Churches keeping the faith as young Queenslanders look for answers

Fewer Queenslanders are identifying as Christian, yet the established churches don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of Queenslanders who declared their Christianity in the census fell 15.4 per cent between 2011 and 2021.

Pastor Alex Stark of Brisbane’s Newlife Church, a congregation of the Uniting Church.

The shift was most pronounced in the established churches – the Anglican Church lost 28.9 per cent of its flock, and the Uniting Church 32.6 per cent – and only partly offset by an increase in the number of Pentacostals (7.1 per cent).

But Pastor Alex Stark of Brisbane’s Newlife Church, an offshoot of the Uniting Church, isn’t worried by the statistics.

“I think it just gives us a greater clarity with which to see where people are at,” Stark said.

“I think the tension every church faces is how do we take a timeless message and make it relevant to the time we’re in?”

Pastor Alex Stark says that young people are still hungry for answers that the church can provide.

Stark said 70 per cent of Newlife worshippers were between the ages of 20 and 30, gathering not only for Sunday mass but also weekly discussions alongside the curious, the sceptics and the atheists.

“Midweek, we’ve got communities that gather around dinner tables, just to check in, see how you’re going, share life, do updates, pray for one another, read the Bible,” he said.

“They’re beautiful, intimate spaces.”

Stark suggested many young people were “hungry for an answer” outside the conventional narrative of studying to get a better job, working hard to get a better salary, and accumulating wealth and possessions.

“I think that a lot of people have tried the secular narrative [that] one of the greatest things you can do in your life is either get a relationship, or get a job, or buy a house. People do that, climb to the top, find it and realise, oh, is there more to life than this?”

The Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Jeremy Greaves, said he believed young people wanted to hear an authentic message.

“People want to be a part of a community, whether it’s inside the church or outside,” Greaves said.

“Young people will find those places where they feel valued and are taken seriously and have a real sense of community.

Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane Jeremy Greaves with his family.

“They also look at whether a church is engaged in social justice or significant issues around climate and refugees, often people will want to be part of that.”

University of Queensland senior lecturer in studies in religion Ryan Williams said faith sometimes fluctuated due to external factors, such as the state of the economy.

But there were also generational differences, Williams said, with Millennials more likely to accept multiple belief systems and Gen Z having much less of an affiliation with Christianity.

“Thirty-seven per cent still believe in God and a higher power but aren’t finding affiliation in traditional outlets like Christian churches,” he said.

“They’re wanting to identify themselves with other things: 20 per cent believe in UFOs, 29 per cent in reincarnation and 31 per cent in ghosts.”

Williams said some people might believe in God but not want to identify as Christian.

“Younger generations are also wanting to embrace spirituality, but that doesn’t mean they’re giving up tradition. People identifying themselves as spiritual and not religious.”

Newlife member James Allen embraced Christianity when he was about 15. He said he was starting to ask questions and found that “faith just has really good answers”.

Greaves said a message of hope and transformation was at the heart of Christianity.

“That’s the ultimate Easter message: No matter what the world throws at us, there is a way out of that,” he said.