18-40s - What's happening in Our Deanery?

In September 2009, a Rugby Deanery development day identified ‘reaching 20s to 40s’ as one of our main focus areas.  People spoke of struggling to reach younger adults effectively and some even spoke of a ‘lost generation’ in our churches.  Subsequent research showed that whilst many 20s to 40s had meaningful contact with our churches at major Christian festivals and for special events like baptisms and weddings, there were few regular worshippers at our churches. This experience is part of a national trend:

“Just 6.3% of people regularly attend church in the UK,

and of that only 5% are in their 20s”

National and international studies have shown that a very large proportion of 20s to 40s have given up on church, believing that Christianity has next to no relevance to their lives.

Our November 2010 day conference “Generation” was about "Learning from Insights and Experience of Those who Have Seen 20s to 40s Connecting With Church & With God" and "Finding out What We Can Do in Our Church”

Since then a lot has happened, and we have gathered together news from around the deanery to encourage and inspire us all in having churches which connect with younger people. Click here to find out what's happened since then (pdf download). (Author: )

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