Last week the Evangelical Alliance published a report titled ‘Young People Matter’ suggesting that teenagers contribute around £300m each year to the economy through voluntary work. Between September and December 2008, they surveyed around 700 14-18 year olds and found that 45% of young people regularly volunteer once a month, and 80% donate money to charity.
Interestingly, there seems to be a strong link between faith and volunteering:
Almost 40% of the voluntary work carried out by young people takes place through churches or religious organisations.
Even 10% of those who declared themselves non-religious still volunteer through a religious organisation.
Personally I don’t find this news surprising as many of the young people I work with volunteer at other groups, but it is great to have a positive article in the national press that highlights how generous young people are!
You can read the BBC report on the publication here, and download the full document here.
Looking at the picture above I realize, that the majority are girls! Even more girls are in volunteer service here in Germany. A german proverb says there are three “K’s” with women/girls: Kinder, Kueche, Kirche – children, kitchen, church.
How can we reach men/boys with the best message in the world? How can church be attractive to them without denying the gospel? It is a struggle – by now we only have little success here.
God bless.
Ralf
Thanks Ralf for your continued conversation. There have been a couple of books published in the last few years about men and church, like Why Men Hate Going to Church. It's an interesting debate!
Looking at the picture above I realize, that the majority are girls! Even more girls are in volunteer service here in Germany. A german proverb says there are three “K’s” with women/girls: Kinder, Kueche, Kirche – children, kitchen, church.
How can we reach men/boys with the best message in the world? How can church be attractive to them without denying the gospel? It is a struggle – by now we only have little success here.
God bless.
Ralf
Thanks Ralf for your continued conversation. There have been a couple of books published in the last few years about men and church, like Why Men Hate Going to Church. It's an interesting debate!