Good news everyone! We as youth workers have done our jobs. I’ve been keeping careful track of every article written on the internet, and there has been a remarkable decrease in articles warning of the church’s fatal struggle to retain 11-18 year-olds. In fact, judging exclusively from the sheer amount of pixels spilt on the subject, we as youth workers have definitely made sure young people are totally staying in church up to the age they leave compulsory education. However, after that the church is screwed. Again, based on nothing but how many articles are published on the internet, the church has no hope of seeing any millennial in their congregation by 2030 as articles such as: '23 Reasons 18-30 Year-Olds Are Leaving The Church!', 'Why Generation Y Are Running Out Of The Pews As Fast As They Can', 'You’ll Never Believe This One Amazing Trick To Keep Your Young Adults In Regular Church Attendance (Satan Hates This!)' suggest. I made those titles up, but from the time I started writing this article to finishing it, I’ve seen at two articles on the subject appear.
Of course the reality is, if our 19 year-olds walk out of church the first time they walk into student halls, that’s a problem with what they’ve experienced in church from 11-18. And so it’s a problem for us youth workers to think through. I’ve got a suggestion on what’s going on and what to do about it, but before we get there I think we need to ask a better question than 'why are young adults leaving the church?'. Instead let’s ask 'why do we care if they are?' (Another important question to consider beforehand is “are they leaving the church?” but let’s just assume they are for now.)
Why is it so important that young people stay in the church once they get beyond 18? Let’s widen that even further: why do we care if young people stay in the church until they’re 18? Other than our payslips and sense of self-worth, what’s the point? How we answer this question will say a lot about how we go about keeping people in church. And the danger if we don't ask this question is we're left pursuing 11-30 year-olds into the church for the sake of having people in church. Anything that gets the young people back in church will do! Free food? Done! Expensive trips? Done! A dating group (careful how your run this with under 18’s)? Done! A rigorous programme designed to make you feel good about yourself? Done! And now we’re back to the bums on seats framework that we hoped youth work had left behind. So let’s ask the question; why do we care if young people stay in the church?
The answer has surely to be: because the Church is the family of God. The Church is the delight of the Father, his chosen people, his bride for his son and his son’s body on Earth. It's where the good news of Jesus Christ is regularly proclaimed and where Jesus brings people in as saved, adopted, reconciled family. You want young people in church because it’s where God grows his people in unity of faith and knowledge of the son. It’s a way the young person will come to hear about Jesus and it’s where they’ll grow into the likeness of Jesus and it’s a sign that they know Jesus. It’s a group of broken, sinful, people who are in Jesus and who have Jesus in them. We want them in church, because it’s the weak, pitiful, glorious hope of the nations. It’s where Jesus is.
The internal glass doors to St Paul’s Cathedral have the inscription, 'This is the none other than the house of God, this is the gate of heaven,' which is what Jacob said when he saw angel’s ascending and descending heaven on his ladder. It’s perhaps not the most appropriate quote for a building that charges a £17 entrance fee, but it’s beautiful when said about his gathered people. Want to know what God looks like? Well, here’s his body on Earth: go see them and hear what they have to say. And so don’t we want young people to come to church because it’s where they’ll get to see Jesus?
So here's the part where I speculate about why young people are leaving the church. Is it because they go through 18 years of church ministry without ever actually becoming Christians? Is it as simple as, they don’t stay because they’re not saved? So when they leave the church they were a youth in, they have no desire to find another church. They aren't Christians. They haven't had their hearts redeemed and cleansed by Jesus and aren't adopted as sons and daughters of the father and don't have the Spirit living in them and so they don’t need church. And look, if you’re a nineteen year-old who’s just gone off to university it’s hard enough to get up on a Sunday morning and seek out a new church even if you are a Christian and have the Holy Spirit placing a desire to find a church in you. Why do we think young people who aren’t Christians are going to bother?
People who are saved, who have been adopted into the family of God, seek out other people in the family of God. And so if young people are saved they’ll remain in the church. Yes, of course there will be ups and downs, periods of being of fire and periods of non-attendance, but the Holy Spirit will slowly work the transformation.
This should be foundational stuff in our youth work. Stage one of our vision should read, 'We want to see young people saved'. We want young people to know Jesus. So if we’re going to have a revolution in our youth work let’s start with building everything around showing young people Jesus so they'll trust in him and be saved. Let’s place proclaiming Jesus as the good Lord and saviour of humanity at the centre of our work, and love and serve our community so they see Jesus as good news. Let’s desperately plead with God to save our young people, and eagerly seek them coming to know who Jesus is. Let’s renounce underhanded measures to keep young people in the church for the sake of keeping them in church and instead seek to show them how good and glorious Jesus is so they throw themselves on his mercy. This might sound a pretty old-fashioned revolution, but when it’s been tried in the past it’s literally changed the course of human history.
Here’s an immediate, terrifying application, why not ask a young person who you’re not sure where they stand if they think they’re a Christian? Or what they think about Jesus? Or if they’re worried about what happens when they die? Maybe they’ll be shocked you asked. 'Of course I’m a Christian!' Maybe they’ll realise that actually they do trust in Jesus, or maybe they’ll answer 'I’m not a Christian, but I think I’d like to be one.' And if the Lord graciously gives us responses like that, we won’t be wondering about whether the Church has a future in this country in any generation.
