How Do I…

Here are a few things we think you should know about young people.

This age group is finding it hard to connect with our church families

We need to make a commitment to putting real energy into thinking about them, children and families. We need to be urgently considering how we can connect and love these age groups well, and how to change the way we do things to build bridges with these age groups and with the loyal faithful committed followers of Jesus already in our church families.

Mental health and anxiety is a big thing for many young people and kids

Anxiety is a common and natural feeling that everybody experiences.
It is affecting many young people and interrupting their schooling, their socialising and their everyday life. When anxiety significantly impacts someone’s everyday life, then it is important to get help, and many children, young people and young adults are struggling with this.

Kids Health and Health Info have summaries that helps us understand what is going on, signs and symptoms ways to help us as we walk with young ones suffering from this, including things we can do to help.

Many young people are struggling to stay engaged with school

Sadly, Aotearoa has some of the highest incidents and statistics for workplace bullying in the world – and this is happening in schools as well. This is one more major factor many of our young people are forced into facing every day.

Ministry of Education released the following statistics over the last three years:

• 2022 : 39.8% of students were attending school

• 2023: 47.1% of students were attending school

• 2024: 53.1% of students were attending school

These statistics are broad and, when broken down, show that young people are struggling more with attendance than those under 12 years. Although statistics are improving it still means almost half of our young people are struggling to get up and go to school.

If they are struggling with this, it means we have a real challenge ahead as church families to find ways to engage well with them.

Young people are wired differently from us – they think differently

Every generation has traits and qualities that set them apart from others. Young people and young adults are called Generation Z and Alpha:

• Gen Z: born 1997-2012

• Alpha: born between 2010 til now

Student-Centered World helps us understand about these generations compared to others.

In summary, while these generations are the most tech savvy, they are also the most biblically illiterate generations we have ever had.

1 in 3 kiwi Gen Zers know nothing about church.

These generations have a short attention span and a more interactive style and active style of learning, so what had worked before may not hit the mark now and we need to adjust.

We have something special these young people need

We offer a place where young people can connect with people of all generations. We offer church families that have lasted and been present a long time.

Engaging a young person with an entire church family is the second strongest influence (behind being in a Christian family) that helps young people grow to be vibrant lifelong followers of Jesus.

We can walk together with young people.

Many of us can think of at least one positive person who had an impact on us and the importance of this in our lives. A youth worker is someone who has the privilege to journey through life's ups and downs with a young person and be a person of support.

A youth worker's role is to create safe spaces to support youth in their holistic development as young people that contribute to themselves, their whānau, community and world. Ara Taiohi gives a a fuller description.

For a rangatahi/young person, having a trusted adult or mentor that recognises their strengths and sees their potential can help change their future and bring them hope.

“Youth ministry” is a term used within our churches, and may be more commonly heard than “youth work”. In the community “youth work” is heard more often than “youth ministry”.

Regardless of the words used, and whether young people know God or not, our need to offer high quality youth work/youth ministry is vital. As Christians we are asked to follow Jesus' example and love others. Youth ministry is service to God with an intentional focus on young people and their whānau. Jesus provided the pattern for Christian ministry – he came, not to be served, but to serve (see Matthew 20:28; John 13:1-17).

Youth ministry can, and should, include ministering to the physical, emotional, mental, vocational and spiritual needs of young people. Jesus did this for all people, and so should we!

In our context as Anglicans, youth ministry/youth work is focusing attention on journeying alongside and ministering to rangatahi/young people, ideally weaved into a church whānau rich with older and younger generations.

Depending on your job, this could include creating and facilitating programs for young people.

Sometimes it's as simple as creating connections through games or conversation, which then builds relationships and trust.

This could look like running an event in your churches, local schools or in your community, it could be running an after school youth group for larger numbers, holiday programmes
or it may look quite different involving ongoing mentoring support for a young person.

It could include:

• Building relationships with young people and their families/whānau and peers

• Intentionally building bridges with the generations within our church families:

  • integrating the young people into church life and serving there

  • offering events where the generations can connect

  • getting prayer support for the young people

  • finding ways for the generations to serve each other by using older people within our churches to offer mentoring

(Learn about mentoring from The Faith Project or the Discipleship Pathway class, Youth Essentials)

• Establishing relationships beyond your church context with places your young people are connected to:

  • places in your local communities

  • schools

  • mental health providers

  • training providers and employer

  • community youth support providers specific to your area

• Exploring ways to provide support, information and resources to rangatahi/young people and their whānau

• Helping young people connect with other services when required

Youth work can be a career, but also is an enriching and wonderful thing to volunteer alongside other things.

As Anglicans, we have an annual event called The Abbey for upskilling and connecting with others who are walking with young people. We encourage everyone who is journeying with young people in their church whānau to attend.

There are many different options for continuing to develop in the youth work/youth ministry sector, including further study. Talk with your your church or diocesan youth enabler about what possibilities there are and what would suit you most.

There’s also our Anglican course called The Priory that gives people a Certificate in Anglican Youth Ministry (non-NZQA). It is set up for those interested in journeying with young people whether they are volunteers or looking to make it a career. It’s designed to supplement all other forms of training and is done over two years with two block courses per year. Relationships and connections are formed with others from across Aotearoa, plus the course intentionally sets people up to navigate parish life in the Anglican context. It is hoped that, regardless of other qualifications, people will consider doing The Priory alongside, or after, other learning.

Youth work/youth ministry qualifications available in Aotearoa

Laidlaw College offers strong ministry training in youth and young adults ministry. It also offers a way to move all of this this learning into a degree in teaching.

Bishopdale College offers fantastic ministry internships and training based in Nelson, with the ability to do study via distance learning and block courses.

Praxis offers a one or two year study option with a strong focus on youth work within our communities, available across Aotearoa.

AdventureWorks offer a level 4 Certificate in Youth Work using the outdoors and adventure-based learning.

Carey Baptist College offers ministry training specific to youth ministry, such as a Diploma in Pastoral Leadership (Youth).

Careerforce offers different levels of certificates in youth work (levels 3-6).

University of Otago offers various options for studying theology that can be done via distance learning and block courses.

It is quite common for a person to begin as a general youth development practitioner and then carry the skills you have learned into more specialised fields. Graduates from these courses have moved from youth work into fields like counselling, teaching, social work, leadership in churches, outdoors leadership, management roles and overseas aid/development. They have moved onto to complete degrees.

Youth work/youth ministry is focused around the wellbeing of young people, which can lead to taking an emotional toll if you don’t have the right support. 

This support can look like seeing if your agency/church/parish will offer supervision or even counselling. It is important for any youth worker or person involved in youth ministry to have supervision regularly. You also are dealing with the complexity and diversity of issues that young people face. 

Doing things solo with no ongoing support is not safe practice for yourself or your young people.

Within a wider church whānau not everyone understands the generation you are journeying with and, as their advocate, it can be hard work building bridges between the different generations – but it is a bridge worth building.

Finding others with a heart for the same thing in your context is essential.

But while there are plenty of challenges in this work, there are also so many highlights to look forward to. 

Go and ask other people involved in youth ministry/youth work! They will have both beautiful and challenging stories.

Some of the experiences we hear about are:

• A rangatahi/young person believes in themselves and realises they have so much to offer the world!

• A lonely, disengaged rangatahi/young person connects with us and then their peers

• A quiet young person shares their skills in technology with our wider church whānau and their comfort grows until the church feels like “their place”

• A young person gets excited by what they are doing with us and starts bringing their school friends to our camps and events

• Young people show up for Study Support so they can catch up on or even excel at school

• Young people learn about God, praying and worship, and then get lost in worship together, experiencing God’s presence

• An anxious, isolated young person builds their trust in the youth leaders and youth group, and starts coming regularly, growing in confidence and beginning to laugh

Trust with a young person is such a privilege, and for them to know they have someone to listen and care when life is challenging is one of the greatest things. And it’s something we can offer.

The thing about youth ministry/youth work is that it is such a varied role and covers many different skills.

The main thing is that youth ministry/youth work is very relationship based, as this is a big part in building connections.

There is always the behind the scenes admin… which some don’t enjoy – but it’s important and is the silent infra-structure that holds things together.

Skills can be taught and we have listed different places and course to upskill above, from the Anglican annual event The Abbey to the two-year course The Priory to all the other courses mentioned.

All these skills must be held with:

• a love for God

• a heart to serve

• an openness and commitment to learning, growing and listening accountability to others

• a commitment to ensure you deliver youth ministry/youth work well

It’s about setting yourself up – and the young people you are journeying with – to win. All these things help add to your longevity in youth ministry/youth work.