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» Community & Integration -young people at the heart of church -Graeme
| | The issue of integration is clearly one at the forefront of Minister's minds, as many mentioned it as a major issue in their congregation. Having our young people in the centre of congregational community is a shared desire, but it seems the experience of intergenerational mixing is patchy and varied. When asked about the statement "Young people and older people often go together to social events in our church" ministers and leaders both showed a pattern of mixed success, without polarisation. "Young people & older people often go together to social events in our church". | | | » Ministers (%) | » Youth Leaders (%) | | Strongly disagree | 4 | 7 | | Disagree | 32 | 36 | | Not sure | 12 | 6 | | Agree | 42 | 46 | | Strongly agree | 5 | 5 |
| "We want to reach (young people) for who they are…not just reach them but to integrate them and let them be a part of it". - Minister - Young people also showed mixed responses as to how welcome they feel in their churches.
"It's really hard to get involved in my church, it's not very approachable, it's the sort of thing that angers me a lot". - Young Person
"Reach out to young people and want to talk to them, even if they are not Christians ∓ don't come to church, or if they do come to church & are involved in everything…talk to them." - Young Person
- Young People showed a real openness to intergenerational contact, with 70% expressing commitment to "doing more with other age groups".
"We should all try to get along a little better and the young people should realise that the old people are important and the old people should realise that the young people are important and try to stick together and be a church together." - Young Person
- In order to facilitate this kind of community integration however, change is necessary. 76% of ministers and 62% of leaders said their congregation is making changes to accommodate young people. Surely this should be 100% - that means a quarter of ministers and a third of Youth Leaders could not identify any changes their congregation is making to account for the needs of young people?
"I think that we need to understand that young people have been extremely patient with the church, extremely patient that they come at all. In some cases it's a work of grace in their life frankly, because the church doesn't deserve their presence…so be really glad that they are there in the first place, let alone regularly." - Minister
» Community and Integration: response - Roz
Quote: 'Whatever new models of youth ministry we develop they must take seriously the fact that teenagers grow towards mature Christian adulthood as they are connected to the total body of Christ, not isolated from it.'
- EMark DeVries from his book 'Family-based Youth Ministry' On the matter of creating Christian community and integrating the generations, we have found the following use of models and ministry ideas to be helpful. - Family-based Youth Ministry (developed by Mark DeVries), works with the nuclear family and the family of adults and teenagers within a church fellowship. The key to this model is that teenagers and Christian adults support one another in spiritual growth and ministry … the one being indispensable to the other.
- Inter_generational Worship and Christian Education This model develops a family-based, participatory and inter-generational worship service as the first part of the church programme on a Sunday morning. This is followed by Sunday School for everyone, where there are classes for adults, children and teenagers that follow a carefully developed curriculum of Christian education. The Sunday School programme is followed by a social time together as a church family centred around coffee and snacks or even a buffet lunch. This model offers an opportunity to those who are enquiring about faith alongside those who are mature believers as some churches have run an Alpha (or similar) programme as part of their Sunday School programme.
- Every Member ministry as part of the church's philosophy engenders integration across age and gender as members work and serve together.
- Commitment to inter-generational church life where church weekends, church picnics and other social activities intentionally provide for the needs of each generational group.
- Inter-generational service projects do much to create community and integration. Some examples: many churches now arrange mission trips especially where practical service is required, where whole families participate in the service opportunity. Other examples of serving together in our local congregational context include using a nuclear family group to act as greeters at the start of the morning service.
NB Integrating young people and creating inter-generational church communities does not mean all age groups do everything together all the time. Rather there is an intentional nurturing across the generations, while still having many activities that take place in age-determined groups. This surely is a mirror of our nuclear family life. Refer to 'Youth and Religion' study. Young people preferred inter-generational church that was well organised rather than the youth church model.
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