 Reaching
Young People with the Gospel Today Avril Baigent,the author of the much acclaimed Y Church Report sponsored by the Northampton Diocese, shares the insights that were gained about how to reach young people with the Gospel today |
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Combining young people's culture and treasures of the Church Why, in an article about youth evangelisation, am I telling you about
this prayer vigil to welcome the World Day Cross? It certainly bore
none of the hallmarks of your usual outreach session. And yet, through
it, the young people present found a quiet space, a sensory challenge,
a way of bringing their whole being to God. The sense of the Holy
Spirit moving through the place was tangible. This meeting of the ancient and the post-modern has got to be at the heart of our mission to young people. It was one of the main findings of the report I was commissioned to write for the Diocese of Northampton on youth spirituality and ministry. The "Y Church Report" not only surveyed existing best practice across the denominations, it took a snapshot of the situation in our diocese. Through a questionnaire and focus groups, it also began the process of discovering exactly how our young Catholics view themselves, their faith and the Church. The results? Firstly, that the sense of spirituality and prayerfulness was far more prevalent in our young people than I could have hoped. 90% of them said that they believed in God (almost double the figure for the general population), and half of them said that they prayed every day. However, this was set in context by the evidence that, for many of these young people, this was at best only a shallow faith. Far fewer of these young Catholics thought of Jesus as their saviour. Many of them regarded their faith as inherited from their family or coming from going to a Catholic school. Young people find faith boring because they don't understand what's going on
We may regard this as a disaster for the young people; it is also a calamity for the Church. We need teenagers in our faith communities, not just to be the next generation of parents, choir members, Eucharistic ministers and givers, but because there is something vital and life-giving about the passion of youth. The Pope recognised this when he said in his message for World Youth Day 2003: "humanity is in urgent need of the witness of free and courageous young people who dare to go against the tide and proclaim with vigour and enthusiasm their personal faith in God, Lord and Saviour" Where are these "free and courageous young people"? Not, by and large, in our congregations. So, how might we go about rectifying this? Firstly, we need a serious recognition on the part of all of us that it is not the fault of young people. This is not an especially evil generation. Yes, there are many distractions in the Western world, and the pressure on teenagers to give in to consumerism and materialism is huge. But that just means that we as a Church have to work that much harder to reach out to them. Ping pong on a Friday night is just what some need from a church youth group, but if you've only got four people in your group, it's time to think again. Importance of getting to know youth culture and young people themselves Our work with young people has to be as carefully planned, and as thoroughly resourced, as any overseas mission. Just like any foreign mission, it will fail if it does not take the local culture into account. Start by getting to know your young people. What are their fears, their desires, their needs? What TV are they watching, what music are they listening to? What do they think of church, and what do they want from it? It will not be easy to get even this kind of feedback. Young people are so used to the fact that most of what goes on in their community doesn't involve them that they don't read bulletins or listen to announcements. They certainly won't respond to a poster on the notice-board. Getting to know your young people means just that - spending time with them. A pizza and video evening held in someone's home will go down much better than a meeting in the church hall. This will work even better if you can get a small group of teenagers to organise and promote the evening. One sixteen-year-old said to me "Our parish priest is lovely, but if I stand up after Mass and talk about what we're going to do, the young people will know that at least someone of their age will definitely be there". Involving the older teenagers as young leaders will pay dividends in the long run too. Not only will they stay committed to the group as they grow older, they will bring their own ideas to your sessions, keeping them fresh and relevant. As they grow in their own leadership role, they'll also deepen their faith. Youth looking for something real and authentic - they hate hypocrisy At the same time, these groups will work best with a good sized group of committed adults leading and coordinating it. Young people are so used to seeing the church as old fashioned and out of touch that you'll have to work hard to overcome the barriers of automatic prejudice in their minds. What they are looking for is not so much the ultra-slick (although it doesn't hurt to invest in a decent design and some colour printing every now and then) as something real. This is why they are so opposed to hypocrisy: adverts are continually promising results that just never happen. If a church community is like this, it will never keep its young people, no matter how exciting its programme. A community which manifests grace in its relationships, which lives a gospel of forgiveness and mercy, which reaches out lovingly to those most in need, will draw young people like bees to honey. Just take a look around you on a Sunday: will young people see men and women on their way to salvation in your congregation? One of the realisations of recent years is that the whole church community has to be involved in youth ministry — even if it's just saying hello to the fifteen year old sitting next to you. To return to the prayer vigil again: young people there were allowed to explore their faith through their own culture. They were challenged to take on the reality of a broken world, to see themselves as called but sinful people in need of redemption and God's forgiveness. They were given the treasures of the Church's history to play with, and they gave them back to us with a new significance. This is the glory of youth ministry, what makes all the hard work and heartache worthwhile: that when young people catch on fire with the Spirit, they cannot help but change all those around them.
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I
also discovered that the majority of young people do not see the Church
as a place where they can have a spiritual experience. We've all heard
the term "boring" used by them, but I've come to realise
that rather meaning "entertain me!", it means "I don't
understand". 90 minute football matches are gripping if you're
a fan, and deadly if not. There is so much about our faith today that
young people just cannot access: the language that we use, the theological
concepts, even the imagery and music. Without a personal faith, these
young people can see no reason to make the effort to understand what's
going on, which is why alternatives such as wicca, horoscopes and
the occult draw them in.