Young people?s antennae are tuned to what is fake and dull. That is exactly why parishes must listen to them

?So?, I asked the group of 17-year-olds, ?if you could change one thing about church, what would it be??

It was a question I had asked of every group of young people I met during 10 months of research for the diocese of Northampton. Jane leaned forward, swung her dark hair out of her eyes, and said:

?Cheer up!?

There were smiles from those around her, but a lot of nodding too. They all recognised the truth of what she had said.

?You go into church?, she went on, ?and it?s halfway through the service and you look round and no one?s smiling. They?re all depressed. I see about 50 people all looking at their watches, thinking, ?When?s this going to be over???

The cutting honesty of Jane?s observation was also a cry from the heart. I had gleaned from other encounters over those 10 months that young people stop going to church not, by and large, because they have stopped believing in God, but because they are not finding there the God they know. True, young people sometimes have a limited view; there is much that they do not see or appreciate. But when it comes to detecting apathy, pretence or habit, they have ultra-clear vision. When so much around them is fake, they seek what is real: in the case of the Church, they are looking for an expression of faith by believing people. When they do not find it, they feel sad and frustrated.

Sometimes they do find it. The Youth 2000 movement, for example, tries to make traditional Catholic practices relevant and accessible to young people and their cultural experiences; the Sion community employs a charismatic form of evangelisation for its school and parish missions; and a number of diocesan offices, especially the youth ministry team of Hexham and Newcastle, have worked on creating culturally relevant ways of proclaiming the Gospel to young people. These organisations meet the needs of teenagers for role models, a relevant spirituality, and community.

And there are parishes committed to their younger members. Take Holy Cross parish in Bedford. The pastoral worker there, Elizabeth Ridley, is helped by a 19-year-old youth leader who has a year free before entering university; she in turn has two sixth form assistants. With a group of catechists in their teens, they form an ?Impact!? group ? the 14-18 branch of the Young Christian Worker movement ? through which they put their faith into practice. These young people work alongside adults in the confirmation programme, making sure that it stays fresh and relevant, and attract a new crop of catechists each year.

?We?re doing our bit, and representing the young people of the parish?, Katie, Steve and Nick told me, when I asked why they give up their time. ?It?s very rewarding, too, to see so many young people coming to church ? and getting a lot out of what we?re doing.?

When a 15-year-old who is picked on at school for going to Mass sees older teenagers who have come through adolescence with their faith intact, she knows she is not alone. Katie, Steve and Nick show young people that it is possible to be Catholic and normal at the same time.

Elsewhere in our diocese, I discovered the importance of the St Vincent de Paul (SVP) youth groups. Again, the members of these groups are led by their peers (after initial help from an adult), and are involved both in prayer and socialising.

One value came up time and time again in my survey of young people in our diocese. They saw themselves as caring; they were attracted to church by caring people; and two-thirds of them were actively involved in helping others ? largely through their schools or parishes. SVP youth groups tap into this impulse. And unlike churches ? where you have to know what you are doing to take part ? neither specialised language nor inside knowledge is required.

In St Joseph?s parish, Gerrards Cross, for example, the SVP youth group, which has been running for a couple of years, has produced a flowering of ministry by older teenagers. As they grew in confidence and ideas, they encouraged their youth leader, Rod Isaacs, first to set up a pizza-and-discussion night after the monthly youth Mass, and then to organise a mid-week meeting for a more in-depth exploration of their faith. Using films, speakers, drama and prayer, the young people are able to discover for themselves how the Gospel message is relevant to their lives.

All such groups show that young people want formation in faith. Too often, parishes have presumed faith in their teenagers: confirmation programmes, school Masses, and parish youth programmes have just this premise. Faith, it is assumed, is imbibed somewhere along the way at home. But if this was ever true, it is often not true of young people now.

But where will we find the tools to teach with? As findings from sociologists and market researchers trickle into the Church, an understanding is growing that the cultural world of teenagers is quite distinct from that of older generations. They have a language, a culture, and priorities that can seem alien to those who try to reach out to them. The misunderstandings are endless.

Teenagers today are offered choice in every aspect of their lives: from trainers to sex. Their days are dominated by myriad options: they hear the message that everything important ? popularity, sexual prowess, success, money and good looks ? depends on making the right choices, and owning the right possessions. No one knows better than marketing companies that young people, finding their identity as they move through adolescence, are susceptible to such promises. ?You are what you own? is the mantra of our consumer society.

Inevitably, therefore, teenagers can view spirituality, too, as something to be consumed or possessed. It comes, after all, with its own set of choices. Young people are offered horoscopes, good luck charms, love potions and Wicca alongside mainstream Christianity. In a society which values tolerance above truth, they are not taught how to develop the critical faculties that will enable them to choose objectively. But they are media aware ? far more than their elders. They will get the point of any image, film clip, or piece of music far more quickly than an abstract idea presented through words.

Youth leaders know this. In one session of the ?Turntables? group at St Gregory?s, Northampton, Fr Mike Harrison showed a group of 14-16-year-olds a long clip from the film Gladiator. This led them into a discussion about martyrdom and their own experiences of suffering for their faith, which in turn took them to the letters of St Irenaeus. The film clip bridged the gap between contemporary culture and the early Church, and helped them to tackle some of the issues in their own lives.

Successful youth groups, I discovered, have certain characteristics in common. They begin with a meal and end with a time of prayer. They create temporary communities in which young people feel safe talking about their faith and the issues that are important to them. Almost anyone still practising their faith into their mid-teens is badly in need of this kind of support and encouragement. At a recent meeting of a new group in Slough, teenagers expressed their deep need to be understood by their peers. In this group, they said, there were things they could talk about that they could not discuss with any of their friends at school.

Isolated, lonely people do not make good evangelists. With careful nurturing and support, they become powerful advocates of the Gospel in their own culture. But in the mean time, young people are looking for a community to grow up in: hence Jane?s disillusionment with the adults in her church on Sunday. She does not see a community celebrating its salvation, but an act of duty or habit.

Parishes need to provide role models for the young people in our midst. If faith means so much to us, why do we not show it? Rather than asking how we can ?keep? teenagers inside the Church, do we need, perhaps, to ask ourselves what the Church is for us, what role prayer plays in our lives, and whether we care about the Kingdom of God? Teenagers at Mass may look bored and uninterested, but that does not mean they are not ready to be pricked awake once they see how what they have been taught makes a difference to those around them.

If parish communities are courageous and humble enough to accept a direct challenge from the young people in their midst, they will be surprised by what happens.

Avril Baigent is diocesan youth ministry coordinator with the diocese of Northampton. She is author of The Y Church Report, obtainable from www.nymo.org or on 01844 273 337 from her.

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