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)