Literacy Matters—In Church

December 28, 2011
Deborah Van Duinen

Recent national studies report that the majority of American teens identify as Christians and claim that their religious views are important to them. This is good news for churches and church youth ministries.

Unfortunately, it's not the whole story. These national studies also report that these same teens have difficulty articulating their beliefs. When these teens do talk about their Christian beliefs, they express a sort of "moralistic therapeutic deism," a cacophony of feel-good and self-serving beliefs that look very different than those within traditional Christianity.

For those of us involved and interested in teens' faith formation—parents, pastors, youth leaders, church members—these findings raise some interesting questions. What's happening here? Where are teens picking up on these "feel-good" beliefs? Who's to blame? the rest

Perhaps in our efforts to attract and maintain teens' attention in youth group activities we focus too much on "fun" and not enough on substantive content. Perhaps in our efforts to help teens make connections between Scripture and their daily lives we overemphasize the role that their personal experiences play in their faith development.