Studies show many young adults are more religious than their parents

A church in Wellington is defying all the surveys and statistics showing religion is losing its relevance in New Zealand, particularly among youths.

Arise Church, which meets in Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre, started in 2003 with just 30 members in Wellington. Nearly nine years later, that number has grown to 4000 across the capital, Hamilton and Christchurch. And the majority of members, about 70 per cent, are between the ages of 18 and 35.

John Cameron, Senior pastor of Arise, says students are more interested in whether the message connects with who they are, rather than intellectual assent. “This is a generation that is not linear in its approach to truth — it’s what I feel connected to, that reflects me,” he explained.

The Presbyterian Church is also selling out events, with its Connect youth leaders’ conference fully booked for the first time last year. Of the 1000 youth workers affiliated to the church, 200 went to Christchurch for the event.

Victoria University religious studies professor Paul Morris says there is evidence of a revival among young adults across all religions. Dr Morris conducted a survey of 147 students at the university and found of those who had a religious upbringing, half were as committed to their faith as when they were growing up.

About 10 per cent continue to practice activities such as praying and meditating, and 18 per cent were more religious than their parents, twice as many as when the first survey was done in 1999. The findings spanned different faiths, but the students were mainly Christian.

However, Dr Morris notes that the opposite trend is occurring simultaneously. “It’s a religious revival which must be seen in the broader context of an increasingly secular world. The revival is smaller than the broad culture movement, but significant nonetheless,” he explained.

In the 2006 Census, 1.3 million people, or 34.7 per cent, had no religious affiliation, up from one million, or 29.6 per cent, in 2001.

Dr Morris believes much of the increase is a result of churches focusing their services on being appealing to a younger audience. Churches are trying to connect with youth by using their language — social media and video. Even the Pope is on Twitter, tweeting for the first time last July to announce the launch of the Vatican news information portal. He has more than 51,410 followers, despite only tweeting six times.

Whatever the reason, he says that those not raised in religious families are very unlikely to come to faith when they are adults. “The idea — the liberal truth — that you wouldn’t bring your children up in faith, and they would decide as adults — the only decision available to those who have no religious upbringing is no religion,” said Dr Morris.