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The State of Play in Australian Youth Ministry: an Exploration of the Patterns and Impacts of Youth Ministry Roles in Australian Churches

In: Journal of Empirical Theology
Authors:
Graham D. Stanton Director, Ridley Centre for Children’s and Youth Ministry, Ridley College, Australian University of Theology Melbourne Australia

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https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3163-7883
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Miriam Pepper NCLS Research, Centre for Religion, Ethics and Society, Charles Sturt University Sydney Australia

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https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0238-9905
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Abstract

Using data from the Australian National Church Life Survey (NCLS) this paper maps the patterns of staffing in specialised youth ministries across the Australian churches, explores the characteristics of churches who have paid, full-time specialised youth ministry roles compared with churches who have part-time, unpaid or no specialised roles, and examines whether investment in full-time paid youth ministry roles predicts growth in the number of young people attending a church. This analysis presents Australian youth ministry as a system in decline, where most Australian churches engaged with a very small number of teenagers and young adults, and very few churches employed full-time youth ministers. Where an investment in full-time youth ministry was made, churches saw more positive outcomes in youth participation and retention into adulthood than churches with part-time or no youth ministers.

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