Abraham Piper has a good post on his blog about what society, and the church, thinks it means to be a well-adjusted teen.It seems that wherever adults define cultural guidelines (i.e., schools, most churches, libraries), the decision about whether a young person is to be welcomed or not usually has more to do with how that teenager looks and behaves than an actual knowledge of who that youth is as a person. In general, adults not only don’t know the young people in their communities, but aren’t interested in taking the time to get to know them or what they’re interested in. All they want to know is whether or not a young person is going to disrupt what they have established - if so, they’re out, if not, then they’re welcome to stay.
It’s rare to find a teenager that will sit in a pew quietly for an hour and listen to an adult, who probably doesn’t know them, talk about why they should know God; and when they get “rowdy,” the common opinion is that those youth would be better off not attending the church service. I’ll take the rowdy teens over the sleeping old folks any day. Why? Because it’s not about me or delivering some message that I’ve prepared, it’s about getting to know people (regardless of age) and doing life together within the context of Christian community. Community can’t happen if the requirement for gaining acceptance is that you have to be like me. Is it any wonder why the church is so segregated and divided today?
Abraham says:”Understanding teenage rebellion only as sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll (may I add worship style preference?) implies that the goal is celibacy, sobriety, and employment. It’s not.
It’s Jesus.”
Amen.
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