What Teens Want In A Church

RELIGION IN THE NEWS

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from The Barna Update, October 8, 2007, with a headline:  “What Teenagers Look for in a Church.”  The following are excerpts: Teenagers are some of the most religiously active Americans. What does their spiritual experience look like, and what do teens looks for in a church?  What do they learn in church settings?  A new study from The Barna Group explores the spiritual lives and expectations of today’s teenager.  As some of the Nation’s first digital pilgrims, the research shows that one out of every 4 teenager’s, 26% had learned something about their faith or spirituality online in the last six months.  This was true of two-fifths of born-again Christian teenagers, 39%.  Furthermore, one-sixth of teenagers, 16%, and one-quarter of born-again teens, 25%, said they had a spiritual experience online where they worship or connected with God.  The study also explored teenagers expectations related to church.  The most common element sought by young people were to worship or make a connection with God.  Forty-five percent described this as very important.  And to better understand what I believe, 42%.  About one-third of teens said they wanted to spend time with close friends, 34% to get encouraged or inspired, 34%, or to volunteer to help others, 30%.  Other expectations of teenagers were less important, including learning about prayer, 26%; listening to religious teaching, 26%; participating in discussions regarding religion and faith, 23%.  Being mentored or coached in spiritual development, 21%; discovering the traditions of their faith, 20%; participating in a study class about faith, 19%; or studying the Bible, 18%.

Tom:

Dave, this is a good heads-up with regard to some of the reasons the EmergingChurch is taking off like wildfire.  Here you have teenagers looking for spiritual experience, and finding them online.  Now let’s compare that with something that’s away down the list, according to Barna, according to his statistics here.  He says their interest in studying the Bible is the lowest percentage on here, isn’t it?

Dave:

Eighteen percent!

Tom:

So you compare looking for spiritual experiences on the internet, which is relatively high, with studying the Bible, which is the lowest thing in this article.  There’s trouble brewing Dave, for this generation.

Dave:

Well, I think it’s already brewed, Tom, and we’re just drinking, what the Bible would call “the dregs”—

Tom:

And trying to rescue them.

Dave:

Yeah, they want to experience God.  Well, first of all, you’ve got to know God.  Jesus, in John 17, said:  “This is life eternal,” that’s verse 3, “that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”  Now if you don’t know God, I mean, these kids have all kinds of weird ideas about who God is.  Some of them think God is the Star Wars Force.  We’ve got some people like, well, Carl Sagan.  Sagan said:  “If you want to say that nature is God, that’s okay with me, because nature kind of does all these good things, brought us into existence.”  First of all, we have to straighten out who God is.  How are you going to experience God?  What they mean is they want to get some kind of a religious feeling.  And it’s like, Tom, we’ve mentioned it before, the mantra, it’s almost a mantra today, I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious.  What they mean by that is I don’t want to have any guidelines.

Tom:

No instructions.

Dave:

No.

Tom:

We’re not going to look at the Bible; we are not just going to study the Bible because it’s really instructional.

Dave:

Yeah.  I’m just going to be a space cadet out there, and we are going to experience God.

Tom:

Well, how can it be so wrong if it feels so right?  One of the arguments the EmergingChurch readers make is that doctrine, things like that, that’s too much of about knowing about God.  In other words they would say if you know too much about God, then you’re never really going to experience him, you’re really never going to know him.  Now, is there a balance between those two things, Dave?

Dave:

Well, the Bible doesn’t really talk about experiencing God.  I don’t know where that would be.  Now I’m sure you could find something related to that.

Tom:

Well, I can find it in listening to you on these programs.  As I listen to you, you talk about having a personal, intimate relationship with God, communing with God, isn’t that experiential, Dave?

Dave:

You experience this, yes, but you experience it in a context.  You don’t experience—Jesus said, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee.”  Okay, you could go back to Jeremiah:9:23Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
See All...,24:—“Let not the rich glory in his riches, the wise in his wisdom, the mighty in his might, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.”  It doesn’t say, He knows me and then— No, there’s something about God, I must know who this God is, and that isn’t just a feeling, it involves doctrine, it involves truth—“I am the way, the truth, the life.”  You want to experience Jesus?  Then you are going to have to know Him as the truth.

Tom:

And experience is the by-product, it’s the cart after the horse.  When I think about what He has done for me, I really get emotional, Dave.

Dave:

Absolutely.

Tom:

But I have to know the truth of what He has done for me, I would think.

Dave:

Absolutely, otherwise, who is this God you think you are experiencing?