Bridging the Generation Gap

http://your.sydneyanglicans.net/sydneystories/bridging_the_generation_gap/

[your.sydneyanglicans.net] 24 June 2007--When Stuart Crawshaw turned 21 he found he was the last young adult left at his church.

“All my mates I had grown up with at church during the 1980s had left. The next youngest person was 35,” he says.

Most of Stuart’s mates had left for the pub scene. But, as numbers dwindled, the Christians left as well to find another church with young people their age.

Stuart’s experience at Gymea Anglican is repeated many times across the country. The latest National Church Life Survey (NCLS) found that 40 per cent of church-goers’ children do not go to church. Despite young adult retention rates improving amongst Sydney Anglicans, about one in three children of Sydney Anglican attendees does not attend any church.

The Rev Craig Blacket, who co-ordinates TAFE ministry in Sydney, says that if we are serious about the 10 per cent mission goal then we need to tackle the issue of young adult retention.