Today marks the launch of a new resource from the Evangelical Alliance to help us navigate the changing landscape as we emerge from effects of the global pandemic, especially with regard to young adults.
Exactly a year and a week ago, I flew to Abu Dhabi to speak to a conference of hundreds of teenagers and young adults. It was an extraordinary time that usually fuels me for days and weeks ahead with the feeling that God is doing something amazing in our world and is raising a generation of kingdom game changers. As I boarded the plane home I was filled with such hope and expectation for the year ahead. And simultaneously, my newsfeed was full of talk of a virus. There are seasons when we must look back to look forward.
There is a time to stop, see what has passed and set a course for the next season.
There is so much to grieve and lament, but there is also so much to look forward to with hope and vision.
It is difficult to understate the seismic impact that the global pandemic has had on our world. This moment is a crucial one for us as a church. We must sense what the Spirit is saying to us. We must read the signs of the times and consider what God is doing. This is a time to intensify our prayers not just for healing for our world, but for renewal, revival and for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.
As the Evangelical Alliance we exist to together make Jesus known. As part of our response to coronavirus, we have been in conversations with thousands of church leaders, we have undertaken research, and we have been sensing what the future might look like for church, evangelism, discipleship and social engagement. The fruit of this is an initiative called Changing Church, which seeks to help us navigate the days ahead as the evangelical church of the UK.
COVID-19 has had a monumental impact on almost every age group and every sphere of influence, but it has been particularly interesting to see the effect on young adults and their relationship with faith and the church. With this generation in mind, today we launch Changing Church: Is the ‘missing generation’ still missing?
We pray this resource is a massive encouragement to the UK church. It draws together some insightful research that reveals the scale of young adults’ online engagement with church, prayer and evangelism during the pandemic. It tells inspirational stories of 20s and 30s becoming Christians and reassures us that many are becoming Christians in this season of life. It then goes a step further to explore the common pathways of people finding faith and the guiding principles that have helped young adults feel they can belong in church communities. There is a central online booklet that holds all the themes together, a series of blogs from a diverse range of authors to take the reader deeper on certain issues and a few videos adding further insight.
Changing Church does not have all the answers. Our hope is that it will help the UK church ask the right questions in crucial areas of ministry. We would love you to engage with it, be inspired and encouraged by it, and share it with those who need it.
We believe God is on the move in an extraordinary way at this time. Let’s pray that as we rebuild and recover from this time we continue to see significant numbers of 20s and 30s coming to faith and a church thriving amongst all generations.
