Sociological Drivers of Segmentation Within Youth and Children's Mission and Ministry in Western Contexts

Abstract

The sociological drivers of segmentation within youth and children's mission and ministry in Western contexts are commonly seen as social developments in the last 70 years. This view focuses on the symptoms of foundational issues relating to modernity (specifically the emergence of the reflexive self) and so overlooks the significance of deeper questions that began further back in history. Considering these foundational issues should lead churches to reflect on the value of more intergenerational approaches.

Keywords

Segmentation intergenerational church youth children

Introduction

In explaining the existence of age-segmented approaches to Youth and Children's (Y&C) ministry in the West, those advocating and lamenting such approaches often stress recent social developments, including consumerism, new communication technologies, social fragmentation, cultural diversity, professionalization, and developmental psychology. There is broad agreement that the church has responded pragmatically to these changes through age segmentation. Some go on to argue that churches need to proactively respond with age segmentation as a necessary missional solution (Cray, 2002; Hickford, 2003; Ward, 1997). Others argue that churches ought to resist this tendency and work toward being more intergenerational (Allen & Ross, 2012; Gardner, 2008; Harkness, 2012; Nel, 2001).

This article will examine said recent social developments but then argue that the background to age segmentation goes back further in time than is allowed by most of these thinkers. While there are examples of segmentation throughout church history (Barfield, 2016) and while segmentation in the West has intensified and accelerated in the last 70 years, the significance of foundational issues relating to the rise of modernity in the last few hundred years has often been overlooked.

Reasons for Segmentation

Consumerism

Consumerism does not merely mean individuals spend a lot of time buying things, instead, more profoundly, the identity of individuals is now being found in what they consume (Baker, 2011, p. 46; Gauthier, 2014, pp. 73–77; Sassatelli, 2019), this extends to religious identity (Cray, 1998, pp. 5–6); commodification is now “the normal means of social existence” (Gauthier et al., 2013, p. 11) where everything, including religion (Possamai, 2009, p. 76), has become “a consumer item, including meaning, truth and knowledge” (Sampson, 1994, p. 31). Sociologists of religion see this as a profound change from the past; now the church must create “multiple niche markets catering to specific consumer needs” (Flory and Miller 2000, p. 10).

While some Y&C thinkers are reluctant to embrace consumerism wholeheartedly (Brierley, 2003, p. 76; Cray, 2002, p. 21; Hickford, 2003, p. 131; Pimlott & Pimlott, 2008, p. 67; White, 2007), there is nevertheless a consensus that, at worst, a pragmatic acceptance or, at best, a missiological imperative has led, and should lead, churches to react to the consumerism in society, by working with the culture of choice rather than against it.

In studying youth congregations, Hall concludes that “the entrepreneurial spirit found in evangelical leaders naturally produced little kingdoms that provided for the needs of the market” (2003, pp. 71–72). The Anglican report “Youth a part” concurs seeing the key question as “how can we make our churches and other initiatives more attractive to teenagers” (Church of England, 1996, p. 13) which leads to new forms of worship and church structure shaped by youth (Church of England, 1996, p. 38; see also Cray, 2002; Withers, 2006). Ward takes things further seeing no option but to embrace consumerism as a defining framework within which Y&C exists. For Ward, “far from rejecting such developments as superficial or theologically problematic, I believe that the commodification is essential for evangelism” (2002, p. 63).

Gardner agrees that the church has reacted to consumerism by treating Y&C as consumers. However, he adds that youth, who are already experiencing an extended adolescence, are sold the idea that you can perpetually be an adolescent; so, youth culture itself becomes a product, something that anyone can buy into (2008, pp. 37–52). The idea of youth being those who are in a state of becoming is then sold as a product—you are always on a search for identity and you can buy things to help you become. The result is that instead of adults emerging out of a cocoon, youth semi-permanently cocoon themselves, never emerging from it fully into adulthood. Youth has become a lifestyle to consume (Hilborn & Bird, 2002, pp. 38–44), although this is as much a prison from which youth cannot escape as much as a free choice arena for young consumers (Root, 2007, p. 56).

However, some of the above-mentioned writers, overlook the way in which Y&C are not simply passive consumers, they are, participators in and producers of many of the things they consume, including religion (Flory & Miller, 2000, p. 243; Possamai, 2009, p. 73; Ward, 1997, p. 85). Dean identifies how a non-participative inherited adult church culture sits uneasily with this (2010, p. 125); seemingly it is not enough to produce religious products for Y&C, Y&C needs to be involved in the creation of the product itself.

New Communication Technologies

Alongside consumerism, Cray contends that new communication technologies have changed the way individuals experience the world, altering the significance of face-to-face relationships (2002, p. 8). Miles provides an example of this in arguing that new media technologies frame a way for individuals building community which is commoditized around apps and online games to the extent that “consumption effectively becomes community” (Miles, 2018, p. 2).

Cray argues that these developments make Y&C question old ideas of authority and that the church has not been good at engaging with this world (2002, p. 8). Some suggest that the situation is not as extreme as Cray believes and that the relationship between new communication technology and religious authority is more nuanced, with signs that religious authority is not being eroded but is being re-negotiated in a dialectic of “erosion-augmentation” (Cheong & Arasa, 2015, pp. 457–460). However, even if the picture is not as serious as Cray considers it to be, these changes nevertheless form part of the argument for age segmentation; the inherited church struggles to make appropriate use of these technologies and so cannot communicate to the new generations.

Lyon argues that while new technology is not the origin of consumerism, without such technologies “the now universal existence of consumerism and consumer cultures would be impossible” (1999, p. 68). That is not to suggest that teenagers cannot use technology for building healthy communities, indeed this has been shown to be precisely what they do (Zirschky, 2015) rather, even these constructive uses of technology among teenagers and churches are intertwined with consumer culture.

Social Fragmentation and Cultural Diversity

New communication technologies also birthed two partners for consumerism: social fragmentation and cultural diversity. New communication technologies have exploded into a plethora of media (McCalla, 2010). The globalized and fragmented nature of these technologies increased awareness of cultural diversity and fostered the development of youth culture itself (Possamai, 2009, pp. 68–91). The result is that not only is consumerism given opportunity to flourish from new technology, but also technology fuels consumerism by providing multiple options and opportunities to produce that which is consumed (Mansvelt, 2011). For Lyon, Los Angeles is a picture of this new social condition; the city's centrelessness becomes a metaphor “for postmodern consumer culture in general; all is fragmented, heterogeneous, dispersed, plural—and subject to consumer choices” (1999, p. 76 see also 2000, p. 77).

Those proposing contextualized-segmented approaches give social fragmentation and cultural diversity as reasons for age segmentation (Hickford, 2003; Withers, 2006) with Davie defining the contemporary challenge of the church as one of “trying to resist both the excessive fragmentation of modern culture and an over-rigorous reaction to this” (1994, p. 200). Ward concludes that “the church's insistence that fellowship and the worship of God should be conducted using only one subcultural medium flies in the face of increasing cultural diversity” (1996, p. 157); his dream of expressing church through networks reflects this diversity and the culture of choice (2002).

While sympathetic to the benefits of integrating Y&C into the church, Emery-Wright nevertheless concludes that this is not possible due to the fact that “teenagers live in a world that culturally is very different from that of the church” (2012, p. 169) and that “youth cultures are so varied and estranged from the church culture that traditional attempts to socialise teenagers into church culture will fail” (2012, p. 169).

This taps into another facet of contemporary society outlined as significant in some arguments for segmentation: the need for authenticity. Y&C need to experience church in culturally relevant ways; if they do not, it is, to them, inauthentic and therefore meaningless (Root, 2017, pp. 6–8). In terms of cultural relevance, inherited adult cultural models of church, it is claimed, are inadequate (Emery-Wright, 2012, pp. 161–162; Hickford, 2003, p. 158).

Dean cautions however, that in terms of segmenting Y&C from adults, it is of course possible that segmentation itself drives segmentation, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy that “may actually contribute to adolescents’ sense of fragmentation by reinforcing cultural views of passion that contradict the unifying Passion of the cross” (2004, p. 13).

Professionalization

Churches have also reacted to consumer society by hiring professional youth workers. This has been a key response by churches seeking to provide Y&C with religious services they will buy into. Cray documents this trend by mapping how they pragmatically promote age segmentation (2002, p. 6) which accords with Hall's research that sees youth congregations as the outworking of entrepreneurial youth workers (2003, pp. 71–72).

As with the other reactions by the churches, this is in line with the movement within wider society. Lyon comments on how, in light of consumerism, communications technology, social fragmentation, and cultural diversity, the late 20th century came to be dominated by the desire to control risk and plan the future; technique and performance indicators have taken over in a world whose main question is: “Can we manage?” (Lyon, 1999, p. 91) rather than is it right?

It is possible to make a similar point with respect to professionalization as Dean does for social fragmentation. Specialists will specialize and so hiring professionals to work with Y&C directly could be a self-fulfilling prophecy as they create structures for specific age groups and work along age-segmented lines.

Developmental Psychology

Some have argued that in addition to these socioeconomic structural changes, segmentation has been driven by an acceptance of a stage-based approach to psychological development. Not only in schools but also in churches, one of the factors working toward the dominance of age-segmented education is a stage-based approach to Christian education (Allen & Ross, 2012, p. 39; Espinoza & Johnson-Miller, 2014; Harkness 1996, p. 238).

Looking Back Beyond the Last 70 Years

While the above authors promote or lament age-specific ministries by focusing on social developments over the last 70 years, even only a brief historical review demonstrates that age-specific ministries pre-date much of what has been described; we should at least recognize that age segmentation is not a completely new phenomenon.

From the early to middle ages, young people and children were sometimes given over by parents to monasteries and convents and received education there (Barfield, 2016, p. 127; Sheridan, 2019, p. 173). This process (termed Oblation) was perhaps a far cry from contemporary segmented Y&C ministry and some have argued that it was more negative and pragmatic than positive and strategic (Boswell, 1988), but nevertheless, it does demonstrate willingness in the distant past to group young people together for the purposes of education and formation.

Y&C in medieval England were also sometimes placed in parish churches to assist priests and would have then been under their instruction (O’Keefe, 2014, p. 72). This replicated the widespread medieval English practice of sending adolescents into some form of service or apprenticeship across various trades (O’Keefe, 2014, 68–78) and is another example of young people being brought into a specific setting due to their age.

Even more widespread would have been the Confirmation practices that developed over the centuries in Europe. The history of the development of Confirmation is complex, varied by country, and in time by denomination (for helpful summaries of this see Taylor, 1945; Wiersma, 2018). For the purposes of this article, however, it is sufficient to note that although not all candidates for Confirmation would have been young people, given the dominance of infant baptism and the dominant social standing of the church in wider society, Confirmation did become very much about young people (Taylor, 1945, p. 76; Wiersma, 2018, pp. 15–16) and so provides evidence of segmentation in the discipleship of young people in the early modern period.

While such preparation for Confirmation might be described as catechesis, catechesis is a wider category and one which again provides evidence of segmentation along the lines of age. Whatever the practice, in theory at least, the early Anglican Canons proposed some forms of segmentation in catechesis, for example, (in 1603) stating that children should be catechized by the minister each Sunday afternoon (Bray, 1998, p. 349).

Segmentation continued and intensified into the late modern period with the Sunday School movement beginning in the 18th century. While education of working-class children was the motivation of its founder Raikes, it developed in various ways, including a focus on mission, especially post-1870 (Cliff, 1986, pp. 165–176; Senter, 2010, pp. 57–58). The beginning of the 20th century then witnessed a remarkable growth of youth organizations in the US (Senter, 2010, p. 76) and in Britain (Gardner, 2008, pp. 32–33). Historical accounts of early youth missions show striking similarities with today's “cutting edge” youth mission; there is perhaps as much continuity as the difference between 1870 and today.

The explanations for age-segmented ministry as outlined in the first section have therefore potentially overlooked the extent to which work with Y&C has been run along age-segmented lines for longer than the last 70 years. While age segmentation can be shown to have a very long historical tail (as demonstrated above), this article will argue that it is the deep sociocultural trends of modernity (especially those relating to the concept of the self) that have the most explanatory power when it comes to contemporary segmentation. In order to consider this possibility, this article will now examine some key developments of modernity. As part of this, Giddens’ work on the central aspects of late modernity will be used to question how recent some reasons for segmentation really are.

The history of modernity began in the socioeconomic, cultural, political, philosophical, and religious changes of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment (Lyon, 1999, pp. 25–28). Out of these changes in the 16th to 18th centuries, the relationship between the self and society was recast (Trueman, 2020). As Giddens outlines, perhaps the most central aspect of modernity is the emergence of the reflexive self and its interaction with abstract systems (1991, pp. 10–34). In pre-modern societies changes to self-identity were few and those that did exist were already mapped out, however, in the move from child to adult “in the settings of modernity, by contrast, the altered self has to be explored and constructed as part of the reflexive process of connecting personal and social change” (Giddens, 1991, p. 33). Abstract systems are anonymous social systems, such as large-scale bureaucracies, which have come to dominate the public sphere (Giddens, 1991, p. 18) and it is in reaction to these that the self reflexively constructs itself. This is not to suggest that people in pre-modern times never contemplated life as an individual, only that, in the conditions of modernity, the constructed reflexivity of the self has become the central source of identity for individuals.

Root follows Giddens to argue that while there are social forces that try to influence youth (see also White, 2007) the most important element of the contemporary psycho-social condition is “the loss of tradition and the radical freedom of the self to create its own world by itself” (2008, pp. 78–79). Root uses Taylor's idea of the buffered self (2017, p. 5) (similar to Giddens’ reflexive self) to chart the move away from duty to authenticity as a defining feature of self-understanding (2017, pp. 20–21) in the 20th century.

As will be argued, it is in the context of the reflexive (or buffered) self and its reflection vis-à-vis abstract systems that other sociocultural changes came to have their effect. The social changes that many Y&C thinkers outline as significant in the lives of Y&C and the development of Y&C ministry and mission are in some ways the end trajectory of the conditions of modernity and also, most importantly, the conditions within which the reflexive self reflects.

Consumerism Revisited

As demonstrated above, consumerism is considered central to the postmodern condition and the church's response. However, consumerism is not a postmodern phenomenon so much as a modern one (albeit intensified in the late modern period). Chaney traces the origins of consumer culture back to the 18th century (1996, pp. 14–24), concluding that consumerism has been central to modernity from the beginning and the contemporary intensity of consumer culture has been the result of mass marketing and the technological developments since then (1996, p. 17). Thus, later technological developments are perhaps best understood as the catalyst for an intensification of a consumer culture that was already present in society.

Bruce goes further back arguing that Protestant theology in the 16th and 17th centuries was fertile ground for the birth of capitalism and consumerism (1996, pp. 11–20; see also Gregory, 2012). For Bruce, the Reformation was key in laying down foundations for modernity not only because it created good conditions for capitalism, but also because “the religion created by the Reformation was extremely vulnerable to fragmentation because it removed the institution of the church as a source of authority between God and man,” concluding that “the consequence of the Reformation was not a Christian church strengthened because it had been purified but a large number of competing perspectives and institutions” (1996, p. 22). However, Bruce fails to focus on the link between consumerism and religious fragmentation; once you bring consumerism and religious fragmentation together, you get the perhaps obvious situation of a marketplace for religions. As Shepherd puts it, there was “no choice in pre-reformation Europe” (2010, p. 149); Protestantism formed the foundation for a marketplace of religions (Clapp, 1998, p. 9).

However, as already stated, individuals reflect on themselves in relationship to abstract systems and this includes consumer markets. While producers might manipulate consumers and create dissatisfaction in order to market their products, it is also the case that individuals are not passive in this relationship and use the relationship to create the self. As Root argues “consumerism and materialism are impinging on teenagers” but “in tandem with these structures, adolescents are choosing to create identities” (2008, p. 3).

This provides a different perspective on authenticity than that discussed above. Quoting Giddens, Root notes that central to contemporary life is the notion of self-chosen relationships (2007, pp. 42–43), external pressures are no longer paramount in relationships. However, for Giddens, authenticity reaches more widely than relationships to others; if anything is imposed by others it is, by definition, inauthentic as the project of the modern self is to be true to oneself (1991, p. 79). People need to choose church and if they have no choice, then there is no authenticity and it will be rejected (1991, p. 79, see also Heelas & Woodhead, 2005, p. 7).

Root uses Taylor's ideas of the buffered self, to analyze the deeper reasons for the contemporary church's tendency to segment in mission and ministry (Root, 2017, p. 26). Seeded over centuries, consumerism grew, post second world war, into a mass movement (Root, 2017, p. 27) which took the rise of the reflective self (Root, 2017, p. 5) and its link to authenticity and used it as the reason to buy things, where a key aspect of selling products (including religion) was to segment the market, to facilitate choice (Root, 2017, p. 26).

Considering the early root of consumerism reveals how much a part of modernity it is and leads back to Giddens’ ideas of the centrality of the reflexive self. Consumer markets are good examples of abstract systems, against which the self reflects and constructs itself. The idea that the identity of individuals is now being found in what they consume, is in some ways simply a manifestation of the reflexive self in action. As noted above, Y&C are not mere consumers of culture (including religion) but are actually producers of and participators in it as they reflect upon the world around them and in particular the abstract systems they encounter, in this case, consumer markets. Exploring the early roots of consumerism, however, unearths another key relationship, that of consumerism's dependency on secularization which is ignored by most segmenting Y&C writers.

Secularization

Gay shows how the Reformation, Renaissance, and Enlightenment values moved society away from the transcendent and objective to the immanent and subjective. He goes as far as to suggest that consumerism discloses modernity's highest ideals:

The modern project, it seems, was launched with the deliberate decision to forswear philosophical and theological judgement—or what we might term a genuinely religious view of life—for the sake of the comfort and convenience that were to be made possible by scientific and technological development. Contemporary consumer behaviour ultimately stems from this decision. (1998, p. 20)

While it might be difficult to see how a society can take a “deliberate decision,” nevertheless the point is made: consumerism itself does not stand on its own but in some senses is an outworking of the secularization set in train by modernity.

Sociologically speaking, secularization is not only a denial of the supernatural but also concerns the role of religion in public life and changing social relations. Secularity in some senses arose in part from modernity's urban industrialism, which “seemed to displace the influence of the churches in Europe both by displacing people from their older communal contexts and by offering newer principles of social organization than those enshrined in religion” (Lyon, 1999, p. 33). Thus, with modernity comes the division of life into public and private, sacred and secular spaces, with religion then excluded from the public sphere (Bruce, 1996, pp. 11–62).

Therefore, secularization, viewed as the self's experiential relationship to the public and private spheres means that secularization can be understood as another angle on the reflexive self and its relationship to society and therefore linked to both consumerism and also therefore segmentation in society and the church.

Professionalization Revisited

As with consumerism and secularization, professionalization is a modern rather than postmodern phenomenon. It is linked to consumerism and secularization and again is ignored by most contemporary Y&C writers. For Giddens, modernity's abstract systems are “expert systems”; individuals do not know the people involved in such systems and are asked to trust them to do what they as experts have been trained to do. Relying on experts has become a way of life (1991, p. 173).

Hunter also locates the phenomenon of professionalization in modernity but specifically in capitalism, naming professionalization as the “principal carrier of an ideology of rational control” where “individuals are socialized into …. the quest for the most efficient means possible to accomplish one's objectives” (1994, p. 19). Hunter sees this as so extensive that it leads to a “practical atheism toward everyday life” and importantly, for the question in hand, calls it “an ideology of self-sufficiency and moral autonomy that undermines the possibility of community” (1994, p. 19). Professionalization is therefore a key part of the explanation for a segmented approach but has a longer heritage than some Y&C thinkers would recognize and one which is heavily related to the capitalist structure underlying consumerism and secularization.

This survey of the social aspects of late modernity builds up a picture of contemporary society which is heavily founded on some of the fundamental phenomena of modernity, namely capitalism-consumerism, secularization, and professionalization, the impact of which has been quickened by communication technologies, social fragmentation and cultural diversity of late modernity. These have all, most importantly, created specific contexts within which the reflexive self reflects but the most significant change is the creation of the reflexive self. Indeed, if the self were not reflexive as Giddens describes then the phenomena of new communication technologies, social fragmentation and cultural diversity would be almost irrelevant as drivers of a contextualized-segmented approach. This reflexivity is perhaps the most significant feature of our contemporary context for mission and ministry to Y&C and it is this feature which has perhaps received the least attention.

The Importance of Schooling

Senter picks up on both secularization and the idea of management inherent within the concept of professionalization and examines them in relation to schooling. He analyses the growth of youth parachurch organizations at the turn of the 20th century, demonstrating how they can be viewed as an attempt to regain a loss of influence over youth in the face of secularization's division of public and private, including the separation of church and state manifesting itself in the secular schooling system (2010, p. 76). Senter's view is supported by Root when he argues that the prevailing narrative of the secular age is that the church has lost influence over Y&C because of decreasing program attendance, so the primary issue is to regain allegiance to groups established by the institution of the church (2016).

Gardner shows how, in the late 19th century, the British government began to institutionalize Y&C in schools, in part, to control their development into adulthood to fit the military and economic needs of wider society. In this sense, Gardner argues that Y&C were being viewed as a commodity that needed to be developed to meet the needs of the nation (2008, pp. 23–35). In this sense, schooling is a natural outworking of a consumer-driven, secularized, and professionalized society (White, 2005, pp. 17–20).

Gardner suggests that this is a powerful social driver of segmentation in wider society. As Y&C were placed into groups of Y&C of the same age, the social power of the peer group grew. It is maybe ironic that a plan to bring children under the institutional control of adults perhaps fueled the influence of the peer group. As Kitto argues, age-segmented schooling gave Y&C the opportunity to explore what it meant to be that age in contrast to the “other” of the adult (1995, p. 23). Kitto's analysis reaffirms the irony of these developments, showing how they were often attempts to “solve the problem of youth” (1995, p. 25) but in fact, served to strengthen the idea of a separate category called “youth” and thus exacerbated the issue.

Senter and Bergler show that the American experience is similar. With over half of 14–17-year olds in High School by 1930, Senter identifies this social development as the rise of the peer society (2010, p. 19). Bergler shows American similarities to the British situation in arguing that in response to growing international political extremism in the 1930s–1940s the US saw youth as a problem to be solved and a product to be created (2012, pp. 19–40, see also Ellis & Dean, 2020, p. 29; White, 2005, pp. 15–17), but he also agrees with Senter that “crowded together in age-segmented environments to learn how to be productive adults, teenagers instead began to create their own language, values, and styles,” in other words their own culture (2012, p. 44).

Gardner observes how these trends were reflected in the growth of Sunday Schools and parachurch organizations, such as Crusaders, Boy's Brigade, Campaigners, and Scouting (2008, pp. 32–33) a move which mirrored a similar development in the US and in both countries resulted eventually in churches bringing the parachurch strategies and tactics into the church (Allen and Ross, 2012, pp. 36–37; Clark, 2001, p. 83; Neufeld, 2002, p. 195; Root, 2007, pp. 59–61).

Thus, there is a similar reaction to youth in the church as in the state. Whereas the state felt the need to treat youth as separate in order to solve socioeconomic and political issues, the church sought to minister to youth separately in light of the separation that came with secularization, especially in the form of the state school system and fears of a loss of influence over youth.

These developments around age-segmented schooling and their reflection in parachurch organizations and then the church are brought into sharper relief when understood through the lens of the relationship between the reflexive self and abstract systems. The development of the age-segmented schooling system is a good example of the development of an abstract system; a social system which has been “lifted out” of its social context (Giddens, 1991, p. 18) and one which is dependent on trust, run by unknown experts and authorities (Giddens, 1991, p. 18). In this context the self reacts in response to this development in its social situation; it acts reflexively vis-à-vis the schooling system. How the self reacts is not necessarily predictable; in this case, it resulted in the formation of closer peer group ties and increasing identification of youth as a youth.

Not coincidentally, at a similar time (1904) Stanley Hall coined the term adolescence to describe the period between childhood and adulthood (Senter, 2010, p. 11). This term captures the importance of the biological changes that occur in late childhood, but Hall's work was developed in the context of the beginning of the American schooling system and coincided with a decreasing age of puberty and an increasing age of school attendance. Around the turn of the 20th century, children no longer entered the workforce as children and achieved adulthood through subsequent economic independence (Gardner, 2008, pp. 55–56); instead, the passage to adulthood began while at school and so a period which was neither clearly childhood or adulthood emerged. The sociocultural effect of adolescence meant that individuals were increasingly faced with the question of how to understand what it meant to be an adult biologically speaking but being treated as a child, institutionalized in school.

Gardner identifies this as an issue of dependence and independence, where adolescents are increasingly told to act independently but are kept dependent by their institutionalization in schools (2008, pp. 55–56). This again introduces another key example of the reflexive self having to come to terms with significant developments in its life vis-à-vis an abstract social system, in this case, the schooling system. In this sense while Y&C have, in some ways, been disempowered by the last 150 years of increasing educational institutionalization and exclusion from the workforce, they have not been passive, each Y&C is a reflexive self who reacts to the abstract systems acting upon them to create and construct a sense of who they are. In the case of the rise of peer influence and culture, the reflexive adolescent selves of the early 20th century Y&C were concluding rapidly that they were different from adults.

Kearney's work on separatism connects well with Gardner's thoughts. In her analysis of young feminist separatist movements, she concludes that “the construction and maintenance of youth cultures and oppositional political groups often rely on understanding themselves as already marginal as well as imagining a place of power and agency outside dominant culture” (1998, pp. 150–151). In the development of separate social groups, Kearney posits first some wider social movement or development which serves as a catalyst to the creation and establishment of a separate grouping, but then that group reacts. Separatism, she argues, functions “as a survival tactic, a temporary means of acquiring social, political, and cultural space and time by separating from hegemonically defined and controlled institutions, relationships and roles” (1998, p. 151). Segmentation it seems is both a result of wider socioeconomic and political developments but also the reaction of individuals and groups to those developments.

Developmental Psychology

As noted above, some have argued that the growth of developmental psychology has driven segmentation within Y&C mission and ministry. However, comparing the dates of the emergence of age segmentation with developmental psychology and its impact on the church questions this position. Estep lists authors appealing to developmental theory to support spiritual formation, but the earliest is dated 1979 (2002, p. 141). Fowler did not publish his main work on this until 1981 and other examples do not go much further back if at all (e.g., Ballard & Fleck, 1975; Fortosis & Garland, 1990; Fowler et al., 1992; Yust, 2003).

Age-segmented models of mission emerged a hundred years before these authors were writing, with many parachurch organizations being formed at the turn of the 20th century (Lukabyo, 2021). The Sunday School movement dates back to the late 18th century and while it started as an initiative to teach unchurched working-class children to read, it became a discipleship class for church children by the later 1800s (Cliff, 1986, pp. 95–96, 246). Age-segmented approaches, therefore, were already well entrenched long before Christian educators began to consider the implications and applications of developmental psychology.

Even the dates of the emergence of developmental psychology itself do not pre-date the creation of age-segmented mission. Piaget began to publish his work in the mid-1920s (Maier, 1988, p. 14), but it was not immediately applied to educational theory. Piaget himself never directly applied his conclusions to schooling, a task left to others that gathered pace through the 20th century (Murray, 1985, p. 291). Likewise, Hall's work does not pre-date the emergence of the schooling system in the US and arguably depends upon it. Hall's first publication in 1891 concerned the development of children as they entered school (Murray, 1985, p. 111). Thus, developmental psychology did not give birth to an age-segmented schooling system, rather it was a product of or at least encountered a catalyst in the already present schooling system.

While a fully fledged secondary school system was not created in Britain until after the second world war, nevertheless, schooling was compulsory for all 5–10-year olds from 1880, with the school leaving age increased to 12 in 1899 and 14 in 1918 (Bartlett & Burton, 2012, pp. 74–82). Bartlett and Burton demonstrate how the development of the schooling system was driven by socioeconomic and political factors rather than theories of developmental psychology.

Some Considerations for Churches

The above argument suggests that it is possible that in seeking to do mission and ministry to and with Y&C along segmented age lines churches might be misinterpreting the symptoms and so the disease. A focus on the changes of the last 70 years is likely to mean a concentration on consumerism, new communication technologies, social fragmentation, and cultural diversity. In prioritizing these surface issues, churches are at risk of understating the importance of the underlying issue of reflexive, constructed self-identities. As Root writes “products and brands then are not the primary issue, but the drug used to assuage the deep longing for a lost authority and identity” (2008, p. 78 see also Shepherd, 2016, p. 57). A focus on surface understandings of consumerism might lead churches to superficial answers to questions of mission and ministry to Y&C based on short-term consumer-oriented solutions. This could potentially explain the phenomenon of churches being able to attract Y&C to events and groups, but then struggling to maintain an ongoing relationship with them as they age and transition into the next age group (be that the teenage years or adulthood). If the event or group is a product that is consumed to meet a need then it is perhaps unsurprising that Y&C restrict their involvement to that particular event or group.

In running mission and ministry along age-segmented lines there is a risk that churches today implicitly and unconsciously view Y&C as consumers over whom they are losing influence and so also present themselves as worried producers (with the associated ideas of professionalization and management as analyzed above). In doing so they can unwittingly and unreflectively present themselves as an abstract (and expert/management) system against which young people reflect. Additionally, as Kearny's work suggests, the separation of Y&C by adults is likely to be affirmed by Y&C developing identity together and in doing so (unconsciously or perhaps consciously) re-enforcing and intensifying the separation.

Churches would do well to consider the ways in which moving away from age segmentation might help recapture a vision of the church as a community of people; a community that might have leaders, but where leadership is not couched in professional and expert senses.

While Intergenerational (IG) approaches could still be presented in consumerist ways with the church still as the abstract system, the tenor of its advocates is very much more about bringing Y&C into the heart of a community where they are valued as mutual participants in the life of the church (Allen & Ross, 2012, pp. 17–20; Harkness, 1996, p. 221; Snailum, 2013, p. 8). This focus on mutuality and inclusion works necessarily against the church as an abstract, professional, management system.

This age-inclusive community approach would mean that as Y&C (as reflexive selves) reflect on who they are and form their identities, they will do so not against the backdrop of an abstract professionalized manager/producer (and the re-enforcing self-separation that is likely to occur) but instead within a community that is open to what they bring, where their impact might work not to further separation but to change the community and further integrate them through an increased sense of belonging. In short, this approach suggests a focus that is less about what is provided for Y&C and more about developing a place for all ages (including them) to be.

Conclusion

This article has demonstrated that an age-segmented approach to mission and ministry has been encouraged by advocates who suggest it is necessary for contemporary society due to the rise of consumerism (which means individuals make religious choices on cultural and therefore age-based grounds) and new technologies (that feed the emerging social fragmentation and cultural diversity) in the last 70 years.

However, the dating of age-specific ministries goes much further back than this conclusion recognizes, suggesting that the main reasons for segmenting along age lines might be found further back in time. While age segmentation can be found throughout history, reviewing sociological developments in the last two hundred years reveals the most important development to be the emergence of the reflexive self. It is this modern sense of the self that aids a clearer understanding of what is happening with other social developments, especially consumerism, secularization, and professionalization. In this light, consumerism is seen less as about what people want and more about the authenticity of the individual as the self seeks a sense of identity. In this frame, secularization reinforces the priority of the individual over the other and the priority of experience, and professionalization supports an individualized modernist management approach to life that works against the idea of community as part of the solution to modern ills. Developing technologies and the resultant social fragmentation and cultural diversity have served to intensify the above aspects of modernity, but nevertheless, the most important aspect of even these late modern developments is that they provide social contexts within which the reflexive self reflects.

While some have suggested that the emergence of developmental psychology has also played a part in the emergence of age-segmented approaches, this article has demonstrated that pre-ceding (and feeding) this was the development of mass, state-sponsored, schooling which was not simply an act of philanthropic social reform but was more importantly driven by the economic and political needs of modern industrialized economies. However, even this development serves only as a backdrop to the more important development of the emergence of the reflexive self. As Y&C were placed in schools (as abstract systems) as a way for society to solve various social problems, Y&C reacted by reinforcing or even constructing new separatist cultures.

These developments have influenced churches to segment along age lines and to a great extent the church has been only too willing to respond by focusing its efforts on an age-segmented approach rather than one that focuses on integration. In response to this, churches would do well to review what they do with respect to segmentation of Y&C and in particular review the way in which IG approaches might provide a different context for Y&C to reflect on who they are and construct their identities. Instead of an abstract, professionalized, management system churches with a producer mentality, churches could instead explore the ways in which IG approaches might move them to be more of a community where Y&C can mutually participate and be co-producers in both their own identity and, intrinsically linked to this, the corporate identity of the church.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Gareth Crispin

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