Josiah Venture is a Christian ministry in Central Europe that longs to see a movement of God among youth that connects these young people into the local church and transforms the society in which they live. The key questions for the near term strategy of the ministry are 1) Where to focus ministry efforts to engage and disciple youth and 2) How to better understand the condition of the local youth so that the local church can be better equipped to reach their own context. In January 2011, Josiah Venture and the Maclellan Foundation approached Clarity Research to design and manage a researh project to answer these critical questions. A marketing research approach was used whereby more than 8000 2nd and 3rd year secondary school students where given a 34 question survey. The research focused on 30 Czech and 10 Slovak communities that were of particular interest to Josiah Venture. Answering the first strategic question- where to focus ministry- was answered by meauring the concentration of the ministry’s Target Audiencein each city. This Target Audience is defined as secondary school students that believe that Jesus is God’s Son and they expresses interest in learning more about the Bible: in other words, students who are open to Christian Discipleship.

The concentration of the Target Audience varies widely over the Czech Republic and Slovakia ranging from 49% of the student population in Bardejov to no measurable target segment in Jablonec nad Nisou- a town in northwest Czech Republic. In general, the concentration of the Target Audience is higher in Slovakia than in the Czech Republic showing the ministry where students are ripe for their particular ministry of evangelism and discipleship. The research study also shows that while a large portion of students in both nations indicate belief in Jesus Christ (21% in Czech and 55% in Slovakia) the number drops significantly with the additional qualifier of being interested in knowing more about God. This indicates that these students are not experiencing a crisis of belief, but a crisis of concern. This highlights the importance of answering the second strategic question of understanding the condition of the youth in order to effectively reach these students. For those on the front line of youth ministry, issues such as substance abuse and sexuality are seen as problems. In reality, these issues are actually “solutions” that the students go to for deeper problems such as guilt, isolation, and purposelessness. In ministry, a transformative relationship with God through Jesus Christ is the only fulfilling solution to these deeper issues. In this research, we focused on five issues common to people of all ages and all cultures: Happiness, Autonomy, Acceptance, Freedom from Guilt, and Purpose. A pair of questions was asked for each of these needs to understand the current fulfillment of this need and the importance of this need in the student’s life. The size of the difference between the importance and the fulfillment of this need indicates the magnitude of this need. In other words, a student indicating that purpose is an important need but that they are not fulfilled in this area is “hungry” for this need to be fulfilled. 

Personal happiness is the least fulfilled and the most important need measured in this survey. In other words, students are “hungrier” to fulfill their happiness more than acceptance, autonomy, purpose, or freedom from guilt. The hunger for happiness is even greater among both female students and the Target Audience when compared to the typical Czech student. Armed with this strategic insight, ministry knows to focus gospel engagements on how only God can fulfill happiness in a student’s life.

A third question is asked for each of these unmet universal needs. Students are asked about where they seek solutions to meet this need: God, parents, friends, dating relationship, etc. These answers inform the ministry about the competitive solutions to the deeper needs of the students.

For example, students look primarily to their most personal human relationships to fulfill the need for happiness while looking to God to fulfill this need is rarely indicated. The fact that God does not seem to fall in the same category as parents and friends may indicate a deeper belief that God is truly impersonal: He cannot be related to in the same sense as a father, mother, friend, or lover.

This research data can also be used to compare the relative effectiveness of each of these “solutions” to meet the deeper needs of students. For example, students looking to philosophy (indicated by -) or science (indicated by o) for life purpose are significantly less fulfilled and more indifferent than students who look to God to meet this need.

 

These research methods pioneered in youth ministry in Czech and Slovakia translate well into other ministry contexts globally: a relevant Target Audience identified by any ministry can be measured geographically and fulfillment of universal needs can be evaluated across broad segments from university students to immigrants. Please feel free to contact the research designer- Scott Friderich (sfriderich@clarity-research.net)- for questions and califications. You can find a full copy of the research report, TOUCHING THE HEARTS OF CZECH AND SLOVAK YOUTH, at http://clarity-research.net/TouchingHeartsCzechSlovakYouth.pdf