A new survey reveals that there had been a significant increase of spiritual hunger among young people throughout the length of the pandemic.
Based on the survey conducted by Savanta ComRes for YourNeighbour's Give Hope campaign, Premier Christian News reports that young people between ages 18 and 34 have "prayed more often since the start of the pandemic" and that one third of the 2,065 respondents said they have "read the Bible more often."
The study, which was conducted throughout the Lent period, also revealed that three in ten young people have participated more often in church services and that thirty one percent have given more financial support to community-based works led by churches.
"One thing we wanted to know was had {lockdown} had an impact on young people in terms of their spirituality. Had that made young people more open to God, more interested in faith more willing to explore areas of spiritual life and spiritual community?" Dr. Russell Rook, the Co-founder of YourNeighbour, told Premier.
Dr. Rook continued that based on the survey, two in five young people have been praying more, 31% of young people have looked in the Bible to try and see if there's some useful advice and guidance there, and 29% of have tried out church online.
"Maybe they wouldn't have gone to church down the end of the road, but they felt they can do it on their laptop, or on their phone or on their iPad," he commented.
Dr. Rook also expressed his gladness over the spiritual turnaround which was more evident on young believers during a global downtime.
"And so interestingly, while it has been a really tough time for young people, it seems also to have been a really positive time, in terms of young people turning to God, and the church for help and advice and to make a contribution," he said.
The summary of the survey's other findings are as follows:
A total of 46% of young people were more likely to have prayed more often than the older generations. Only 28% was composed of those aged 35-54-year-old while 15% responded affirmatively from those 55+ year olds.
The younger Christians were also more likely to have read their Bible more often. 31% of 18-34-year-olds said they did in contrast with the 16% 35-54-year-olds. About 65% of those aged 55+ were also more likely to read the Bible more frequently.
As for church service attendance while still in pandemic, 29% of 18-34-year-olds have attended more compared to the 13% of 35-54-year-olds. Understandably, 7% of people aged 55+ could not attend onsite services.
On keeping this momentum in young people, Dr. Rook said that if churches "invest in the right way" by creating spaces "that offers genuine care and support for young people," then they will see more young people become interested in faith and in attending church.
"And so we'd encourage everyone to go to yourneighbour.org and find out if there's a project there that excites them that they can support which is all about churches, reaching young people in their community, who may be vulnerable, who may be struggling, who may be looking for the church's help and support right now," he suggested.
