Dear Friends,

Three things which I noticed this last week or so…reading the daily newspaper at the end of January, I read a short article titled ‘Survey says Gen Z likelier to believe in God’.

This comments on a study of ten thousand people which suggests that only thirteen percent of those interviewed who were born after 1996 identify as atheists. Eighty two percent of that age group say they are ‘spiritual’ with a belief in things beyond the physical world.

This contrasts with sixty five percent of Gen X (those born between 1965 and 1980) and sixty three percent of baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964). Twenty five percent of Gen Z believe that the best explanation of how the world began is that God created it.

I found this news very encouraging, but we must be aware that ‘Spiritual’ could mean many things to those for whom Christian teaching has been almost completely absent during their formative years.

Alongside this, I met with the Baptist senior regional minister, Nigel Coles, earlier this month. He told me that he has been a Christian for fifty years and never has he seen such opportunities for growth in the churches he knows. In many of the fellowships he oversees there is emanating news of young people, new believers or seekers, who are transforming the places of worship they have begun attending by their questions and their hunger to know more about God.

What does this mean for us? Firstly, that we should be on the alert for the attendance of those who are new to church and anything Christian. Secondly, to be prepared to welcome them unhesitatingly into our fellowships without any equivocation about their lifestyles or attitude to religion. Thirdly, to be prepared to go on a journey with them, being ready to allow ourselves to be transformed by those who come asking questions.

I also scanned through a document about Chuck Smith who was the first Pastor to welcome God-seeking hippies in the early 1970’s, later termed the Jesus people, into his church. He stated that he had learned far more from these young men and women who lived on the edge of society than they did from listening to him!

I pray that Nailsea URC Chapel will be a welcoming place to all seekers of Jesus,

David