By this point in the biblical narrative, Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt, and they’ve been mooching about in the desert for a year. At the start of the book we see God telling Moses to take a census of the Israelite people. Why does he do this?
The Israelites are about to head into battle for the Promised Land, and it’s imperative that they organise themselves and work out how many people they’ve got to fight. The Israelites need to take stock of their situation, to survey and gather stats on the individuals making up each of the tribes, and a census seems like a sensible way to go about it.
Now I know that a magazine about research may not immediately jump out at you as the most exciting thing ever. I’m sure that when God told Moses to take a census of the people, he didn’t turn around and shout: ‘Finally! This is what I was born to do!’ But, every so often, it’s good to take stock of our situation, and evaluate whether or not we are fit for the battle ahead.
I’ve noticed over the past few years a growing sense of impending doom among many of those in youth work circles; maybe you’ve encountered something similar. Whether due to the lack of resources, funding cuts, low numbers, young people leaving Church, the lack of jobs or a general feeling of hopelessness – we’re surrounded by talk about the ‘crisis’ facing the Church with relation to its engagement with young people, the ‘exodus’ of young people from the Church, and the ‘missing generation’. It feels as though we are already at war, but woefully unprepared for the battle we find ourselves in.
But is this actually the case? Is youth ministry actually in a bad way or are the harbingers of doom wrong?
We tried to find out. What you’ll find in this August special issue is reflection on three significant pieces of research: one we carried out among young people, one carried out by Soul Survivor among youth workers at the festivals last year and one carried out by Andy Burns among youth workers in his Cafe Leadership network. We’ve gone the whole hog and dedicated the entire magazine to the findings of these surveys, with reflections, comments and a round-table discussion focusing on the statistics that came out of them.
We know that it is still not enough; these pieces of research cannot hope to give us a comprehensive understanding of the reality of youth work in the UK. We wish there was more research to go on – but this is what we’ve got to start with. We’re very grateful to the Soul Survivor team for carrying out the survey and giving us access to it, and also to Andy Burns for taking the time to do so. Hopefully more people will take seriously the call for research into youth ministry.
We hope that you find these results useful, informative and encouraging for your context. We hope too that you find some of the results disturbing. We pray that over this summer break it will lead you to pray and to reflect on the state of your own work, ministry and personal devotion, and to be strategic about the way forward.
And remember this: although things looked bleak, the Israelites could have taken the Promised Land if they had simply trusted God’s promise to them; we need to be bold and courageous, trusting in the God who can do the impossible, even if things look dire.
Have a great August friends. And make sure you get some time off too.
