The missing generations: The Church in Wales and young people

Abstract

This is an account of the Youth Specialist’s Gathering which took place in Cardiff, South Wales in the latter months of 2019. It explores the combined thinking of a team of experts drawn from various strands of Christian youth work across Wales who together reflected upon how the church connects with young people today. As part of the process they looked at communication, issues/pressures on young people, and ecclesiology, but the main purpose of the gathering was to address a primary question: Given unlimited resources what would you do to better enable young people to encounter Jesus across Wales? The hoped-for outcome was to give direction to the church in Wales in its desire to help facilitate more young people encountering God across the country. The gathering looked at how we communicate, the specific issues young people are facing—sexting and self-harm were particulalrly identifed. The conclusion was intriguing in that overwhelmingly the key elements were relationship and connection.