Baptist Union: Praying for the Church's children

|PIC1|In 2006, Baptist churches up and down the UK took part in the prayer initiative On our Knees after startling research revealed a dramatic decline in the number of children attending Baptist churches.

On Sunday 4 November, churches hope to build on last year's effort with On Our Knees Again, when they will be asking for God's wisdom and guidance as they seek to raise the number of children attending their churches.

Christian Today asked the Baptist Union of Great Britain's mission advisor Nick Lear what's changed since last year.

The Baptist Church has seen quite substantial losses in the number of children attending over the last few years. Do you have any idea what prompted this decline?

When we first realised the high number of young people leaving I did some research comparing churches that have experienced growth in their children's work with those that have experienced decline over the last five years and there are some marked differences that give us some clues.

Those that were experiencing growth were running activities not just on Sundays, but also mid-week with children, in recognition I think of the fact that children's weekends are now far busier than they used to be and are therefore filled up with things other than church, meaning that perhaps Sunday then isn't the best time to do church for children.

In analysing all the responses from the different surveys, we also found a difference in ethos, in that churches seemed to be far more inclusive and child-friendly where they were growing, rather than those that were showing decline.

That must make it a bit easier for you to figure out what to do about it?

Yes, that's one of the reasons why we did On Our Knees the first time round and On Our Knees Again, because we wanted to raise the profile of children's work, the need for it, the value of it, the potential that God has placed in each child. The church could help to unlock this.

Prayer is obviously fundamental to it, but we also just wanted to raise awareness, so we've been developing resources over the last year and identifying areas of weakness, and we've pulled together a strategic response.

Part of the purpose of On Our Knees Again is to offer churches some of the answers that we've come up with. We are saying to churches 'these may be issues for your church and if they are then these are questions you can ask and here are the places you can go to for help'.

While the number of children went down in the same period the number of adults coming increased. Does that indicate that parents aren't taking their children to church?

Well, it depends also on how you count. We've asked churches not just to count the children coming on Sunday's but also mid-week. One of the issues is that perhaps parents are not bringing their children to church on Sunday but taking them to other activities during the week. But we also don't know if all of these new adults are parents.

Do you think for some churches it is daunting to engage in children's work?

I think it can be but I don't think it has to be. There are examples where elderly congregations have revitalised the life and work of the church by focusing on children's work. One example is of a church that felt it needed to put their energy and enthusiasm into running a parent toddler group and through that developed relations with the parents and the toddlers.

I think where churches feel that they have to run a full all-singing all-dancing children's programme they struggle. So instead of that, they focus on a particular need in their community, for example parent toddler groups or praying for local schools - because that in itself is children's work. Sunday is not the only day to do children's work and Sunday school is not the only way.

Did you ever sense a lack of interest on the part of the children in not coming to church?

Well, that's an interesting question. Peter Brierley did some research on tweenagers - those between the ages of 10 and 13 - and many in that age group were leaving because they felt they had grown out of church, although they still were very warm to the Christian faith and Christian beliefs. So, it's not that they'd grown out of believing in God but that they felt church was childish and they were no longer finding their needs met.

So the Baptist Church is trying to answer that?

Yes, we are encouraging churches to take children discipleship seriously. What we do for them isn't just giving them a picture of a letter to colour in on a Sunday - to caricature what we have done in the past! But we want churches to actually take seriously the way Jesus treated children and their faith and helping them to understand how God's word applies to them in their context, what following Jesus means rather than just filling them up with the knowledge of what the Bible says.

Have you noticed any positive changes since last year's On Our Knees?

We have actually seen an increase of 5,000 children, which is fantastic. It is no cause for complacency but it is a sign of hope that God has been hearing our prayers and helping us to be part of the answer to our prayers.

I am curious about the choice of title for the day, On Our Knees. It seems almost like a posture of repentance. Is that an accurate interpretation?

There are several reasons why we called it On Our Knees. Firstly, it was about getting on our knees in prayer, and all the aspects of prayer, like lament, petition, intercession.

But also if you want to see things from a child's perspective you have to get down on your knees, and, thirdly, if you want to listen to children you have to get down to their level and speak to them face to face.

On our Knees again seemed to resonate with the fact that it is a continuous process and not just a once off thing that we've done.



For more about On Our Knees Again go to http://www.baptist.org.uk/training_events/onourkneesagain.html