African Research Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 6(1), 2019
Author: Stephen Ng’ang’a Njoroge
Lecturer, Presbyterian University of East Africa
School of Philosophy and Religious Studies
P.O Box 15591-00503, Mbagathi, Nairobi
Email: Stephen.njoroge@puea.ac.ke
ABSTRACT
Although youth attend church in large numbers, there has been a major concern with regards to their participation in Church programs in the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) Kajiado Presbytery. As a result, most of the church programs are being led by elderly people. Failure of youth to participate in various church programs is a great threat to growing churches because it means that present and future leaders are not being groomed. As a result churches will become weak or with no future hope. The purpose of this study was to analyse youth participation in church programs from the perspective of PCEA in Kajiado Presbytery. The study adopted a survey research design in which quantative research approach was utilized. In terms of scope, the research was conducted in three of the eight parishes in Kajiado presbytery which are: Mbagathi, Eserian and Baraka. The target population of this study was nine hundred and fifty youth and eighty church elders. Random sampling procedure was adopted in selecting a sample size of two hundred and seventy four and sixty six elders using Krejice and Morgan sample size determinant table. The research instrument used in the study was questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) verse 21.0 and the results were summarized in tables and figures which were later on presented using frequencies and percentages. Findings from the study indicated that most of the youth do not participate in church programs due to Challenges in leadership, lack of mobilization, awareness, interest, time and illegibility to serve in some programs. Therefore this study recommends that there is need of the church to diversify programs, increase more seminars and retreat for the youth, engage services of a full time youth director so as to accelerate youth programs. The church should continue financing youth programs, mobilize youth to be active in the church as well as practice youth inclusivity in major decision making bodies so that they can be able to air their views. On the other hand, youth should create time to serve God and join Bible study programs which will help them to grow in grace as they serve God.
Keywords: Youth programs, PCEA youth programs, PCEA and youth, youth church participation, PCEA youth participation, Presbyterian youth participation
1. INTRODUCTION
The Presbyterian Church is a denomination that is governed by session of elders, co-founded by John Calvin in 16th Century. This church was brought in East Africa specifically in Kenya in 1891 as a Christian mission at Kibwezi, and was referred to as the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. It currently consists of fifty six presbyteries. It has several programs which youth are supposed to participate as well (PCEA, 1998). For the purpose of this study, the term youth was restricted to the age bracket between 15 to 35 years as documented by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa practice and procedure manual (1998).
The Lord has appointed youth to be his helping hand and if properly directed and encouraged can do a lot, (youth talents well organized and well trained is needed in the churches). The youth will do something with their over flowing energies, and unless these energies are directed into right channels, they will be used by the youth in a way that will hurt their own spirituality and prove an injury to those with whom they associate. When youth give their heart to God, the church responsibility does not cease: they must be interested in the Lord’s work and led to see that he expects them to do something to advance his cause (Ellen, 2007).
According to Bailey and Reddon (2013), youth are agents of change marching forward to the future and dragging the older, less active in generation reluctantly with them. They are the helpful category for analysis broad treads and monitoring general patterns of religious change but one that must be treated carefully as young people are not a homogenous group.
In an attempt to increase youth participation in the church programs, most of the churches have started looking for ways to retain youth. One popular strategy has been hiring youth pastors or workers, even though using a paid youth pastor has not been easy in most of the congregations as a lot of commitment is needed. These youth coordinators or directors are expected to increase the frequency of youth participating in church programs, develop quality programs, enhance youth perception in the church and even keep them loyal to the denomination. Quality youth programs should create vibrant personal religion and a source of sacredness in the youth spiritual life which is equally indispensable for effective ministry. Lack of good youth programs can force them to go to other denominations since interesting and inspirational church programs are the pillar of the successful youth ministry (Chong-Ho and Tameifuna, 2014).
Different forums should be created to address issues affecting youth. Hershey (2008) lists some of the factors leading to non-participation of youth in the church programs as a result of increased affluence, i.e. lifestyle as the main factor in determining who goes to church, increased mobility, youth normally settled as a result of looking for jobs and a desire to look for the best pleasing and accommodating church. The church attitudes regarding evangelism i.e. how does the church reach the youth and treat them (on healthy extremes on how the youth should behave, they need freedom) our own self-fulfilling prophecy. Our stereotypes only reinforce themselves and promote distance. This helps to retain youth in the church (Hershey, 2008 ).
The local church with no youth and children is a dying church. Heitman (2015) suggests that in order to become a hero of your church, the following must be done. Youth Pastors must learn how to call their youth by names, regularly lay hands on students during prayer, and let them hear you pray especially for them by name. Additionally, pastors should show them love, care, laugh with them; talk with them and play, use illustrations in sermons that relate to them and involve youth in altar services with special prayer for them. Church pastor should make sure attend individual youth functions such as graduations, weddings, pray for them as they go back to school or a broad. Investment in leadership resources and in co-operate monthly leadership training, strategizing with church leadership to help structure a youth budget are among other steps to take to keep the youth in the church. Let the youth become involved in ushering greetings, sound and video booths, church website, music ministry, Sunday school teaching and serving. Lastly, long term thinking on how to retain the youth should involve the youth in missions, and involve them in outside ministries as well as making sure that youth gatherings are places where friends are welcomed and desired, listening to the youth and showing interest to them, be patient with them and with the programme built for the future. Youth from humble background should be assisted where possible by the church especially in pursuing their education and this make them intact and active in church programs even when they grow up (Heitman, 2015). In his book, Town (2012), indicate that youth sometimes fail to participate in the church programs due to their stereotyped image as viewed by adults who consider them as impulsive, immature, unreliable, undependable, inexperience, untrusted, dishonest, leadership threat due to their education or disobedient which hence erects psychological barriers between the older generation and youth commonly referred to as generation gap. Thus this study intended to analyze youth participation in church programs in the context of Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Kajiado Presbytery, Kajiado County, Kenya.
2. METHODOLOGY
This study adopted survey research design with quantitative approach to analyze youth, participation in church programs in PCEA Kajiado Presbytery. This study was carried out in Kajiado County. The target population comprised of the three parishes with nine hundred and fifty youth members and eighty church elders. The sampling procedure used in the study was random sampling. Krejice and Morgan (1970) table of determining sample size was used to arrive at the sample size. The sample size from 950 youth was two hundred and seventy four out of whom two hundred and fifty eight responded. On the other hand, the sample size determinant from eighty elders was sixty six elders out of whom forty responded.
The study used primary sources in data collection by gathering information directly from respondents through questionnaires which were well-constructed with closed-ended questions. These questionnaires were administered to both the youth and the elders. Legal and ethical considerations were highly considered when collecting the data. The data collected from the study were analyzed statistically using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Distributions of these data involved the use of frequencies and percentages.
3. RESULTS
Background Information
The social demographic characteristics of participants were sought with the aim of establishing the distribution based on gender, marital status, age bracket, occupation, and educational level,
Slightly more than a half (51.6%) of the youth who participated in the study were female. On the other hand, nearly a half (48.4%) of them were male. This shows that there is slightly an even distribution of youth in church based on gender. However, females are more in churches as compared to their male counter parts. With regards to marital status, the vast majority (86%) of the youth were single meaning that majority of them are in schools while a few (14%) of them indicated that they were married. In relation to age, half (50%) of the youth were between 15-20 years of age while (29.1%) of them were 21-25 years of age. A few (21 %) however indicated that they were 26 years and above. Nearly two thirds (64.7%) of the youth indicated that they were not employed and a few (18.2%) of them however indicated that they were employed while 17.1% were self-employed. Slightly less than a half (41.5%) of the youth had KCSE certificate as their highest level of education. Another 25.2% of them indicated that they had attained a degree whereas 17.1% of them had a diploma.
In terms of gender, majority (75%) of the church elders who participated in the study were male while 25% of them however indicated that they were female. When asked to indicate their marital status, an overwhelming majority (95%) of the church elders were married while a few (5%) of them indicated that they were widowed. In terms of age bracket, slightly more than two thirds (70%) of the church elders were 46 years and above. Nearly a third (30%) of them however indicated that they were 45 years of age and below meaning that this presbytery is considering young elders in leadership. This is an indication that most of the church elders have vast experience in youth and participation in church programs and services. With reference to occupation, slightly more than a half (57 %) of the church elders were self-employed and 43 % of them indicated that they were employed. With regards to educational level, slightly more than a third (37.5%) of the church elders indicated that they had a diploma as their highest level of education. Nearly a quarter (22.5%) of them indicated that they had a degree as their highest level of education qualification whereas 17.5% of the elders indicated they had attained a Masters degree.
Youth Programs and Participation in the Church
The study sought to establish whether youth were being involved in the various youth programs in the church. To answer this objective, there are a number of items that were analyzed. These included: youth membership in different programs, reasons youth gave for not participating in Church programs, programs that attract youth in the Church. Areas that the youth Leadership have failed to Address in regard to church programs. Elders’ Response on What the Church is doing to Support Youth Programs and whether the church supported youth programs financially.
Youth Membership in Different Church programs
The youth were asked to indicate the programs that they were members. Programs suggested included: evangelism, Christian education, PCMF, praise and worship team, dancing club, Sunday school teachers, brigade teachers, Bible study/ TEE, health board, football club, LCC sub-committee and choir.
Table 1
Distribution of the youth on the various church programs that they are members
As shown by the table, the majority (60.5%) of the youth indicated that they were not members of any church programs. The remaining indicated that they were members of various programs the key of them being praise and worship team (9.7%), dancing club (7.0%), football club (7.0%), choir (3.9%) and Sunday School teachers (3.1%).
Reasons for not Joining Church Programs
The youth were further asked to give reasons which contributed to many of them not joining church programs. The reasons that were suggested included: lack of time, not being aware, illegible, being a new church member, laziness, being a student, lack of interest and lack of motivation.
Table 2
Reasons Why the Youth Are not Involved in Any Church Programs
Slightly more than a third (37.6%) of the youth indicated that lack of time was a key reason as to why they did not join church youth groups. A few (15.5%) of them indicated that lack of awareness of the youth church programs made them not be involved. Other key reasons suggested included not being illegible (14.3%), laziness (11.2%) and lack of motivation (5.4%) respectively.
As shown by the table, nearly a half of the youth are not sure on the areas that their youth leaders have failed to address in the church. However, 19.8% of the youth indicated that the youth leaders had failed in terms of follow ups and mobilization of youth in the church. Other key areas failed by the youth leaders as suggested by the youth included: innovation empowerment (7.3%), addressing on contemporary issues (6.6%), supporting talents and sports evangelism (5.8%) and diversification of youth activities (4.7%).
In terms of youth and leadership, the responses of the church elders varied. Slightly more than half (55%) little had been done with regards to the inclusion of youth in the church leadership programs. As such, they suggested that there was need for the church to include the youth in the leadership positions. This may be an indication that maybe the reason as to why the youth lack the moral to participate in church programs may be due to the fact that it is led by elders and not their fellow youth members.
For leadership preparation and positions, a few (7.5%) of the church leaders indicated that the church was currently in the process of mentoring young people in their respective congregations for leadership roles. The church elders also gave varied opinions regarding what the congregation was doing towards supporting youth programs. The opinions given included allocating of funds, allocation of own services to the youth, engagement of well-trained youth director’s services and mobilization and mentorship programs. The responses are as further summarized by Table 4.
In supporting youth programs in the church, lightly less than a half (42.5%) of the church elders indicated that the church is planning to engage the services of a well-trained youth director. Slightly more than a quarter (27.5%) of the elders reported that their congregation was increasing youth mobilization and mentorship programs. Additionally, 22.5% of the elders indicated that the youths have been given their own services within the congregations.
Programs that Attract Youth in the Church
The youth also gave responses regarding programs that attract them in the church. The ministries suggested included: seminars/retreat/workshop, follow up mobilization, diversification of programs, sport evangelism, dance and music, Bible study, preaching and grouping of the youth. The responses provided are summarized by Table 5.
As shown by the table, the key programs that should attract youth in the church included: seminars/retreat/workshop (19.8%), diversification of programs (16.3%), bible study (13.6%) and follow up mobilization (10.1%). On the other hand, slightly more than a quarter (29.8%) of the youth in the churches are still not sure about what should be put in place so as to encourage and promote discipleship among the youth in the church.
Whether the Office of the Youth Director Is Having Great Impact in regard to Youth Programs
The youth were asked to indicate their extent of agreement on whether the office of the youth director was having great impact in regard to youth programs in the church. Figure 1 presents a summary of the responses they provided.
Figure 1 Whether the Office of the Youth Director has an impact in church programs
Nearly half (41.1%) of the youth strongly agreed that the office of the youth director was having a great impact in the parish. On the other hand, slightly less than a quarter 23.3% of them strongly disagreed whereas 19% of the youth agreed but with some level of doubt.
Whether the Church Supported Youth programs financially
With regards to the role played by the church in supporting youth programs, the respondents were asked to indicate their extent of agreement on whether the church supported the youth programs financially in the following categories: strongly agree, strongly disagree, undecided and agree with doubt.
Figure 2 Whether the Church Supported Youth programs financially
As shown by the figure, slightly more than half (53.1%) of the youth strongly agreed that the church did support the youth programs financially. This was however not the case among 21.3% of them who strongly disagreed with the statement, 6.6 % who were undecided, and 19% who agreed with a doubt.
4. DISCUSSION
The results indicated that there were more female youth as compared with male. These findings concur with studies by Magee (2010) on spirituality and religious involvement of young adults in which 634 young adults were surveyed online and 25 % of the respondents were male while 75% were female.
The majority of the youth respondents were between the age brackets of 15-20. Generally in this age brackets is where most of the youth are transiting from primary schools to secondary schools while the age brackets of 21-25 consist of college and university students. This concurs with the same study by Magee (2010) in which she conducts a research on spirituality and religious involvement of young adults in the age brackets of 29 years and younger. In the studies, she established that 66.7% of the respondents were vibrant in their faith and actively involved in the church community. As reviewed in the literature by Hershey (2008), most of the youth in this age are busy looking for jobs in different places most likely from rural to urban, and therefore there is the need for the church to create an alternate environment for them.
Most (60.5%) of the youth are not members of any program in the church. The remaining indicated that they were members of various groups the key of them being praise and worship team (9.7%), dancing club (7.0%), football club (7.0%), choir (3.9%) and Sunday school teachers (3.1%). This aligns with a study by Rackley (2013) which established that 60% of young people will leave the church permanently or for an extended period. Additionally, a study by Vitisia (2016) among evangelical youth by Christianity today in America indicated that 70 percent of young adults of age 14 to 24 stop attending church regularly. The same studies identify a survey by Life Way Research where it was found that 70% of 23-30 year olds dropped out of the church (Vitisia, 2016).
A vast majority (93%) of the youth indicated that parents encouraged them to participate in church programs. This findings align with a study by Kim-Spoon, Longo and McCullough (2012) on how parents’ religiousness interfaces with mediating and moderating processes (such as adolescents’ religiousness and parent-child attachment) to influence adolescent adjustment. The studies established that religion plays a significant role in the lives of many adolescents in the U.S. referring to a survey in which approximately 84% of adolescents (13-17 years old) believed in God, 82% believed that religion was important and 56% attended religious services monthly. In the same studies, adolescents’ personal religiousness was not significantly predictive of adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms, while parent-adolescent attachment was found to have significant direct effects on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Kim-Spoon et.al, 2012).
Slightly more than half (53.1%) of the youth strongly agreed that the church did support the youth programs financially. This concurs with research by Priest, Wilson and Johnson (2010) on church programs initiated by mega churches and some of which involve the youth. In the studies, it was established that megachurches directly supported an average of five national Christian workers in other countries, with an average (mean) maximum support of $8,650 per worker per year (Priest et. al, 2010). Furthermore, from their survey, it was found that 78 percent of African American mega churches, act as their own sending agency for some or all of the missionaries whom they support financially (Priest et. al, 2010).
Nearly half (45.7%) of the youth strongly agreed that there was a proper mentorship program in the church. These findings concur with a study by Chiroma and Cloete (2015) that focused on a critical evaluation of mentorship programs in three Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) seminaries. From the research that was conducted in the three major denominational seminaries in Nigeria, it was established that mentorship plays an important role in the holistic development of seminary students especially in three areas, namely spiritual formation, character and ministry formation (Chiroma and Cloete, 2015). Categorically, the incorporation of mentorship programs in churches is necessary to shape the youth in terms of their spiritual growth.
5. CONCLUSION
From the analysis and summary of this study, there are a number of conclusions which were made. In terms of youth groups and participation in the church programs, it was concluded that there were indeed a number of issues which were limiting the participation of youth in their programs. Key issues included: lack of motivation, mobilization, interest, illegibility and time. Moreover, some youth were not aware of the roles of these programs. There is need for an awareness program to be initiated within the congregations regarding the various programs available in the church. The awareness program should be designed in a manner that it familiarizes the youth with the programs as well as informing them on some of the benefits that they may get from being members of these programs. The church should also design youth programs which are youth oriented and are in a position to meet their needs in different stages. There is need of the parishes to diversify church programs, increase more seminars and retreat for the youth and engage services of a full time youth director so as to help accelerate youth programs. Central youth committees from the national level should be responsible in designing most of these programs.
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Suggested Citation
Njoroge, S. (2019). An analysis of youth participation in church programs in thePresbyterian Church of East Africa, Kajiado Prebytery. African Research Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 6(1), 2019. Available online at http://arjess.org/social-sciences-research/youth-participation-in-church-programs-a-study-of-the-presbyterian-church-of-east-africa-youth-in-kajiado-presbytery.pdf
