Bob Mayo

The answer to the question of why young people are not in church lies in the different communities of which they are a part. The explanation of why young people are in church lies in the fact that the church can’t hold on to the children and young people it has let alone reach out to those outside the church. The Evangelical Alliance tells us that there is a better chance of survival on the Titanic than a child’s faith in our churches (www.eauk.org). This is a situation that needs our urgent attention.

The first community for children and young people is the family. It is not simply the case, as has been in previous generations, that friends are the new family now family are the new friends. A friendship style of parenting has left young people comfortable relating across the generations. The family is the natural place for young people to learn about the faith, (As says Deuteronomy 11:18-19 - Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home).

When only 36 per cent of Anglican parents, as recently surveyed, say that they see it as important to teach their children the Christian faith it is evident that youth ministers need to invest in parents. Youth Ministry has metamorphosed into Family, Young People and Children’s Work. The task of a Sunday school is to supplement, not to replace, the family’s role in nurturing their children in the faith and the Sunday school becomes divisive if it is treated as a de-facto child care facility enabling parents to worship in church on their own.

The second community of which the young people are a part is their school. The points of greatest fallaway are the transition from primary to secondary school and from secondary school to university or further education. If these transition points are not managed well then young people will see Church as an experience from their previous school and something now to be left behind.

The activities arranged for an AllAge Service are designed to appeal to Year 6 and below (Primary School) and can alienate Year 7 and above (Secondary School). An AllAge Service puts pressure on the weakest joints of the young person’s growth in the faith, which is their transition year from one school to another.

In my own experience I have found that being an (inner city) youth worker took me too far out of the church but being a vicar has taken me too far in. Being a chaplain has left me well placed on the threshold between church and society. In my current position I am chaplain to the local police, football club and school.

The third community of which young people are a part is their natural peer group. Young people will not simply walk into a church building. Prime contact needs to be made outside of the church building. This will happen electronically or in places that young people naturally congregate. As the evidence grows that more and more people know less and less about the Church there is less inherent hostility and more natural opportunity to talk about the faith than in previous generations.

It is now 15 years since I trained my first youth worker. There is a glimpse of magnificence in the words spoken to me by Stu, a youth worker friend – “I am a youth worker. I am used to staying up late”. With residential weekends along with open and detached youth work the opportunities for keeping open the possibility of faith for those who would never otherwise have considered it are endless.

The Rev Dr Bob Mayo (@RevBobMayo) is Vicar of St Stephen and St Thomas Shepherds Bush with St Michael and St

George White City (bob.mayo@london.anglican.org) &

was previously the Director of the Centre for Youth Ministry at Ridley

Hall. Bob features as an Agony Uncle at

Ask the Doctor www.thebridge-uk