The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry by Root Andrew;Dean Kenda Creasy;
Author:Root, Andrew;Dean, Kenda Creasy; [Root, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2011-09-12T00:00:00+00:00
9
Talking About Sin with Young People
Andrew Root
Thereâs nothing like a theological conversation with an eighth grader to alert you to the gap in your doctrinal understanding. All of us who have worked with adolescents have had the experience of sitting in a cabin or around a campfire as the discussion progresses from casual and light to an in-depth theological dialogue for which we soon realize we are not prepared. The pimpled-face skater who hasnât sat still for more than two seconds throughout the conversation now seems to take on another personality as he asks intensely, âWhat really is sin? When do I know Iâve sinned? How do I keep from sinning? And if I am a sinner, and thatâs my nature, how is it possible to keep from sinning?â
If youâre like me, you may have balked in the face of such questions, perhaps quoting a Bible verse in the hopes that it will distract (or rather âredirectâ) from the significant questions being asked. Surely we all have some foundational comprehension of what sin is, some scripts to fall back on that we learned in Sunday school (e.g., âAll have sinned and fall short of the glory of Godâ and âAll sins are equalââthough note that one of these is a Bible verse while the other is not). But if we are honest we must admit that many of those scripts sound hollow and, for the intense inquisitor and his handful of skeptical on-listeners, no doubt banal.
We may assuage our guilt over our ignorance and justify our confusion by claiming that such deep theological conversations are helplessly complex and abstract, and that good youth workers keep abstraction and adolescence in distinct cornersâso we are therefore free to ignore the directness of the inquiry.
Yet as theologian Reinhold Niebuhr is credited as saying, âSin is the only empirically provable Christian doctrine.â All it takes is an honest look at society or ten minutes in front of the local news to verify that sin is a real thing. And while acknowledging its empirical existence does not help usâor the young people with whom we workâto understand it, if it is true that âall have sinnedâ (Rom 3:23) and that Christ died for us âwhile we were still sinnersâ (Rom 5:8) then there is great significance in grasping what this opaque doctrine is all about.
So how should we think about sin in light of ministry with young people? Hopefully reflecting on this question will equip us with something to say to our fervent young questioners beyond our old scripts and empower them to see the doctrineâs relevance in their lives and the world.
Sin Versus Sinning
Original sin, or what has grossly (but no doubt rightly) been called the âtotal depravityâ of humanity, has been a tenet of the Christian faith since the time of Augustine, with strong antecedents going back to Pauline theology, especially the letter to the Romans. This doctrine, rightly understood, makes it clear that thereâs a difference between sin (the state of our being) and sinning (the bad or wrong things we do).
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