their young people a huge assortment of resources from different cultural contexts and different theological emphases. Quality control of what we’re feeding our young people, and the time and energy put into re-inventing programme material is of concern. A lot of time and trouble could be saved by catching up with Joe Presbyterian from St Andies down the road and swapping resources and ideas. Again, the need for youth leaders to connect with each other appears to be a crucial step if we are to better make Jesus Christ known to the young people in our communities.
<typohead type="4">How do we respond? </typohead>
How do we use this information to better make Jesus Christ known to young people? Ten PYM youth workers and I reflected on the results, and how we might respond to the picture before us. These points reflect the key issues that stood out to them and the responses they would like to make – and indeed see the church make – to the gaps and needs that are evident in these figures. The group was aware that putting the PYM snapshot in the public domain would invite other ideas of how we might respond – which they welcome. Our hope is that as the wider church asks how we respond, they keep in the forefront of their minds:
1) The needs voiced by those who are “doing it”
2) That, for God’s sake, we can, should and will make a response.