Understanding the 'spirituality' FAQs of contemporary European young people

I know a church which one hundred years ago had 900 young people attending its Sunday school every week. Its current weekly attendance is probably closer to 90, of all ages. What went wrong? There isn’t room here to offer anything but a partial answer, hinted at by our exploration of spirituality and young people.

The 900 Sunday scholars of one hundred years ago probably saw themselves as ‘religious’ whereas their modern peers generally shun that language in preference for one of ‘spirituality’. The causes for this shift in self-identity continue to provide key challenges and opportunities for the churches of Europe. They also point to the need for a more satisfactory engagement by Europe’s churches with the reality of contemporary young people trying to make sense of spirituality in the midst of practical and ‘down-to-earth’ lives.

Spirituality and European youth

Study after study tells us that Europe’s young people have only a few opportunities to talk about spirituality with an older and more mature person. This reflects a deep disconnect with older generations as well as with the churches.

A 2001-2 study of 7,000 young people concluded that a third of young people in Europe are interested in spiritual issues but have relatively few opportunities to talk with others about the things that matter to them. The understanding that ‘spirituality’ included ‘God’ was indicated by a third of all young people who claimed to be interested in spirituality, with others commenting that for them it included a search to discover the meaning to life, or of learning to be true to one’s inner self. This holds true for both Western and Eastern Europe where research in 2005 showed that young people in post-Communist countries also value the availability of an older person to talk to about their spiritual questions.

Sadly, many contemporary young people feel isolated as they learn to cope with life and its spiritual aspects. A 2010 survey for the BBC revealed that a fifth of young people aged 18-24 felt isolated from older generations. Over half (54%) had never spoken to a person over the age of 40 in their community whilst just under a quarter (23%) felt ignored by such older people.

The need for a spiritually mature generation to be available to such young people is a strong argument for churches to support older people in working among young people with spiritual questions. A 2010 study by the European Baptist Federation suggested that a biblically faithful and missionary lifestyle is crucial for relating to young people in this way, as they share their questions about the meaning of life, belonging and identity, human relationships, and the reality of Christ.

Church attendance

Re-imagining church as a place where all this might happen may sound obvious, even trite, but it suggests the need for church communities to develop skills in dialogue and ‘spiritual conversation’ alongside those that have typically emphasised the one-way transmission of information from the religious professional to the passive recipient. In the face of an overwhelming fifty-five minute monologue and an uncertain welcome, many young people simply seek the spiritual clarity they desire through experiences of nature, listening to or performing music, being alone, and/or through relationships with friends and family. Studies consistently show that the greater majority of European churches provide little opportunity for establishing real and in-depth relationships that nurture the kind of mutual spiritual exploration being suggested here.

Research shows that church attendance certainly has an influence on a young person’s attitudes and behaviour. Francis and Kay discovered that church attendance correlated positively with the likelihood of young people seeking help from others (particularly older people during a difficult time); with healthier attitudes to school-going; with a healthier sense of well-being; with a concern for world poverty; with a sense of being able to contribute to society; with respect for the law; with the comprehension of orthodox Christian beliefs; and with the greater likelihood of having positive attitudes towards immigrants and those of other ethnic backgrounds. In a later study, MORI found that 46% of young people admitted that religion was a moral influence upon them, especially so for the 25% of young people who said that they attended church.

In supporting the search for personal values by young people, the churches in Europe are less and less able to rely on the equivalent of the classroom, as did the pioneers of the Sunday school movement. Instead, they must acquire the skills of mentoring and dialogue and use them in the ordinary and practical life-settings of today’s young person. That’s probably how Jesus would have done it, I think.

A church for lakeside spiritual searchers

Visiting the city of Jönköping, Sweden, in 2005 I had the chance to talk with the local Lutheran priest, Per-Arne Waldenvik, about the many young people who were using the shores of the nearby lake to meditate in search of spiritual clarity. We discussed the fervour of the spiritual search as something to be commended.

Pointing to the evangelistic role of the church in responding to these many young people, he indicated that young people sitting on the shores of the lake eventually found that it became cold as the sun dipped below the horizon and night fell. Drawing on the metaphor of his own word picture, he highlighted the role of his parish staff and team in providing a ‘space’ for cold and benighted young people; a space where it was possible to find spiritual companionship that made reference to the manifold wisdom and spirituality of the Christian gospel.                   

Darrell Jackson