I am interested in understanding the teenage mind set in America to work out how best to encourage teenagers to appreciate who Jesus is and how He can change their lives. The Barna research group has done much research on church attendance, beliefs, etc… and it is important to be aware of how contemporary kids think.

David Kinnerman conducted extensive surveys between 2002- 2005 examining the nature of teens’ faith. He described kids and young people as the mosaic generation. Typically they have a patchwork of values and lifestyles, pulling ideas and input from a variety of sources. They are interested in the supernatural but unless they receive good, personalized Bible teaching they may not recognize that Christianity is any more true, valuable or life changing than any other supernatural alternative. It is no longer the case that most teens are raised to believe that Jesus is the only way. 83% of teens believe that moral truth depends on circumstances and only 6% say that moral truth is absolute.

We cannot assume anything. A generic, feel good church youth group with a smattering of Bible teaching by one male youth pastor, may well not be enough to encourage kids to follow Christ in preference to other alternatives. Most kids are interested in spirituality but receive most of their input on this subject from movies and other media. Unfortunately, most churches do not offer teaching to help kids shape their views on the supernatural world.

Many kids have been engaged in some form of psychic or witchcraft related activity, beyond media exposure or horoscope usage: 73%. If America’s kids are involved with this type of dark spirituality we cannot assume that they will transition quickly and easily to become children of God. We must fast and pray for our young ones who are in many cases ensnared by the demonic.

It seems that Christians must wake up to the reality that this generation is in most cases just dabbling with a notion of God and spirituality. Biblical teaching must be thorough, assuming no prior knowledge. I believe that churches need to move out of their safe youth rooms, develop teams of men and women (girls need women, boys need men) who can teach and mentor kids. We need to wow the church kids and their non Christian friends with the dramatic supernatural message of the Bible: rising from the dead, healings, casting out demons etc is dramatic and real. We should demonstrate radically changed lives and show real interest and concern for our kids, witnessing the love of Jesus.

Kinnaman , who conducted the research about teens and faith makes these concluding statements about his findings:

“Everyone wants a simple solution,” the 32-year-old Kinnaman explained. “Unfortunately, we discovered the answers are quite complex. Teens need help becoming wiser consumers of media, but that takes a long-term, intensive process of coaching. They would also benefit from more integration of Scriptural perspectives into their decision-making – that is, they need to operate on the basis of a biblical worldview. But that takes years to develop, immense effort, and close cooperation between church and home. Youth ministries need to address the supernatural more frequently as well as customize their ministry to each student by providing mentoring and personalized development opportunities, but most youth groups would have to be restructured to accomplish these goals. These types of strategies yield deep, whole-life results. But it is difficult to adopt these alternatives because they take patience, prayer and an intense focus on transformed lives rather than mere program attendance.”

I want to see Jesus becoming the focus of young people rather than a piece of the mosaic or an interesting bit of patchwork, nestling beside other life experiences and input, including the demonic. Becoming a Christian requires a radical change. If you are a parent your changed lifestyle will attract kids to Jesus, whereas hypocrisy is quickly noticed and drives kids away from Him. Ephesians 4:21-24 exhorts Christians to “throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God- truly righteous and holy.” Ephesians 4-5 and Colossians 3 describe some of the necessary life changes that Jesus can help us make. I suggest that you read these chapters in the Bible.

Jesus is all loving, powerful. supernatural, personal and universally true and relevant. He loves us all and I pray that He will give us a wholehearted desire to spend time with the youth and to show them the real Jesus. A youth pastor is not enough. If we want our kids to be impacted by Jesus rather than by all the other dangerous alternatives, WE need to show them the love of Jesus and teach them the Biblical message that is more spiritual and life changing than anything that the movies or video games can offer. The battle is serious, it involves spiritual forces, but Christ is the victor. Let’s partner with Him to win our kids over from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light: Jesus’ Kingdom.

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