Local church leaders have welcomed the appointment of Evan Cockshaw as Church of England missionary to West Bromwich.
The Revd Margaret Small, Rural Dean of West Bromwich, said: "The Church in West Bromwich has got hardly anyone in the 16 to 30 age group and we felt very much that we need to have somebody to come and do this work for us.
"I don't see this initiative as being in competition with the existing churches. I very much see it as helping the existing churches to do what they are not able to do. For some reason we are not meeting the younger people at all and we need somebody to go out and be doing that work for us and hopefully showing us what we can be doing in our own areas to get the young people to know about Jesus."
She added that the Church must do more to connect with some people: "The Church, for some reason which I don't totally understand, is becoming so alien to our culture. To expect young people to come and see, particularly in the Anglican Church, men in long dresses and women in long dresses is just not what they are used to. We need to find them.
"This is Gospel - Jesus didn't go to the temple, Jesus went out to the people to find them. He was there amongst the people, he didn't expect them to come to him and I think we are really following his
example. The church, in many ways has lost that idea, we've gone on this model where you must come to us, but we need to go out to them and hopefully bring them into us."
And the Archdeacon of Walsall, the Ven Bob Jackson, who also serves as one of the Bishop of Lichfield's growth officers, denied that the appointment was a sign that traditional churches have failed.
He said: "There is a huge amount of life left in the traditional churches as Jonathan said in the sermon. Actually, church attendance at the traditional churches in West Bromwich last year increased, but they are missing a couple of generations, so they are mainly middle aged and older folk, and they are clearly missing some of the sub cultures.
"So this is a 'both' 'and' thing, we are not giving up on what we used to do - we'll still develop that. But the distinguishing thing about the Church of England is that we're supposed to be here for the whole nation, not just for people who like a certain style of music or church service.
"And this appointment is part of being there for the whole nation. It is looking for new people groups who we aren't really in touch with.
