To ask how to encourage younger people to join in church

[Ihatecocomelon]

Just that really. I'm not entering debate about what exists etc.

What would draw your children or teenagers into going to church regularly?

Our church has plenty of the older generation but only a couple of younger children and maybe 2 young couples with babies.

Thank you 😊

If church is such a positive place to be then why do you need to encourage people to go? Surely the pews should be full.

I've already named 3.

If you can't be arsed to follow a simple conversation then that's your lookout.

That’s quite a reach @Annualleavecancelled you don’t need to be religious to have morals!

Crime is increasing due to the massive lack of funding the police force has, all of the cutbacks they’ve had to endure which has also led to the reduced number of policemen and policewoman serving, I’ve seen so many police stations being closed as they can’t afford to run them.
Where I live you wouldn’t even know there’s any police present as you rarely see them and the closest station to me is over 40 minutes away.

I guess all Churches start somewhere but IMO all the young people potentially interested in attending Church would attend the Churches which already have people of their age group e.g the Hillsongy, HTB style Churches which tend to have contemporary worship, groups (youth, women's, mums, dads etc) and socials (bowling, pizza night, bbq, youth group, weekends away).

Usually these Churches have a contemporary website and are active on the likes of instagram so prospective Church goers can have a feel of what to expect and the demographic of who attends.

Does claiming atheism is responsible for crime count as intolerant?

Only if this does too:

"In fact, I think you're more likely to be a decent person if you're not blindly following religious edicts, given the brain-washing and judgement that happens among people who claim they love God but end up hating their fellow humans."

There have been far more slurs against Christians and their beliefs on this thread than the other way round.

I'm happy to welcome, accept and love people whatever they believe. That's how Christianity is supposed to work.

I'm saddened that the bad experiences people have had with church and churchgoers have coloured their view of the faith in general, but that's not my experience of church and the Christian faith.

Been a while cince I've been able to roll out this old classic but "correlation does not imply causation".

You are implying that less religion belief = more crime. Surely then, the inverse must also be true and more religious societies should have less crime. Yet a quick look around the world will tell you otherwise. Of the top 10 countries with the highest crime rates all have populations where the majority identify with a religion.

1. Venezuela - 88% Christian (92% identify with a religion)
2. Papa new guinea - 95% Christian (98.5% identify with a religion)
3. South Africa - 68% Christian (90% identify with a religion)
4. Afghanistan - 99.7% Muslim (100% identify with a religion)
5. Honduras - 87% Christian (90% identify with a religion)
6. Trinidad and Tobago - 63% Christian (97.5% identify with a religion)
7. Guyana - 63% Christian (97% identify with a religion)
8. El Salvador - 82% Christian (85% identify with a religion)
9. Brazil - 81% Christian (90% identify with a religion)
10. Jamaica - 67% Christian (79% identify with a religion)

So, based on the above could I argue that more religion = more crime? Of course not, because correlation does not imply causation.

@Thebestwaytoscareatory

Thanks for your interesting response re correlation/causation - much better than calling a theory "utter bullshit" !

@ShodanLives "Does claiming atheism is responsible for crime count as intolerant?"

I never claimed that ^.

I put forward a theory using some figures. The statisticians have already pounced on it.
It all makes for good debate. 😀

either people of faith will join or not,
you shouldn't want them to be lured into it??

You heavily implied it.

Societies grow and mature just as people do. This society is gradually outgrowing belief systems that hinge on all-powerful deities and the supernatural - it's a normal and healthy process of development. I don't think anything you could do would seriously impact it.

@ShodanLives

"You heavily implied it."

And the statisticians have de-bunked it, so what is the issue ?

One of our local churches runs an outdoor toddler group, learning events like budgeting etc, free lunch for the elderly once a week, a winter activity club for kids, bbq in the summer and has a family support worker. They are very community driven and the community like them because of it. Everything is free. They also have a cheap but yummy cafe.

The scouts and cubs moved from our local church due to the cost and the bureaucracy, too many self important committee members imposing rules. Just hired a local hall instead.
Also for church service attendance do you have local schools to engage with, invite pupils to services as part of education during school hours.

What type of church is it that you go to. Usually evangelical “born again” Christians tend to have a lot of young people and few older people. Im not religious but what would help is if the church talked about what God can do in their lives. Too many older churches is about simply following rules that many think don’t make sense.

I believe I said horseshit AND provided reasons why.

Like I said, if you can't follow a conversation maybe step away from the keyboard.

Nothing. Younger people are becoming less and less religious and are probably fourth or fifth generation atheists by now. You can't present Christianity to people who have no interest. They're not going to believe now. Religion means hypocrisy and paedo priests. The only thing you can offer are the usual methods of threatening hellfire, always a winner.

It's dead, let it go with dignity. Bothering teenagers with your personal faith is considered rude.

Just so there are other people my age to meet. Social situations are difficult for me unless I'm in a 'safe place '

I think OP, while this may be scary and difficult for you, you need to come at this from a different perspective.

It sounds like you want more opportunity for social contact with people your age. Church is your safe space, so you want people to come to church. I think you need to put your energy into developing a broader spectrum of places you consider "safe", as religion is in decline in the UK. Do you have any special interest where you might get social exposure? A sport or hobby etc?

I haven't RTFT but responding to the OP from my experience as a young church-goer, you'll have more success attracting new people if your regular attendees are happy and engaged. Some observations from me:

• all the activities for women are based on crafts, while the men do camping and fun stuff like that. If it's all about including the older women, then the principle should apply equally to older men. Branch out. Go to crazy golf or paintballing or do literally anything other than crafts.

• actively engage in discussion about doubts. Everyone has them at one point or another and for many women it will be a life-long struggle of faith vs doubt. Pretending we're all perfect, devout Christians pushes doubters away because they think they don't fit.

• ease up on the responsibilities for young families. It's not ok to make a father of a young baby have to choose between his family and his responsibilities at church. Family should always come first.

• on the same note, please don't put mums of young children in charge of the crèche or kids' Sunday school. They need a break from looking after kids, not more of it.

Also for church service attendance do you have local schools to engage with, invite pupils to services as part of education during school hours.

Please do NOT do this. Parents really do not want churchgoers evangelising to their impressionable children at school. Children are at not at school to be indoctrinated with religion. Most parents of children in c of e schools in the UK are not practising Christians but attend the school due to distance & lack of choice, particularly in rural areas.

I think with heating concerns and cost of living offering a warm space and welcome (optional activities?) Would help your local community

Make your services memorable too for young people. My church brings the animals in for harvest blessing. Big nativity puppet show at Christmas and dressing up. Big free buffet and eggs at Easter. Advertise them in a 'not in your face religious' way on fb local mums groups etc ie come along and have fun at...one local church hosts a massive family fun day with bouncy castle etc. Most people that go aren't religious, but they know that church congregation is involved in their community

You beat me to it, @AloysiusBear ! It's a terrible suggestion and would surely need parental permission as would technically be a 'field trip'.

@CapMarvel Oh dear, it seems that teachers never go off duty.

"Like I said, if you can't follow a conversation maybe step away from the keyboard."

In a previous post I was given a 'D' and told to "try harder", so I did do, now I'm told to stop posting 🤔

What's next - the Naughty Step ?😮