We spotted Andy Hunt, who was until recently involved with G2, in no lesser publication than the Church Times this week.

Andy was featured in an article reporting on teenage boys dropping out of church.

Here’s the text,

‘Having a role to play really encouraged me to stay in church’

ANDY HUNT is spending his gap year working with St Laurence’s in Reading — a church that is reaching out to the young people of the town. Brought up in Warwickshire as a Christian in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, his parents moved him and his sister from their small parish church to a much bigger village when he was seven, as they realised he needed to have a peer group in church. “There were a lot of people my age in church, which was great. I’ve always been involved in music, and I was really encouraged to take part in worship. Having a role to play really encouraged me to stay. I know some of the boys I was friends with weren’t into music, and didn’t get so involved.” At 17, he made a decision to move churches and youth groups, finding one much closer to his school. “It seemed more relevant to my life at the time,” he explains. His parents stayed at their former church. “They were really supportive: they realised I needed to do this. I really benefited from the cell group I was in; there was some really wise adult leadership.”

Now aged 21, Andy is spending time running youth groups and doing youth work in schools. Next year, he will go on to train as a teacher.