If Teens Have Weak a Faith, Who is to Fault?

Last week a CNN report caught my attention, along with that of many youth ministry professionals. The report focused on the research on teens and their faith by Kenda Creasy Dean. Dean is minister and also a professor of theology at Princeton University. For her study she interview over three thousand teens. Her conclusion was that many teens have faith that is only a facade. Their faith, according to Dean, is mutant Christianity. It is the product of a church whose primary goal is to boost people's self esteem, the author concludes.

This is not a new problem. Mainline Christianity has been in decline for years. One of the first people of catch my attention was John Westerhoff in his book, Will Our Children Have Faith. Westerhoff challenged the church to find ways to pass on the heritage of faith from one generation to the next. Thirty years later most mainline churches fall into two groups: 1) Those that want to preserve tradition and protect the faith. They live in the past. 2) Those that seek to stroke the egos of self serving adults. They live in the present. Neither meets the needs of contemporary teenagers.

I attend a church that I think offers hope, as well as a model. This struck me again yesterday as I sat in the middle of our activity center, following the education hour. Over twelve volunteer teachers had just completed their assignments. Twenty or more adults, of all ages, stood around talking with the teens. You will find a similar environment on Tuesday nights during Teen Community Bible Study. Again, there are lots of adults to volunteer their time. What is happening in a very intentional, but yet informal way, is adults are sharing their faith and their stories. The focus is on the future and meeting the spiritual needs of the next generation.

That is how faith traditions are maintained. We all have faith stories to tell. Those stories need to be shared with youth. In doing so we encourage them to write their own stories. In the process we are providing them waith a glimpse of what is to come.

Christianity needs to be less about me and my needs and more about sharing the faith with others.