Wednesday, August 30, 2006
a year for youth
This is a graph of young people’s church involvement in Nelson, New Zealand, between 1985 and 2006 (from here). Lots of ups and downs, yet an overall downtrend. Note that this is in an Anglican Diocese that has experienced quite considerable church growth. But not among it’s young people.
Now, imagine an denomination that dedicated an entire year to youth ministry; with a dedicated website here.
and with the production of youth worship resources where they get young people to write prayers for the church each Sunday. (So here is the prayer for Sunday September 3, written by St Marys Diocesan School for Girls.
Dear Lord our friend,
Help us to hear and obey your message to us.
Help us to be people with clean hearts,
who have integrity and confidence to always do what is right
whether or not others are watching us.
Through the love of God, Amen.)
Well, the Denomination is the Anglican church in New Zealand in 2006. Well done New Zealand Anglicans.
New Zealand youth Anglican blogs (Let me know if I have missed any … ) include:
Michael; John; (Te Mara) Maori as indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Tahnks for posting that Steve, the irony is that the decline in young people was during our “church growth period”. What does that say about Church growth. While it may just be a coincidence I suspect that the trends are connected, but would love to hear others thoughts..
Comment by Michael — August 31, 2006 @ 11:40 am