In the
book Almost Christian I’m reading for
a Fuller Seminary class on reaching out to youth in this day and
age, the author paints a very dim picture of how Christian faith is expressed
by American teenagers, which often revolves around a sort of feel-good, be
good, and get along sort of faith (called "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism"). God is at best there to get you out of tight
spots but mostly in the background.
Not surprisingly, the author points out that one of the main
problems lies in the generation before it. If the previous generation can not
articulate a clear and robust faith, how can we expect youth to?
The author tells a
ministry story where she got teenage girls to agree to have adult sponsors who
would help embody living faith for each of them. When the author approached adults
the girls picked as their favorite adults in the congregation, eagerly
promoting this idea, she got a bit of a shock: “People who selflessly supported
youth ministry with money, phone calls, baked goods, and prayer chains came
unglued at the thought of mentoring a teenager. I knew I had hit rock bottom
when one woman told me, ‘No, I’d rather work on the stewardship campaign’” (p.
121). For many of us who are accustomed to love being expressed in concrete
acts of service, it’s easy to imagine why it’s difficult to do personal
mentoring!
Why so much resistance? The author saw that adults weren’t
confident with their knowledge and their own faith formation. How do you even
bring it up with kids when you’re working things out yourself?
What may be helpful for adults is to realize we do not need
Bible scholars or more curriculum to do right with our youth. We want to walk
with others to not merely give more content, but to teach what it means to
trust God in their lives: “What awakens faith is desire, not information, and
what awakens desire is a person—and specifically, a person who accepts us
unconditionally, as God accepts us” (p. 119).
If this is the case, then we are ALL potential youth leaders!
