What do the kids really want?

If there is one thing that religion and the mass media have in common in South Africa it is the problem of getting the attention and interest of 16 to 24 year old youths.

For most mainstream churches this is an old problem.

When I look back at my matric class at Christian Brothers College, Pretoria, in 1960, I recall a reunion a few years after leaving school and finding that the vast majority of my Catholic classmates simply didn’t go to church anymore. (The reason I still go to church is in spite of my attending the college, not because of it. But that’s another story.)

As far as the mass media is concerned, this problem is pretty much a new phenomenon. Research data shows that just about every medium imaginable radio, television, newspapers and magazines, have declining 16-24 year old audiences.

What the media is finding now is probably what churches have known for a long time. Youth simply gets bored with routine and things like depressing current affairs, man’s inhumanity to man and news bulletins proving just how efficiently and comprehensively adults are making a mess of the world.

I would guess, however, that both from the Church’s and mass media’s points of view, our kids just don’t like having to listen to adults tell them how to behave. What to like and what not to like.

I am not suggesting that this group is anti-establishment, renegade or ungodly.

Kids today are a wonderful bunch on the whole. They always have been after all, weren’t we adults all kids at some time or another, and, my goodness, weren’t we wonderful?

I just think they find going to church boring. Just as they find most newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations boring.

Notice though, how they don’t find cellphones and sending masses of SMSs to each other boring at all.

Just to give an idea of just how successful cellphones have been in terms of capturing the imagination of this elusive market, the people at Multichoice who operate DStv in South Africa have logged well over 1,5 million ringtone downloads and personalised cellphone logos since launching this service two years ago.

And what they’re excited about is that their research shows that this youth market spends about R6 billion a year.

But, how on earth can this be of any interest to churches in their quest to maintain the interest of this group?

Well, I think churches and religious organisations would do well to keep an eye on what the media are doing to bring these lost sheep back into their particular folds. They might learn some interesting strategies and just what is topical in terms of appealing to this young group.

Churches need to start responding to what might appear to be the pointless, trivial needs of children instead of just condemning them. They need to find out what is so appealing about cellphones and the whole concept of the SMS instead of clucking away in disgust and shaking their adult heads at what they see as a stupid and fruitless pursuit.

I believe that churches need to start employing the basic principles of effective communication if they’re serious about keeping kids interested in going to church. And that is based on the premise of it being totally unimportant what priests and church elders want to say to the kids, but rather what the kids want to hear.

Perhaps youth activity in churches has to go beyond youth groups and youth masses. Because only a minority of youth actually find these appealing.

Perhaps our bishops have to realise that most church services are created and designed specifically for adults.

Finding the answers is extremely difficult and I certainly don’t have them. If I did I would not be writing this column from the middle of Johannesburg but rather from my own island in the Bahamas because the answers the churches are looking for are the same as those business and the mass media are seeking.

The problem is that the kids themselves don’t know the answers. So we adults have to keep looking, keep experimenting and most of all just keep on trying until we find the solution.

Right now, we’re not even close. And it is too important to ignore.