Embrace the Future

Embrace the Future is a research project of Church of the Future (Kerk van die Toekoms) and DinkJeug.

To order the book, e-mail jeug@kaapkerk.co.za
Cost: R250 (postage included)

Also available in Afrikaans as “Ontmoet die Toekoms”
Contact jeug@kaapkerk.co.za to order a copy.
Cost: R250 (postage included)

BOOK: Embrace the Future

12 Trends on Young Adults, the Church and Spirituality by Anriëtte de Ridder, Francois Maritz and Stephan Naudé

Why this book?

“Why are fewer and fewer young adults involved in the church?”

This burning question led to a five-year-long research project, resulting in this book as one of the outcomes. The book addresses the question of whether young adults still have a need for faith and community as followers of Jesus, if they no longer feel at home in the spaces of the traditional church. And if so, what does it involve?

Embrace the Future is aimed at young adults and anyone curious about how this new church will take shape. By listening to the experiences of younger people in their faith journey, it can help us discover the future. This book summarises 12 trends about young adults, the church and spirituality. The book’s format invites the reader to become part of the journey to the future. It seeks to inspire you to participate in the conversation. Embrace the Future challenges you to experiment and innovate in your own context.

Who are the writers of Embrace the Future?

We are the Church of the Future Research Team – a group of pastors from the Dutch Reformed Church. We are passionate about Jesus Christ, the youth and families and we love the church we belong to. However, we are acutely aware of the shifts taking place in society and we want to make a meaningful contribution to the church’s understanding and response to these shifts. Our ministry focus is primarily on young people from the white, Afrikaans-speaking, middle- to high-income group in South Africa, which means our research is contextual in nature and does not fully account for the experiences of the majority of young adults in South Africa. Nevertheless, we believe our findings can provide pointers for people in South Africa and beyond to help them think innovatively about the future of the church and how faith can be experienced and practised by younger individuals.

Who is this book for?

The book is directed at young adults but is for anyone who wonders about the future of the Christian faith. It seeks to provide clues on how the church, as a community of believers, might look and function differently in the future for a new generation. The book is not theoretical but rather seeks to inspire you to be part of the conversation. It can be used for reflection, research and practical ideas. It invites you to experiment and innovate by practically applying the suggestions in the book within your own context. Feel free to share your stories and observations with us to enrich our findings and further clarify the trends.

Whom did we research?

We focused on people who are outside our churches (further away from the church) within the young adult age group of 20-35 years (the so-called Millennial and Generation Z groups). In the process, we quickly realised that we cannot group all young adults together.

Therefore, based on our observations, we loosely divided them into three groups:

the “closer” group,
the “further” group,
the “far” group

The book in a nutshell

Embrace the Future is the voice of a younger generation of passionate Christians for whom the term “church” does not refer to a building, denomination or worship service. They have the following characteristics:

They seek wisdom. They desire practical wisdom about life, a willingness to have genuine and relevant conversations, mentorship and direction, as well as balance regarding technology. (Trends 1-3)

They yearn for deeper relationships. They seek to experience belonging
and connection with diverse people where they can also share their own vulnerability without being judged. (Trends 4-6)

They have a passion to influence the world. They want to live a life of significance where they make a difference in their occupation and lives, hold others accountable and take leadership. (Trends 7-9)

They are deep spiritual beings. They want to experience God everywhere and in a variety of ways, practising habits and using symbols that hold significance. (Trends 10-12)

The book invites people who are currently in traditional congregations to join us in thinking about alternative ways of how the community of believers can look and be organised, to make sense and support a new generation in following and serving Jesus.

How does the book work?

Our research shows that there are 12 trends regarding the needs of the younger generation in terms of how they believe and live out their faith. When we think about how young people want to follow Jesus and make a difference in a rapidly changing world, it is very important to keep these 12 trends in mind. These trends also give a strong indication of what the church will look like in the future.

We deliberately chose to communicate the research on these 12 trends in an interactive format. We want to invite you as reader to not only think about these trends, but to participate in the journey of exploration about young adults, the church, and spirituality.