PRESS RELEASE
EMBARGOED UNTIL Friday 17th Jan 03
Date: 17th January 2003
Contact: Peter Brierley or Heather Wraight
Phone: 020 8294 1989
Fax: 020 8294 0014
Email: admin@christian-research.org.uk
TWEENAGERS ENJOY CHURCH!
Two-thirds of tweenagers who go to church say they enjoy
it. This is a much higher percentage than their non-churchgoing friends think,
only 42% of whom expect churchgoers of their age to enjoy it. What they enjoy
at church is the opportunity to meet old and new friends, and the caring
people there. Five in six who attend regularly have parents who also attend
regularly.
A quarter of tweenagers who say they are Christians never go to church, but
91% of those who have stopped going on Sunday still attend a church-based
youth activity. The top reason for not going to church is that they think
it is boring (87%), but almost half (49%) don’t get up early enough
on a Sunday morning anyway!
The average tweenager who attends church or Sunday School-type activities
does so for about four years. During that time the majority of them decide
that they will leave when they are allowed to. Three quarters of churchgoing
10 to 14 year olds, dubbed tweenagers by marketing organisations, will leave
within two years of starting secondary school.
In effect, most of them do not leave church, they leave Sunday School. It
is therefore the quality of provision for junior school age children both
by churches and Christian organisations that is a critical factor in whether
or not tweenagers decide to leave. This suggests that more churches should
consider appointing a Children’s Worker for this critical age group
and Christian organisations should reconsider the materials they supply.
Regular attenders are slightly more likely to be girls than boys (39% of
girls, 32% of boys in the sample), but are much more likely to get A or B
grades at school (46% A grades, 44% B, 9% C, 1% D, E or F). Almost three-quarters
of tweenagers believe in heaven (73%) and God (72%), while two-thirds (67%)
believe in Jesus. The percentage declines slightly from 10 to 13 year olds,
but increases again for 14 year olds. Not surprisingly, these beliefs are
higher for regular churchgoers (93% for both heaven and God).
Tweenagers’ key values focus around friends, family and fun. They would
rather do leisure activities, including going to church, with friends. 89%
trust their parents, but 56% define family as ‘any person or group
whom you love or care about deeply, or who love or care about you deeply’.
Only 37% selected the more traditional definition ‘where all members
of the family are related to each other by birth, adoption or marriage’.
Grandparents are also important, 3% of tweenagers having first been brought
to church by them. Most of them (73%) think others see them as someone who
is ‘a good laugh’, and one suggested that to attract more young
people of their age churches should have a ‘happy week’.
Rev David Coffey, General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain,
said, “The research is of great importance for our churches ... as
they seek ways in which they can both reach and retain the young people in
this key demographic group.”
The English Church Attendance Survey of 1998 found that about 1,000 children
under 15 left the church each week in the 1990s. Organisations working with
children and young people were so appalled that they commissioned Christian
Research to undertake a nationwide study, Reaching and Keeping Tweenagers.
Nearly 2,200 tweenagers completed the survey, some of whom were still in
church, others had already left, some went to church-based activities but
did not attend on a Sunday, while the rest had never been.
Reaching & Keeping Tweenagers was written by Dr Peter Brierley and published
by Christian Research. It is accompanied by a free, practical workbook to
help church leaders, youth workers, parents and tweenagers themselves to
address the issues. The book and workbook together cost £9.99
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