idea magazine

The youth of today

May / June 2007

Alliance members are working to address the needs of today's teens in increasingly creative ways. 
Hazel Southam reports...

It's 11am on a Sunday morning at your church. The first hymns or songs have been sung, prayers said, the vicar's given an introduction and now it's time for the young people to leave to go to their groups. Your church may have a handful of teenagers or enough to set up its own independent school. But do you know what goes on in your youth groups, what issues the teenagers are facing and how your church's youth workers are trying to help them deal with those issues? Or is your knowledge of what happens when the teenagers leave the service like a black hole?

It's easy to think that the concerns that you experienced as a teenager are the same as those facing teenagers today. In some cases they may be: peer pressure, the desire to fit in (or alternatively to be noticed), school and college work, the future and family circumstances all affect today's teens as much as they affected us.
But the environment in which today's teenagers are growing up is markedly different from that experienced by their parents and grandparents. And new issues affect teenagers being brought up in Christian homes as well as those who are not, because they represent a norm or a prevalent culture. It is unwise to believe that what we read in our newspapers has no impact on our own teenagers and therefore on our youth work. It does.

So what exactly is the new culture in which our teenagers are growing up? What issues are facing them? And how are Alliance members helping young people to deal with those issues?

Growing up

A recent Unicef report ranked Britain as the worst place to grow up among 21 UN countries. Our high number of single-parent homes and step-families contributed to this ranking. Overall, Unicef said, it would be better for a child to grow up in Poland or the Czech Republic than here in the UK.Why is this? Family instability is the first key. In three years' time, there will be more children living with a step-family than with both of their biological parents. Out of 7.3 million families with parents of working age in the UK, a quarter are lone parents. We have more lone parents than any other EU nation.

Teenagers in Britain stand a higher chance of dropping out of school or leaving home early, and they have poorer health and lower skills and subsequently lower pay, the report said.

Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of The Children's Society, says, "Unicef's report is a wake-up call to the fact that, despite being a rich country, the UK is failing children and young people in a number of crucial ways."

In March, government statistics showed that hundreds more girls aged 15 or younger are getting pregnant despite a multi-million pound campaign to prevent early pregnancies. The figures showed that nearly 7,500 girls under 16, the age of consent, fell pregnant in England in 2005, a rise of 283 on the previous year. And among the under-18s, pregnancy figures rose in 2005 to 39,683 from 39,593 the year before.
The number of teenage girls having second abortions now exceeds 100 a month. More than 18,000 girls under 18 had abortions in 2005, including at least one who'd had six terminations.

But sex is not the only concern for today's teenagers. Drugs are easily available and often cheap. Drug use in the UK has stabilised since the late 1990s, but around 8 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds have tried a Class A drug in the last year, according to the British Crime Survey. That means that they are experimenting more with hard drugs than any other age group. The UK has the second highest number of cocaine users in Europe, with more than 4 per cent of 15 - to 34-year-olds taking the drug.
Lest we forget, these statistics all represent real people who lives are blighted as a result of their youthful decisions. In March, Lewis Green from Barnsley became the youngest person in Britain to be given an Asbo. The 10-year-old has a string of convictions for burglary, possessing a knife and causing criminal damage.
At an age where he should be playing with toy trains or kicking a football about, Lewis has a drug and drink problem. He fed these habits by stealing from his family. Under the terms of the Asbo he is banned from a nearby high school and subject to a 9pm-6am curfew unless accompanied by an adult.

Lewis's story may seem extreme, but he is not alone. Teachers in London, Manchester and Birmingham have been advised to stop and search children on the way into classes if they suspect them of carrying knives and guns. Staff will be trained on how to search teenagers - in the manner of airport security checks - and how to use scanners to check for weapons, according to draft guidance from the Department for Education.

As ever, when America sneezes, Britain catches a cold. So we should watch for the latest US trend: homeless people are being threatened, beaten and even murdered by thrill-seeking middle-class teenagers. Organisations for the homeless in America have reported an alarming increase in the number of seemingly motiveless attacks on rough sleepers by youngsters who do not have a history of violent behaviour. Last year, there were 122 recorded serious assaults on the homeless and 20 murders, the highest in a decade. Watch for it here next.

Reaching out

Despite this bleak picture, Roy Crowne, National Director of Youth for Christ, feels optimistic about reaching out to youngsters with the Gospel. "When a nation turns its back on God, when a kid turns their back on God, three things happen," he says. "You become more and more selfish. You do really stupid things, like taking drugs and drinking, looking for stimulation. Your sense of identity and meaning are lost."
Seeing this in today's culture, he believes that an increasing number of young people are consequently open to the Gospel message. "You could look at the statistics and feel awful, or you could look at them and say, 'We have an amazing opportunity,'" he says.

Changing times have meant changing activities for Youth for Christ. It now works in 63 youth centres in the country, offering a community focus for young people. Additionally, it has received award nominations for its work in youth offender institutes.

"Hugging a hoodie, you will probably discover that problems are the same for them as for other kids," says Crowne. And through running a breakfast club for a school in Hull, YFC has seen parents' lives change as well as the children's.

"Why should we do this as Christians? Because if we don't, then we are going to have a major, major crisis on our hands in society," he adds. "But statistics show that 83 per cent of people who come to faith do so under the age of 21. They make life choices at this age. In my view, they are more receptive now than they have ever been." Despite the prevailing cultural difficulties - or indeed perhaps because of them - YFC's work across Britain has grown. It now works with 71,000 young people every week, up from 54,000 in 2004.

"The Church is declining in its youth work, but we are being invited to work in areas and places, with centres and schools, that we've never done before," Crowne says. "The need to help children and young people is there. People recognise that Christian organisations can help. They don't know what to do [about the problems]. But because we hold some values, we have credibility."

Training workers

The Alliance's essential website provides holistic training for youth workers facing these complex issues today, mixing issue-based subjects and the Gospel to equip youth workers to help youngsters.

"Theology which is not connected to life is fairly meaningless," says essential Project Director Phil Green. "But if you discuss the issues and don't link them to the Bible it's a huge waste too. Among young people now there is a lot of excitement and emerging into faith. However, if it's not built on biblical truth we will be in real trouble. These young people will be the leaders of the future and it's important that they have a biblical foundation. They must make sure that certain things stay intact in the Church of the future."

Essential's website offers answers to often-asked questions. The current crop includes: Who made God? Does God ever change His mind? Isn't the Bible sexist?
The site also provides useful resources for youth workers, giving them easy-to-read theological background to the issues they'll need to deal with in their groups. Plans are also afoot for a Christian prospectus for A-Level philosophy and ethics students, to be launched in 2008. "If we have a generation of strong, active Christian young people, that will have a knock-on effect on their peers," says Green. "That might be some of them finding out about the Good News. It might be positive relationships where other young people are helped to deal with complicated issues."

Promoting purity

Rachel Gardner from Romance Academy has helped set up a scheme to help teenagers deal with one of these "complicated issues": sex. She has helped train youth workers who then run the 16-week scheme, during which teenagers promise to abstain from sexual activity. But, she says, it isn't really about sex at all: "We need to help them build self-esteem and provide alternatives [to promiscuity]. We try to create a positive community for the young people so that everything is done with them feeling valued and unique.

"They are in a sexualised environment that says that in order to be a true man or woman you have to be sexually active and a successful person. Drugs, drink and peer pressure affect sexual choices. We know that 70 per cent of young people lose their virginity while drunk."

But the course does not intend to be negative about sex. "As a follower of Christ, I want to let young people explore how God made them," says Gardner. "The Church has sometimes presented us, in terms of being sexual animals, with repression and denial. We need to be dealing with being sexual creatures and having our first identity in that we are made in God's image. How does that impact our sexuality?"
Courses for teenagers have already run in Cardiff, Plymouth, Maidstone and Nuneaton, and have also been screened on TV. Lives have changed. Youngsters have made choices to remain outside sexual relationships, or have only embarked on sex in what they perceive to be committed relationships. "Something amazing happens," Gardner says. "It's a picture of hope."

Yes, the issues facing young people today are different from those faced by previous generations. Yet they are often facing them without the support of a nuclear family. Peer pressure to experience sex, drugs, drink and even criminal activity can affect any teenager, whether or not they attend church.

In this society without meaning, many youngsters are desperately seeking an explanation of the world around them. Into this environment, Alliance members are speaking and taking action, helping to provide purpose and value for a generation who may never have heard of Christ.

For more information on Alliance members working with youth, do an organisation search at www.eauk.org or contact:

• Youth for Christ: tel 0121 550 8055 or visit www.yfc.co.uk
• Essential: tel 020 72072 100 or visit  www.essential-truth.org
• Romance Academy: tel 020 8416 7344 or visit www.romanceacademy.org