From Here to Maturity by Bergler Thomas E.;

Author:Bergler, Thomas E.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eerdmans
Published: 2014-09-24T17:54:00+00:00

They also identified parental factors linked to teenagers being among the devoted:

Attend religious services often and say faith is important to them.

Married.

More educated.5

We should be cautious about interpreting and applying these findings. First, statistically significant factors like these should not be taken as deterministic. It would be a mistake to conclude, for example, that it is impossible for an African American male whose parents are not married to be among the devoted. Rather, these lists tell us that some kinds of internal and external factors seem to be more favorable to teenage religious devotion than others. Second, these kinds of statistically significant correlations tell us nothing about the mechanisms by which these factors may be encouraging teens to be devoted to their faith. Why are girls more likely to be among the devoted than boys? These findings cannot tell us. Even where the connection between a particular factor and religious devotion seems obvious, such as “would like to attend church more often than they do,” we still don’t know why some teenagers feel this way and others do not.

The most important caution for our purposes flows from these first two. It is possible for a teenager to score high on the measures of being devoted and have many of the supporting factors yet not be maturing in his or her faith. The NSYR interviews confirmed that at least some teenagers who are in church all the time and say faith is “extremely important” to them are nevertheless inarticulate about the content of their faith. Thus they do not display the biblical maturity trait we have named “know the basics.” Similarly, NSYR did not often find what we have called “discernment” among American teenagers. Even otherwise highly religious teenagers tend to think that religious and moral beliefs are largely matters of personal preference or are “just how I was raised.” They have no idea why they believe what they believe and are not sure how to apply the truths of their faith in everyday life.

So the traits that place a teenager among the devoted could be fully compatible with juvenilized spirituality. For example, a teenager could report feeling “extremely close to God” and yet agree that “doctrine gets in the way of relationship.” He could pray and read the Bible sometimes while wrongly equating the practice of these disciplines with spiritual maturity. He could affirm that his faith is “extremely important” to him but be thinking of it as source of personal, individualistic comfort rather than as a source of strength for joining in mission with the church.

Rather than complaining about the study, we would do better to use its findings to challenge our own criteria for success in youth ministry. Who wouldn’t be thrilled to see young people attending church and youth group regularly, saying they feel close to God and find their faith to be extremely important to them, and at least sometimes praying and reading the Bible? The problem is, even these very positive signs may not be sufficient evidence of a true transformation from juvenilization to spiritual maturity.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.