1. Open Forum on Youth Ministry Discussing Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church by Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean

2. The Descriptive Task: What is going on? What is the relationship between youth and religion? How do youth perceive religion, and their religious identity? What does the above answers have to say about congregations/parents?

3. Activity Split into groups of 4-6 people Make chart by drawing a vertical line down the middle, and a line across the top In the top right box write, “Characteristics/actions that define a highly devoted teenager.” Begin listing characteristics that you think defines a highly devoted teenager.

4. The NSYR (National Study on Youth and Religion) It was a national survey conducted from 2002 to 2005 It involved extensive interviews of more than 3,300 American teenagers between the ages of 13 to 17. It also included telephone surveys of these teenagers’ parents. 267 of these interviews were followed up with face-to-face interviews. The study also revisited 2500 of these young people in order to understand how their religious lives are changing as they enter adulthood. For a detailed analysis of this survey, read Soul Searching by Christian Smith Dr. Dean’s goal in this book is to interpret the findings of this survey for congregations.

5. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 11 Findings

6. 1. Most U. S. teenagers embrace some religious identity and are affiliated with a religious organization. More than 75% of U.S. teens between the ages of 13-17 call themselves Christians, and nearly 3 in 5 youth say they attend religious services at least monthly. Most youth practice their faith sporadically, but at least 40% of youth go to church weekly, pray at least daily, and are currently involved in a religious youth group.

7. 2. Most U.S. teenagers follow in their parents’ footsteps when it comes to religion. Teens tend to go along with the religious beliefs and level of commitment of their parents, not because they buy into it, but because they don’t consider religion worth arguing about. The evidence shows that the religious commitment, understanding, and practice among teenagers reflects—to an astonishing degree—that of their parents

8. 3. While most U.S. teenagers feel generally positive toward religion, religion is not a big deal to them. This surprised some of researchers who thought that youth would not like religion, and would seek to rebel against religion by arguing with their parents. Most teens, even non-religious teens, believe that religion is a good thing. They think it’s good that people explore their own religious understanding, but teens are not doing this themselves, and religion does not claim them or concern them greatly. The reason teenagers are not hostile toward religion is because they just don’t care about it very much.

9. 4. The vast majority of teenagers in the U.S. say they’re Christians. ~50% are protestant ~25% are Roman Catholic ~16% are “not religious” ~2.5% are Mormon

10. 5. Mormon teenagers are faring best. In nearly every area, Mormon teens were consistently the most positive, the most healthy, the most hopeful, and the most self- aware. They showed the highest degree of religious vitality and salience, the greatest degree of understanding of church doctrine, and the highest degree of congruence between belief and action. After the Mormons, followed conservative protestants and black protestant teenagers, followed by mainline Protestant, and then Roman Catholics.

11. 6. The single most important influence on the religious and spiritual lives of adolescents is their parents. The best social predictor of what a teenager’s religious life will look like is to ask what his/her parents’ religious lives look like. If parents are highly devoted Christians, then it’s likely their children will be highly devoted Christians; and vice-versa. Parents matter most when it comes the spiritual formation of a teen. “Parents ‘get what they are’ religiously” (17))

12. 5 Minute Break

13. 7. Supply and demand matters to the spiritual lives of teenagers. The more available religiously grounded relationships, activities, programs, opportunities, and challenges are for teenagers, the more likely they will be religiously engaged and invested. In other words, congregations that prioritize youth ministry and support for their parents, invest in trained and skilled youth group leaders, and make serious efforts to engage and teach adolescents seem much more likely to draw youth into their religious lives and foster religious and spiritual maturity in their young members. Put it the other way, congregations who do not invest in the youth will find that the youth will not invest in them.

14. 8. Spiritual and religious understanding are very weak among American teenagers. The vast majority of U.S. teenagers are “incredibly inarticulate about their faith, their religious beliefs, and practices, and its meaning in their lives.” When asked about their religious beliefs, most youth defaulted and said that they had no religious beliefs, or unknowingly described beliefs that their own churches would deem heretical. This is even true of teens who regularly attend church. The researcher, Christian Smith, notes that youth are able to talk about other subjects in detail (family, technology, sports, sex), but when it comes to religion they grasp for words.

15. Here are the words/phrases that youth use when they do talk about God

18. 9. Teenagers tend to espouse a religious outlook that is distinct from the traditional faith commitments of most U.S. religious traditions—an outlook we might call “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”

19. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (default position of most teens) 1.A god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth. (Deism) 2.God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. (Moralistic) 3.The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. (Therapeutic) 4.God is not involved in my life except when I need God to resolve a problem. (Deism/Therapeutic) 5.Good people go to heaven when they die. (Moralistic)

20. 10. Religion doesn’t claim teenagers’ time or attention, compared to other social institutions, activities and organizations. Teenagers view religion as optional. Religious participation is more like an “add on,” an extracurricular activity; something you do if you feel like it or if you have time “Social and cultural forces (therapeutic individualism, mass- consumer capitalism, the digital communications revolution, to name a few) co-opt teenagers’ participation, giving competing worldviews very little room to shape our thinking or our decisions about how to use our time.”

21. 11. Highly religious teenagers appear to be doing much better in life than less religious teenagers. Highly devoted religious teenagers attend worship service weekly or more, they feel very close to God, they participate in youth group, they read Scripture, pray frequently, and profess that faith is very important in their lives.

22. Discussion: What do you think about the findings? Were you surprised by any of the findings?

23. Summary of Youth’s Perception on Religion Youth are not hostile toward religion; they think religion is a good thing or a very nice thing to do, but it does not matter to them very much. Youth lack the ability to talk about their faith in Christian terms. They lack Christian vocabulary to describe and interpret their world. When youth do talk about their faith, the faith they describe sounds unChristian—Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

24. Activity On the left side of the chart, write characteristics/actions that define less devoted teens. What do you think is the percentage of American teens that fit into each category? 50/50?

25. Discussion Why do you think this is the case? What are some factors that prevent or hinder consequential faith in an American teenager? Consequential faith – a faith that matters enough to issue in a distinctive identity and way of life.

26. Implications of the Survey (NSYR) Dr. Dean is interested in asking, “What does the survey reveal about the faith in American churches/congregations/parents?” The faith of teenagers serve as a measuring tool to measure the faith of congregations/parents. In other words, the youth are merely putting out what churches/congregations are putting into them. If they confess Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, then it is because that is what we taught have them.

27. Two Convicting Quotes “Why do teenagers practice Moralistic Therapeutic Deism? Not because they have misunderstood what we have taught them in church. They practice it because this is what we have taught them in church.” “Our religiously conventional adolescents seem to be merely absorbing and reflecting religiously what the adult world is routinely modeling for and inculcating in its youth.”

28. Why does Moralistic Therapeutic Deism exist? Because it fits well with the American Dream “After two and a half centuries of shacking up with “the American dream,” churches have perfected a dicey codependence between consumer-driven therapeutic individualism and religious pragmatism. These theological proxies gnaw, termite-like, at our identity as the Body of Christ, eroding our ability to recognize that Jesus’ life of self-giving love directly challenges the American gospel of self-fulfillment and self- actualization (5).”

29. Reflection

30. Challenge Ask your son/daughter, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” Don’t respond to their answer, but reflect on it and if you’re willing, share their responses with the rest of us next week.