Rebekah Jane Smethurst

I am very grateful to James Pantyfedwen for the grant that they offered me to be able to study my Masters’ course in Theology between 2020-2023.  

Through this I was able to look at many aspects of children’s, young people and families’ ministry in the church through lots of different modules and writing a dissertation. My dissertation was all about the missing generation of young people (11-18-year-olds) in Baptist churches across Wales looking at how churches can support children in their faith development. Moreover, it helped to find out what churches can do to encourage young people to stay connected to the community of people in the church throughout their lives. This research work focused particularly on finding out from children and young people who attend church what brings them along and what they think the church can do to support them with their faith journeys. One aspect which was concluded as being key was their want for community and intergenerational ministries within church life. 

This grant has allowed me to study an area of ministry that I am passionate about and help me to think through what the church of today and the future may need to do by refining some of the ways that I look at children and families’ ministry. Thank you to James Pantyfedwen whose grant has allowed me to study this Masters in Theology.