As society in general turns away from traditional church services, Dunedin's youth are finding new, modern ways to worship. Ellie Constantine looks into a fresh take on spirituality.
Through music, a relaxed atmosphere and, most importantly, the handling of issues relevant to young people, churches are doing their best to attract youth.
One of the newer churches in town is C3 Church.
It has been open just one year and pastor Chris Mac thought it was "doing pretty well".
About 95 people, mostly young adults and teenagers, attended on a regular basis, he said.
With new people coming along all the time, he knew it was only going to get better.
People who had not enjoyed church previously were drawn to C3, he said.
He thought there were fewer people "looking for church, but there are more people looking for something real."
Having "really good music" and a culture and message relevant to young people was the church's point of difference from traditional churches, he said.
He believed a lot of churches "got stuck" doing things which used to work and have found they have less relevancy to a broad range of people.
"We are only one generation away from irrelevancy," Mr Mac said.
The church had a range of different ways for people to get involved.
Services were originally run on a Sunday evening, to fit in best with young lifestyles, but a family service in the morning would start to meet the needs of young families.
Connect groups of about 10 people got together on a regular basis to pray, talk about life and allow the church to focus on individuals.
A Change group was established this year for young adults in the ministry and had a message of "faith, hope and love".
About 30 people gathered weekly to wrestle with the notion of Christianity and be active in the community, he said.
Primal Youth had just been established for secondary school pupils.
With about 20 people joined so far, it was "run by young people, for young people".
"We saw the need for that in Dunedin."
The church also used social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to stay connected with the community.
The Catholic Diocese of Dunedin was also moving with the times.
The church had used Facebook and had started a blog.
Youth and young adult ministry co-ordinator Vaughn Hook said his role was created this year in response to demand for more youth-based activities.
"The great thing with young people today is they have a voice and are able to say what they need. We need to listen to our young people more."
Depending on the community, about 15% of congregations around the city were made up of young adults.
Mr Hook hoped that by starting a monthly youth mass, more young people, and their friends, would be encouraged to participate.
"That's where our hope is: they are not the future, they are the present."
The church maintained its traditional values, with Bishop Colin Campbell's teachings remaining essential, but he was also very focused on youth, Mr Hook said.
"I'm feeling there is a real revival and sense of hope with young people," Mr Hook said.
One event which stimulated this was World Youth Day in Sydney last year.
Of the 5000 young New Zealanders who attended, 140 were from Otago and Southland.
He believed the church was still feeling the effects from the event which had a "huge impact".
Relevance was also key to Student Soul, a cafe-style church focused on 18-year-olds to 25-year-olds, which held a weekly service in the University of Otago Union, the Rev Helen Harray said.
Part of the Presbyterian Church's "desire to reach out" to university people, it had been running for eight years.
In the past, about 130 people attended.
Numbers were now down to about 40 with the church in a "rebuilding phase" after many students graduated and moved on from the area, she said.
Partnered with Leith Valley Presbyterian Church, an emphasis was placed on engaging with themes and figuring out how they affected young adults.
In general, the Rev Harray believed young people were turning away from the church because they had not seen a good model of Christianity and society had become more secular.
However, modern and traditional churches were doing their best to attract young people, which she believed would help society relearn fundamental values which had been lost over generations.
