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Taking young people seriously
Reverend David Williamson 9th April 2003
Calling
The Background.
The Challenge.
The Theology.
The Vision.
The Strategy.
Questions
Conclusion
Calling.
"Things we have heard and known, things our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from our children: we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.” Psalm 78 v. 2,3.
This is a calling to the whole Church.
To proclaim the faith afresh in each generation.
The Background.
There are two strands that we need to keep in balance, as far as the Church’s work with children and young people is concerned.
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The church's work with all children and young people.
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The work with the church's children and young people.
The Church of England has a long and extensive commitment to working with and for children and young people both inside and outside the Church.
However as we listen to youth and children’s leaders, clergy and church members, there is wide spread anxiety and concern about the low numbers of children, and especially young people in Church.
The work with the Church’s children and young people is high on people’s agendas.
The statistical evidence presents a situation, which we need to take seriously and respond to. Not only is the attendance of children and young people in church falling, it is in drastic decline.
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Professor Robin Gill in his presentation to the Archbishops’ Council - Statistic Review Group, suggests that behind the statistics of attendance is a time bomb waiting to explode.
He said that, “decline in church attendance is greatest amongst children and young people and that as a generation; they were being progressively separated from contact with organized religion.”
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His proposition has been supported by a recent survey conducted by NOP Solutions on behalf of the Church Mission Society. It revealed that 74% of people aged between 15 and 24 never go to church.
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This is born out by the European Values Study 1981 - 90
The Church is bottom of the confidence ratings for those aged under thirty-five years, but ranks third (out of thirteen) for those aged over fifty years.
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Further evidence of this trend has been shown by Dr Peter Brierley in: The Tide is Running Out - What the English Church Attendance Survey Reveals. & Hope for the Church by Bob Jackson
We have seen this trend reflected in our own Diocese. In 1995, out of 217 benefices 122 said that they had some kind of youth work. Then in the youth and children’s audit that we carried out in 1998, that number had dropped to 91 benefices.
All this comes at a time when the Church of England is focusing on the need for effective ministry to children and young people. As we discuss with children and youth leaders, clergy and church members, what the priority of their church is, we often find that children and youth work is seen as one of the highest priorities.
This local concern is reflected on a national level.
One of the four themes of the Archbishops’ Council’s work for the forthcoming period, is welcoming and encouraging children and young people.
“To welcome and encourage children and young people and to be encouraged by them and to engage with them on their spiritual journey wherever they are.
We recognize and affirm our strong and good heritage of work with children and young people but we also acknowledge the uncomfortable message of the statistics that children and young people are increasingly absent from our church and from contact with the Gospel.
We recognize the challenge to engage more confidently and hopefully with children and young people in order to learn from them and create a church in which they can feel more at ease and with them, to reach out to those beyond.”
Another concern is that we see in our Churches an ageing congregation. Adults in their 20’s, 30’s & 40’s are in the minority or missing from our churches. They have traditionally been those who have volunteered to be youth or children’s leaders. They have also been role models for young Christians.
So those Churches who have the will to do work with children and young people do not always have the personnel to staff the work.
The Challenge.
One of my roles as Adviser is to listen and then advocate on behalf of children and young people. We feel that the Church is in * crisis as far as youth and children’s work is concerned.
The two symbols for crisis in Chinese are danger and opportunity.
Crisis - Crucial stage or turning point. A time of trouble or danger.
As the Archbishop’s Council said:
“We recognize the challenge to engage more confidently and hopefully with children and young people in order to learn from them and create a church in which they can feel more at ease and with them, to reach out to those beyond.”
We here in the Diocese of Bath & Wells must also recognize the challenge.
The responsibility for youth and children’s work should not just be left to those who do the face-to-face work. It is the whole Church’s responsibility and so we need to face the situation and acknowledge the danger, then grasp the opportunities that this crisis brings.
The Theology.
Let’s remind ourselves of why we work with children and young people. The underlying theology and motivation for our work with children and young people is that in the O.T. children and young people are often at the centre of what God is doing. (Moses, David, Ruth, Samuel, Mary). Through his life and ministry, Jesus continually affirmed children and young people as whole people, who are of real value and worth to God irrespective of their age, ability, culture or gender.
There are no conditions attached to God’s all embracing love for children, young people and adults.
God’s love is experienced through human life and relationships, both within communities and with individual people.
In Youth A Part - Young People and the Church, Board of Education 1996
Chapter 2, The Theology for Youth Work, it says:
“Youth work needs to be understood as a dimension of the Church’s mission. Mission is a characteristic which defines the Church, because the God that Christians worship and serve is the God who reveals himself to us in mission and whose mission to the world continues today.”
The Vision.
Youth Apart Vision
Church Youth & Children’s work continues to be an important piece of the mosaic of opportunity provided for all children and young people in historic Somerset.
In our work we, as a Church, aim to provide opportunities for the personal and social development of children and young people, based on the Christian faith and its values.
The Diocesan Youth and Children’s team have decided that the best way to tackle this crisis is to grasp the opportunities and focus on three strategic areas. These areas overlap:
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Development
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Partnership
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Mission
Development
Having focused on the crisis it needs to be said that there is some good news. There is much good work going on in the Diocese, which we want to support and encourage. However we want to develop and expand the existing work with children and young people.
Maintenance leads to decline. Development leads to growth.
Partnership
We are committed to work closely with agencies working on behalf of children and young people in the Diocese.
We try to work closely where appropriate and where it adds to the effectiveness of provision for children and young people, with ecumenical youth and children’s work, local authority youth service and the voluntary groups whether Christian based or otherwise.
This goes along with the Government’s Connexions Strategy and their encouragement for ‘joined up thinking’ in youth work. We also recognise that the partnership approach is the best way forward because as someone has put it, “we are stronger together and weaker apart.”
Mission
We want to encourage groups to respond to opportunities for mission with children and young people. * We believe that the Children and Young people of this Diocese are a mission field on our doorstep.
We would cite the five marks of mission adopted by the General Synod of the Church of England and endorsed by the 1997 Forum of Churches Together in England. We would want to:
Work with parishes to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.
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To teach baptise and nurture new believers.
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To respond to human need by loving service.
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To seek to transform the unjust structures of society.
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To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation.
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To sustain and renew the life of the Earth.
The five marks of mission are a reminder that an important part of mission is evangelism. Proclamation of the good news is vital and a real challenge to the Church in our rapidly changing culture.
The Strategy.
As Youth and Children’s Advisers we recognise that we mainly work with adults who work with children and young people. Therefore, to achieve our overall aim and to sharpen the focus of the three strategic areas, (Development, Partnership & Mission) we seek to provide a range of support, resources and encouragement to children and youth leaders, whether volunteers or paid workers.
This support takes the following forms. -
Personal contact through visits. We intend to be proactive and make sure that each Benefice is visited on a regular basis.
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Providing training opportunities for youth and children’s leaders, clergy and others working with children and young people.
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Providing information about events and opportunities for groups through regular mailings and publications.
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Providing resources such as books videos and equipment for use by groups and their leaders.
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Leading events and activities aimed at children and young people themselves to raise the profile of youth and children’s work.
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Provide policy and guidance statements about the nature and practice of quality children and youth work.
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Encouraging and helping churches, parish groups and the wider church to develop and resource work with children and young people.
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We will always be seeking to inform and influence parish groups and other groupings as to ‘best practice’ in youth and children’s work.
In all our work we aim to be always improving and learning so that we are recognised for our professionalism, efficiency and creativity.
Questions
Questions and discussion followed the talk.
Conclusion
“Things we have heard and known, things our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from our children: we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.” Psalm 78 v. 2,3.
As a Youth and Children’s Team, we will strive to fulfil this calling (which is a calling to the whole Church) to proclaim the faith afresh in each generation.
We pray that many children and young people in this Diocese will come to find an exciting, challenging and satisfying living relationship with Jesus Christ.
Reverend David Williamson April 2003
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Thursday 28th of August 2008
