What makes faith stick?

Yesterday evening, four Winterborne Sticklanders travelled to Bournemouth for a presentation on 'Sticky Faith'. It was an evening sponsored by South West Youth Ministries (SWYM), Urban Saints and the Scripture Union. We were not quite sure what to expect but we went with an open mind. Sticky Faith is an approach based on an American study that looked at why young people tended to drift away from their faith and church attendance. What was it that young people needed to make their faith 'stick'?

"Sticky Faith is....
1. Both internal and external - part of the inner thoughts and emotions, together with choices and actionsthat reflect the innerfaith commitment.
2. Both personal and communal - celebrating God's lovefor the individual, but always locating faith in the wider community.
3. Both mature and maturing - showing some evidence of maturity but recognising we are all on a journey.

The findings were based on American research but, so often, where America goes, the UK is only a few years behind. we were shown how the profile of church attendance in the UK has changed. The average age of attendees has risen from just below 40 years old in 1980 to over 55 today and still rising. We were shown some of the American findings and what the young people felt they needed to keep their faith.

So what's that got to do with the Winterborne  Valley and Milton Abbas Benefice? It made us question how we reach our young people, who are noticeably absent from our churches much of the time. We were shown
three different approaches to youth work that had been identified in the study: - consumer, content and contemplative. You could say: - fun, facts or relationship. It was the latter that stuck - according to the study.

Young people needed: -
More involvement with worship - linked with mature faith.
Opportunities to work with younger children
A congregation that was interested in them.
More interaction with adults - not less!

...and those who had the stickiest faith in the end, were those who had often talked about having doubts.

It was certainly food for thought, as we sat in a modern, warm, urban church - with all the facilities and extra space you could wish for! We have our successful Lovely Cake and Awesome Cake groups here in our Benefice - but is there more we should be doing? We met the Church and Community development officer (Scripture Union) and we would like to ask her to come and visit our Benefice, to see what is being done. If this is something that you feel strongly about and would like to get involved, do please contact Alan (the Rector) - he would love to hear from you.

Harriet