Every so often, my family sits around and laughs at our kids’ favorite Vine and YouTube videos. The ones that garner the biggest laughs are of course, the ‘fail’ videos: kids jumping off sketchy ramps or crashing through doors. We watch these and think, “What were they thinking?”
A better question might be, “How were they thinking?”
The National Institute for Mental Health tells us the teenage brain does not fully resemble that of an adult until the early twenties, and different parts of the cortex mature at different rates. The front of their brain used for controlling impulses and planning ahead is among the last to mature.
In many ways, this is not breaking news. We’ve known that youth take uncalculated, often illogical risks. Insurance companies definitely aren’t betting on your child to get through their teen years accident free.
Previously, we may have thought these risky behaviors stemmed from a lack of maturity. Yet, we now have research that indicates that even the most mature teen is still wired for risk, unable to see beyond the present or fully value a logical argument.
As a parent, I see this often. We show teens the logical conclusion to their actions – and they give us that blank stare. Part of the reason is that their brains simply aren’t yet wired to look that far ahead, to fully count the cost of their actions, and won’t be for several years.
Teens need adults for guidance, wisdom, and support (hello, gas money!). But do we need them as well? Does society somehow need risk takers to move us from complacency to action? Does the church?
God’s Timing
Many of us, myself included, had a profound moment in our adolescence and started our journey with Jesus between the ages of 10 and 22. I contend that this stage is not a mistake of nature, not a warning sign, or a reason to shelter youth away from the harsh realities of our world. On the contrary, these developing years present a rare moment in our lives, by God’s design – to give young people a window to hear God’s voice and respond, or to see a painful injustice and struggle to create a way to address it – with the courage to move forward, without fully counting the cost.
The truth is, our risk takers make us relevant, and we need them. Why?
+ Full of Energy – When a young person gets passionate about a justice or faith issue, they can put an incredible amount of energy into addressing that issue.
+ Not Tied Down – Most of our youth don’t have debt or responsibilities yet, but all of our youth are able to think or dream about a career that will allow them to be part of the solution, not simply a cog in the machine.
+ Tomorrow Shapers – Youth are the future. If they value making a social justice change and work toward that, it will become the new normal for the next generation. In fact, right now we are teaching them to care about things that will become the norm in the future.
+ Connected – You and I might remember a time before Google, but our teenagers don’t. The world is flat again, and teens are making global friendships that impact their worldview. They have this confidence that if they hit on the right issue in the right way, it can go viral, and that means power, and influence and change. We see that corporations know this by hiring teenage content creators. Why hasn’t the church figured this out?
A Risk Worth Taking
So what should the church do with our risk takers?
1) Involve Them Fully in Church
Instead of the tradition of keeping the youth separate from the church, our churches need and will be transformed by including our risk takers deeper into our church structure.
Gather your ministry team and nominate some of these risk takers to become active deacons in your church. Put these risk takers on every standing committee in your churches – missions, personnel, education, worship, event planning teams, even the welcoming committee. Won’t we be better for it?
2. Camp What You Preach
Even if our church theology is spot on, as we connect with other Christian groups, we must make sure we are taking our youth to camps and conferences where the theology preached matches that which we preach and teach every week. If it takes 7 positive comments to counter 1 negative, how much more does bad theology take to counter?
3) Expose Your Teens to Injustices
We need to systematically expose our youth to the problems in our communities and around the world. These can be transformational experiences when handled with care and intentionality, not for shock value, but for holy value. Don’t give in to the lure of Mission Tourism. There is such a thing as bad missions. How you teach your teens to ‘do missions’ and serve others matters.
4) Set the Bar High for Yourself (Hint: They are watching.)
We must resist the temptation to slip into the status quo – where we use the same lesson plan we used last year, recycle an old sermon, or purchase curriculum from some old denominational form that keeps showing up in our inbox. Engage! Because Theology is alive and evolving through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can’t phone it in.
—————-
David Burroughs
David Burroughs is the president & founder of of Passport, Inc.