Want to see renewal? Parents will have a unique role to play

Do you have bugbears? Not large, hairy, goblin-like creatures, but the metaphorical type of bugbear, the continual source of irritation. I have a few, one is the way that research is presented in the press. Sometimes research is flat out mis-represented in a headline (I’ve written about that here). In other instances, it is presented as a new news story when, actually, it’s not really new at all, and therefore is not much of a story.

Last week, The Times published an article that managed to both mis-represent the underlying research and not really be much of a story at the same time. The headline: “Most of Britain’s non-believers were raised as Christians”, mis-represented data from the Pew Research Centre by confusing the retention rate with the leaving rate; so, it’s not actually ‘most’.

But the bugbear that really bugged me was that this is also not much of a story; it’s essentially saying that a country which used to be ‘Christian’ has become less ‘Christian’ - which most of us knew already.

Half life

Back in 2014, David Voas and Laura Watt released a report from The Church Growth Research Programme. After acknowledging the half-life of Christian parenting (two Christian parents with two children tend to produce only one adult Christian) they suggest the issue the Church needs to address is why is this happening and what can be done about it.

When it comes to halting decline, our focus needs to be on the back door not the front door; the hole in the hull not the bucket you’re using to bail out the boat. In their executive summary they write that: “Recent history suggests that gains and losses during adulthood are roughly in balance; the challenge is to retain the new generation.”

It’s heartening to hear about the rise of contactless Christianity but that isn’t going to fix the issues

When the Church of England wrote their summary report of Voas and Watt’s work (From Anecdote to Evidence) the significance and centrality of the comments around the half-life of Christian parenting vanished. Then last week in The Times, Rev Canon Dave Male, co-director of the CofE’s vision and strategy programme, was quoted as saying that they were aware of the findings and that “work with children and young people is our top priority”.

But he then added that, “One thing we’re hearing again and again from churches is that there seems to be signs of a new openness to faith including - or even especially - from the younger generation.”

Focus on parenting

I don’t know how Rev Male’s comments were edited but The Times story is about parents not passing on faith, whereas his comments are about youth and children. That might sound like it is quibbling, but it really isn’t. Parents need to be the focus. As for the signs of a new openness to faith, most accounts of Gen Z’s openness concern those who have no church background. It’s heartening to hear about the rise of young people turning up at church with no prior connection to faith (contactless Christianity) but that alone isn’t going to fix the issues identified in The Times.

What’s going wrong when it comes to parents passing on the faith? There are a number of conflicting pieces of research on this. Some parents don’t see raising faith in their children as their role (that’s for the church to do). Others don’t have the desire to do it because they themselves are not very committed; some do see it as their role and do want to do it but lack the confidence and skills.

My own research suggests that it has more to do with church leaders themselves. Some are hesitant to focus on parents because of the social awkwardness of talking about families in an age when many children and young people do not live with their biological mother and/or father.

When it comes to halting decline, we must focus on the back door not the front 

Others even have theological issues with speaking about the importance of family (it can all seem so hierarchical and exclusive). Many whose ministry philosophies were formed in the late 1980s and 1990s, when the focus on youth groups and paid youth leaders was burgeoning, are unconsciously bounded by their experiences and so simply don’t give parents much of a thought. Still others lack the skills and experience or think they don’t have the time.

There is also an almost complete lack of mandatory training in youth, children and families’ ministries for leaders. If they are not even trained to think about these issues, we can’t really blame them when they don’t focus on the right things.

It’s great that we are seeing signs of spiritual openness in Gen Z. The front door is vital, not only for the lives of those who walk through it but also for the wider church. But if we don’t pay attention to encouraging and equipping parents to disciple their children at home, we’ll be bailing out water even as it comes over the bow.

For support and resources in raising faith in the next generation visit premiernexgen.com