How are parents involved in the spiritual lives of their teens? We just finished a preliminary poll of 227 teens between 12-19 and asked them two things. One, how often do your parents talk with you about faith? And secondly, how often would you want then to talk with you about faith?
The chart below just takes into account the 80% of teens who attend church at least twice a month.Here's what teens said. On the right, is how they answered the first question. So, of the teens who said that their parents never talk with them about faith (in red) 35.7% of them want their parents to talk with them weekly, 14.3% monthly, 28.6% every so often and 21% wouldn't change it.
Imagine: Groups of students from across denominational and ministry lines, living genuine, unprompted, unprovoked Christ-like walks, loving and serving others as Christ himself did - without pretension or concern for self… but only driven from a pure selfless devotion to others driven from a holy and righteous devotion to Christ and His Kingdom. I believe that this can be a reality. You say that you want it… let’s find out.
Imagine if…
…teens truly realized what it means to give everything to God and lived lives intentionally this way.
…teens randomly showed God’s Love through service each day.
…teens took charge of their faith and weekly led their group in prayer and study in the Word.
…this way of life caught on in surrounding schools, towns, counties and states… and the youth of this country led the way in living as Christ would live by seeking out an active faith.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 03:48
What Youth Desire
Written by Brian Smeltzer
Tuesday, 16 June 2009 01:59
What Youth Desire
Over the past two years, we’ve been developing a framework that we believe is most effective for a youth setting. This list was created using Go As You Are - Part 4. As we’ve moved through this process, We’ve found these 5 statements to be almost universally true with teens. The objective is to hold teens accountable to the following statements. Even with these statements, there is a wide array of settings that these can flourish.
We want smaller groups to build authentic relationships and which create the environment that allows everyone to participate.
We want to be a people who listen passionately.
We want to love each other unselfishly. We demand equality, strive for openness that allows for sharing of struggles, hurts and successes.
We want to deepen our faith with other Christ-followers and honor Christ in all we do.
We will strive to develop a Christ-like attitude, love each other, a focus on prayer, service and sharing our faith.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 03:50
Why youth are worth it.
Written by Brian Smeltzer
Wednesday, 17 June 2009 03:34
There are lots of books and leaders and ideologies surrounding living missionally. Most all of them are focused mainly on adults with kids brought in mostly through family involvement. In conversation with a friend of mine who is on one of those leading teams, I asked why there wasn’t a focus on youth. It wasn’t an attempt to backdoor him into saying anything. My reason for asking wasn’t to know why youth weren’t mentioned but for many others. So why was it? Was it because most of the people focused on this way of doing ministry were used to working with adults or that it would naturally flow down to teens if their parents were doing life this way? What would happen if it was taught from both ends? Obviously there is a learning curve and process to get there. It’s a big jump and one that, for teens at least, hasn’t been documented well… if it truly exists.
