The Story Vol 22

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NEW RESEARCH: Mapping the Landscape A snapshot of how churches and Christian organisations are working with young people across the South West of England. South West Youth Ministries recently published a report in which they surveyed 972 churches and 48 organisations across the South West of England on their engagement with children and young people. We have compared their main findings with some of our findings from St Albans Diocese in “Faith in Young People” to see if there are similarities across the two areas. FINDING 1: Where are the volunteers? A lack of volunteers is the most significant concern for churches working with young people. “Mapping the Landscape” found that 59% of churches struggled with a lack of volunteers. Smaller churches found it more challenging to find volunteers than bigger churches. Small churches and churches in more rural areas are also less likely to employ someone to work with children and young people than bigger churches in urban areas. As such, the churches most reliant on volunteers are also the ones finding it hardest to find volunteers. This reflects the findings from our research “Faith in Young People” in 2020 in which Church of England clergy in the Diocese of St Albans described the recruitment and retention of volunteers as the greatest challenge facing their youth ministry. FINDING 2: Training and recruitment Churches and organisations are facing challenges in training, recruiting, and retaining paid workers. ‘As an organisation, we are struggling to recruit well qualified and experienced youth workers.’ 41% of those in employed roles working with children and young people had been in post less than three years. A higher percentage of ministries that employ people to work with young people are seeing that ministry work with greater numbers on a regular basis. “Faith in Young People” found no difference between numbers of young people engaged with in the church with an employed youth leader compared to a volunteer youth leader. However, our report did find that churches with an employed youth leader engaged with a higher number of young people in the local community. P.4
FINDING 3: Reaching out together Organisations are taking a lead in partnership and outward focussed activity. Mapping the landscape found that 65% of churches in the South West of England work in partnerships sometimes, often or always – a similar figure to the 67% of churches in St Albans Diocese. The clergy surveyed for Faith in Young People found that churches particularly valued being able to partner with others to take young people away for residentials or events outside the local area, and benefitted from partnership with local youth work charities that provided ongoing support. When it comes to activities provided, the charts below show that organisations in the South West are much more likely than churches to be running certain kinds of community outreach, including in-school groups and detached work. In contrast, 91% of churches surveyed in the St Albans Diocese were engaged in schools work – though much of this is likely to be clergy taking assemblies or lessons, rather than running groups. Activities of churches & organisations (1) Organisation Church Activities of churches & organisations (2) Organisation Church Holiday Club After School Activity Youth Club School Lunch Activity Kids Club Detached Work 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% FINDING 4: Family based future? There is evidence of a move towards intergenerational approaches to working with young people. The most common title for someone who had been employed to work with young people in the South West of England was Youth, Children and Families Minister (19.9%). While there are still quite a lot of ‘Youth pastors’ and ‘Youth leaders’ in the region, a lot of the roles recruited for in churches or organisations in the South West combine a variety of ages. This reflects what we found in “Faith in Young People” where 58% of youth leaders (volunteer or employed) were also responsible for either children, families, or both, suggesting this is a national rather than a regional trend. There may be multiple drivers for this, including economic (the need to reduce the number of paid staff) and theological/pastoral (a growing emphasis on intergenerational ministry). P.5
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