New research from Premier Youthwork magazine has found that thousands are choosing to worship with different congregations or are making extra effort to meet up with fellow youth leaders and attend retreats.

The figures contrast with volunteer youth workers, of whom 72% said it was ‘moderately’ to ‘very’ easy to worship in their own churches. Ruth Bennett from charity Youthscape labelled the issue a ‘problem’.

She said: ‘If Christian youth workers find it difficult to worship in their own church, how do they grow spiritually?’

The research also showed that 50% of young people who identify as Christians don’t read their Bible more than once a month. Young people ranked evangelism as the least important element for their churches. An experience of God, community, teaching and social action were all deemed more important.

The vast majority (83%) of churchgoing young people hold on to the traditional Christian value that sex should be saved for marriage.

For full results and analysis, see the August edition of Premier Youthwork magazine.