Losing Heart

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What does youth and children's work looks like across the country. Which churches are succeeding in reaching this next generation? Why?

In the Autumn of 2015, we commissioned Christian Research to survey 2054 churches across England, Scotland and Wales. The consequential report, "Losing Heart" helps us see the broad outline of youth and children’s work across much of the UK and get a sense of what support churches need in this vital ministry.

The key findings were:

• Churches, especially smaller ones, do more children’s work than youth work, and are less confident when it comes to youth work.
• Churches are failing to talk about the topics young people want to discuss.
• Churches know that they are struggling with their youth and children’s work but don’t know how to fix it.

In addressing these findings, the report reveals what areas and practices of youth ministry churches feel least confident in, which young people are being engaged with the most, and which least. The report also includes a survey with young people which compliments the findings well and provokes some challenging questions and reflections for the church.