The Church Army is releasing guidance on how to evangelise millennials in an attempt to reverse a worrying lack of young people in the pews.
Just 0.5 per cent of 18-24 year olds attend an Anglican church, its figures reveal, but research based on 12 case studies is aiming to persuade vicars working with young adults is not as difficult as it seems.
'The findings are really encouraging in that they suggest that mission with young adults, while challenging, is not as difficult as one might think,' said Dr Tim Ling, the Church Army's director of research who headed the project.
The nine-month long scheme was based on 12 different approaches to mission and evangelism around the UK and from a variety of church traditions. Across the projects at least 60 people had become Christians through the churches studied, with a further 48 reporting the case study church had helped them rediscover a lost faith.
It urged churches to create 'spaces where young adults can belong and feel part of a community before they believe'.
'The research shows what is possible with young adults and captures some great stories of what pioneers are doing across the country. I really hope it will give local churches the inspiration and confidence to 'have a go' and apply some of these ideas within their own context,' said the CofE's director of evangelism and discipleship, Dave Male.
'Young adults can come to faith in today's society, that's the resounding good news in this research,' said the Church's national mission and evangelism adviser, Rachel Jordan-Wolf.
'It shows that it isn't complicated either but takes vision, passion and commitment. We, the wider the church, need to release, resource and back many more young adults to reach their peers, through relational Christian community as they create and plant new churches.'
