Investing in Future generations
What does it mean to invest together? To authentically and meaningfully work together – collaborating between ministry organisations and denominations, across generations, between geographic regions, amongst those of different ethnicities, backgrounds and contexts? For the sake of sharing the gospel with the children and young people around us.
On 14th May, there was an inspiring, pioneering, informative gathering of 70 ministry practitioners and academics to consider how research insights could be used to inform and shape ongoing ministry amongst children and young people across the UK. The gathering was organised by the Institute of Children, Youth and Mission (CYM), Youthscape, Churches Together in England and the Free Churches Group. The aim was to work together to co-create a research-informed collective charter for the UK church about their interactions with children and young people in 2026.
Our starting point was that research highlights the dislocation between children and young people with the church. Yet, there is evidence of a new openness in younger generations to the Christian faith and spiritual practices. Churches across the UK are working very hard to address this disconnection and reach out. But there is often uncertainty or a lack of confidence about how to change church to be more welcoming and inclusive of children and young people.
We believe that research can bring key insights to aid repairing this dislocation. We know that many Christian organisations are keen to work together but are not sure how best to do this. So, our four organisations invited leading voices to collaborate with us, to reflect together on research insights on this topic and collectively call for some tangible steps towards positive change in 2026.
The day included research insights on the following areas:
Youth and children’s culture
Capturing the voices and participation of children and young people
Listening for the silences – differences in cultures/ethnicities
Listening for the silences – SEND
Listening for the silences – vulnerable families
Building safe, welcoming and trustworthy spaces
Sacred spaces in which young people are genuinely welcomed
Building connections and working as a team
Building bridges and working in multi-agency ways
Building community, not just programmes
The day comprised the first step of identifying the key messages arising from these themes to pass onto the wider UK church. We will continue to co-create elements of the charter together, whilst gathering existing resources and tools to facilitate effective responses from church leadership. We anticipate that the next step may be a zoom gathering in early Autumn to further refine this charter and we are excited about how we can call the UK church to Invest Together for the sake of drawing children and young people across the UK closer to Christ. Get in touch with Sarah if you want to join this movement!
By Dr Sarah Holmes, the Institute of Children Youth and Mission
