This is a sample article featured in the May 2001 issue of Quadrant

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                      Ministers' Children

                      Where are they now?

We all know about "The Vicar's Daughter" and have our opinions of "The Minister's Children".   Folk tales are legion, but what is the outcome in later life of their own spiritual journey? In this study I looked at three main areas which may affect it; the home, the church, and the churchmanship. I have selected here the most significant of the findings.

 The data was provided by retired ministers of the Baptist Union in response to questions about their children's faith journey.  There were 68 replies relating to 172 children mostly of the 1950's and early 60's generations, putting most of them in their 40s or 50s today.

 Their present commitment

Following questions on gender and age of each child in the family a simple Yes/No/Don't Know option was given to determine whether the child had made a Decision for Christ and, this being a survey of Baptist ministers, Been Baptised.   The crucial question of the whole survey was their Present Commitment to the Lord with the possible responses being: Whole Hearted, Warm, Neutral, Cool, Cold, or Antagonistic.  No definition of these categories was offered.

 The results were tremendously encouraging.  Almost 70% of these Minister's offspring are now, as adults, Whole hearted or Warm to the Lord, and none Antagonistic. What a gracious God we have, overruling in so many of our weaknesses. So much seed has fallen into good soil and grown to fruition, so little fallen by the wayside.  The chart shows the various categories by gender, with Cool and Cold combined.

                Male Female

Whole Hearted  48%  60%

Warm           17%  22%

Neutral        21%  12%

Cool/Cold      14%  6%

 The large majority of those who made a Decision for Christ did so between the ages of 10 and 17, with the peak ages being 14 and 15.  84% of them remain committed, 88% if they were baptised.

 One interesting finding is that the 2nd child of a family has the lowest commitment rate - 43% of them are Warm Hearted compared with 53% for the 1st child and 58% for the 3rd.

 The effect of geographical mobility

Most ministers move pastorates at some point, and usually their family moves with them!  It would appear that this dislocation of the child's environment is particularly significant in spiritual development.  There is a significant trend away from commitment if the child moved between the ages of 8 and 14. This trend is emphasised even more strongly as the number of moves increases.

I have charted these results as deviations from the norm - what would be expected if the move made no difference.

Number of moves:    Whole Hearted  Warm      Neutral    Cool/Cold

      1                                    132         092             099             0

      2                                    117         103             110             025

      3                                    088         101             093             146

      4                                    089         102             090             111

 The effect of the church

 Location and size

It would appear that lots of children raised in inner city churches become Whole Hearted servants of the Lord, whilst conversely children from estate churches tend to become Neutral or Cold. Town and city churches seem to produce a normal spread of response, whilst village life tends to have a slightly positive effect.  What is far more significant however is that

 a) our most common sized Baptist churches (50-100 people) produce the most Cold adults

b) the smallest churches (under 50 people) produce the fewest, proportionately, committed adults

c) the bigger the church the more Whole Hearted are those grown from it.

 Activities

The most positive adults come from churches which had strong Bible-based teaching in the Sunday school and Youth work (even if it didn't appear to be particularly good quality teaching). Also, as would be expected, the stronger the youth work, the stronger the Christians growing out of it. 

 Theology and churchmanship

It would appear that a strong fundamental or evangelical father produced strong reactions both ways. Of those brought up under evangelical teaching 31% are Cold whilst only 25% are Whole Hearted. A charismatic theology on the other hand produced a very clear positive response (42%) with no negative response at all.  Traditional worship was the most common, but a varied worship style produced the most favourable outcomes. 

 And finally

A factor which seems to be fairly significant in the destination of the child's faith is the starting place of the father, the college in which he trained.  One college produced only 18% Whole Hearted commitment in the 2nd generation compared with 62% for another college. Unfortunately there are no indications in this study as to why there is such a difference - it would be worth finding out whether it still applies a generation later!

 All interesting stuff to clergy with children as well as to children's and youth workers.  Unfortunately from a denominational perspective ministers' children are comparatively unimportant - perhaps more attention should be given to them.  Ministers, I hope, will still move when they are called - but not too often at the ages when it matters most to their children.  However, I don't suppose many will change their theology or worship style for the sake of their children - maybe, 40 years on, we shall wish we had.

 Will a future study of minister's offspring who are now children or in their teens or twenties produce wildly different outcomes?  Anecdotal evidence suggests it might.  Would the results be similar across all denominations?  I've no idea.  But it makes you think. Doesn't it?

Rev Ken Sykes. Minister, Barnstaple Baptist Church, North Devon

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