St Paul's, St Albans - House Style
20s-30s Ministry at St Pauls
An update & future forecast
St Pauls 20s&30s was started in early 2010 with the aim of
being a networking group for young people in St Pauls to encourage
friendships, deepen faith and demonstrate the church family to the
wider community. Our Vision
To build a community that is:Thriving Growing and expanding
spirituality and numericallySpiritual Centred on Christ and His
KingdomCommitted Invested in St Pauls as a whole (ministries,
events, attendance, financial etc.)Supportive Becoming a caring
network where friendship and help are readily availableWelcoming
Avoiding cliques and always looking out for the outsider/visitor;
actively inviting non-Christian friends to our activities
Our MissionSt Albans attracts a large number of young adults in
their 20s-30s due to its convenient commuter station, the
University of Hertfordshire and local jobs. These 20s-30s have
particular needs of:Career although being at an early stage in
their careers they are generally successful and financially
comfortable. Monday-Friday discipleship is
key.Marriage/Relationships there are many young marriages and a lot
of non-married couples. Singles in their 20s-30s are fewer, making
starting a relationship difficult. Parenting many have begun
families and are looking for support and friendship. The lively
families ministry St Pauls is attractive, as well as the social
element of the congregation.Community whether married or single,
making friends is difficult in St Albans. St Pauls provides a
valuable social base and support network to the isolated.Faith Many
are passionate Christians and need a church that will deepen their
discipleship, others are discovering their true level of personal
commitment to their faith, still others are exploring their
spirituality.There are a couple of other challenges that the
20s-30s ministry faces at St Pauls.Singles need a lot of support
here. They are outnumbered by couples and our family-friendly style
can be excluding or intimidating to them. Retaining singles has
shown to be harder than retaining couples.PCC is not representative
of this age group. We are making efforts to encourage 20s-30s to
stand for election to the PCC this spring or to join the electoral
role if theyre not on it already.Friendships have developed over
many years at St Pauls, creating a solid core of 20s-30s members.
However, this can make it harder for new or younger people to join
and feel connected.
What it takes
The role of coordinating the 20s-30s ministry is currently
undertaken by volunteers, firstly by Chris and Kat Allen for three
years, then by Matt and Anna Hawken since summer 2013. The work can
be summarised as:Planning and running diverse social events to
connect people and cement friendships. We aim to run one main event
per month and encourage members to organise and invite each other
to smaller events. We also attend various 20s-30s events organised
by other organisations, such as the New Wine Retreat to Advance
weekend.Communicating frequently with the membership group (mostly
through the email list but also through a Facebook group and
twitter account) to help everyone feel connected and belonging. We
also promote general St Pauls events as a way of reminded and
encouraging people to attend.Connecting new members into the
congregation by keeping an eye out for visitors on a Sunday,
organising welcome meals, bringing them home after church services
for ad-hoc gathering (having a house provided by PCC so near the
church has made this really easy! - A quick note of thanks).
These activities currently run to approximately 3-5 hours p/w
depending on the amount of organisation and hospitality required.
To expand the ministry, we would like to increase the amount of
pastoral and spiritual ministry in the group. Examples would
be:Keeping better track of who is attending regularly and who is
disappearing off the radar in order to catch those who might be
lonely or struggling.
Encouraging and supporting the existing 20s-30s in home groups
(including the specifically 20s-30s home groups) and to help all
20s-30s to find a home group where theyre comfortable.
Meeting 20s-30s one-to-one for encouragement, prayer,
discipleship and mentoring from a peer. Applying this equally to
professionals, parents etc. to show all are valued.Researching more
activities and events run by organisations such as New Wine
specifically for this age bracket and organising trip to them.
This could add 5-6 hours p/w to increase the total hours to 8-11
p/w.Facts and figures about our 20s-30s
We have 150 names on our 20s-30s mailing list with roughly one
person joining per week. Mostly these are visitors and new faces to
the church, although a few local people have signed up via the
website. This is the number of people who want to be kept informed
of whats happening at St Pauls and doesnt reflect the number
attending on Sunday.
The 20s-30s group supports more than just St Pauls. Its a
network thats slightly larger as it includes members of other
churches who come for the fellowship, non-believing partners etc.
We intend to keep our boundaries blurry to welcome as many as
possible.
St Pauls currently has four staff members in their 20s (not
counting the three interns), making the face of the church
welcoming and helping the 20s-30s identify with the leadership and
direction of the church.
We dont currently keep any form of register of 20s-30s
attendance at St Pauls. However, Sunday attendance is not always a
useful metric of our members involvement in the church as many are
away at weekends, visiting family etc.
How important are our 20s-30s nationally?Nationally, church
attendance of 20-30s is in decline. However, St Pauls is currently
growing its 20s-30s membership! Like attracts like, especially in
this age group, so there is reason to believe that with continued
investment and direction, our 20s-30s can grow further and better
the UK church statistics!
Both Anglican and inter-church research suggests that
maintaining the current 20s-30s generation is key to preventing
declining church population. However, they are also one of the
hardest segments of the population to retain. Despite youth and
children positions becoming more common in churches, very few are
investing in the 20s-30s demographic.
The best programmes are likely to involve new ways of building
community with and among the young, and may require considerable
amounts of time and effort.
Church Growth Research Programme
Frequency of churchgoing declines rapidly in the 20-29 age group
so that by the time they are in their 30s they are the least
frequent churchgoers of any age group.
(Source: Pulling out of the Nosedive Peter Brierley, 2006)