What the Young People Are Saying
Rachel Buss | Friday, November 1, 2013 Based on a survey she did for her work at the Office of Outreach, Rachel shares five trends in how young people respond to the General Church. -Editor
For the past year I have been an intern with the New Church Office of Outreach (of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, which is referred to throughout this article as 'the New Church' or 'the church'). Last April we put on an outreach conference in Glenview, IL with the focus of finding ways to reach out to the younger generation because so many young people today are just not interested in the church. Leading up to the conference I decided to do a survey of young people (between 18 and 35) who have some connection to the New Church. The survey got almost 300 responses that were enlightening, challenging, and showed how strongly young people feel about the church even if they are not coming to services. After reading the results multiple times there were five main themes that I picked out in the responses.
Wondering about the inspiration for this article? Look up the New Church, which is based on the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.