{"id":32124,"date":"2022-09-10T15:57:16","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/what-are-todays-teens-seeking-and-how-can-they-find-answers-at-your-church\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:57:16","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:57:16","slug":"what-are-todays-teens-seeking-and-how-can-they-find-answers-at-your-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/what-are-todays-teens-seeking-and-how-can-they-find-answers-at-your-church\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Today\u2019s Teens Seeking and How Can They Find Answers at Your Church?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Eliott Reyna photo – Unsplash<\/div>\n

By Helen Gibson<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely many of the students sitting in your church pews are already dreaming about their futures\u2014and for many of them, their biggest aspirations revolve around finding a career they enjoy and helping others in need.<\/p>\n

This is according to recent data from the Pew Research Center, which found that 95% of teenagers say having a job or career they enjoy would be very important to them, personally, as an adult. This includes 97% of teen girls and 93% of teen boys.<\/p>\n

Likewise, 81% of teenagers (including 84% of girls and 78% of boys) say helping other people in need would be very important to them as an adult, according to Pew.<\/p>\n

Both of these goals ranked significantly below other common goals of teens, including having a lot of money (51%), getting married (47%), having children (39%), or becoming famous (11%).<\/p>\n

In light of these aspirations, how can your church better understand, reach, and encourage the teenagers in your congregation? Nashville-based youth pastor Josh Hussung and Lifeway specialists Josh Straub and Mary Margaret West offer some suggestions.<\/p>\n

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Start by understanding the trends<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hussung, a youth pastor at Grace Community Church in Brentwood, Tennessee, isn\u2019t surprised by these trends. In fact, he suggests these statistics actually point to a core value held by many in the next generation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOutside of the Christian world, the value of the culture is [to] make a difference,\u201d Hussung says, \u201cAnd whether it\u2019s environmentalism or social justice or things like that, you see students really jump on board with causes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s teenagers have also, in many cases, watched those in older generations spend years in jobs they disliked, Hussung says. This, too, could be a motivator.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be that seeing a previous generation keep their heads down and be at a desk job that they kind of secretly hate so they can take a good vacation is something that students maybe don\u2019t like,\u201d Hussung says.<\/p>\n

Lifeway Girls Ministry Specialist Mary Margaret West points to the impact of social media and the way it presents students with potential careers and opportunities, no matter how far-fetched, that they never would\u2019ve seen before.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I\u2019m just so fascinated by all these Instagram influencers and social media influencers who are just sort of pioneering their own thing and just living their best life on Instagram,\u201d West says with a bit of a laugh. \u201cIt\u2019s not the typical [9-to-5]; there are so many things out there now that are not the typical 9-to-5 job.\u201d<\/p>\n

West suggests that teenagers\u2019 desire to have a career they enjoy and to make a difference could point to a deeper desire. Teens today want to have a way to identify themselves in an image-based, social media culture, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to say, \u2018This is my job, and this is who I am,\u2019 in the same way,\u201d West says. \u201cThey\u2019re used to tagging things, like literally putting an identifier on everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for many of them, the ultimate goal is happiness, she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this idea of creating this life for themselves that will bring happiness in the end,\u201d West says. \u201c[It] is where their brains are pulling from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua Straub, Lifeway\u2019s marriage and family strategist, expresses similar sentiments. In light of these trends, he points to an opportunity for the church to intervene.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt speaks to the next generation\u2019s desire to live for something bigger than themselves, and as churches, we have the answer to what\u2019s bigger than ourselves, which is loving God and loving others,\u201d Straub says.<\/p>\n

How your church can reach today\u2019s teenagers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In light of the most common aspirations of today\u2019s teenagers, Hussung, Straub, and West each gave suggestions for how churches might better connect with and encourage their students.<\/p>\n

Hussung points to missions. Mission trips and experiences serve as a way to connect students who want to make a difference with the truth of the gospel, he says, and they act as a way to break up the normal Sunday-to-Wednesday learning activity of a church with impactful, real-world experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like, now that we\u2019ve studied about this, we\u2019re actually going to go out and do what we say we believe,\u201d Hussung says. \u201cMissions, whether they\u2019re local or far away, kind of help [students] to buy into the bigger picture of the Christian faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

West agrees that today\u2019s teenagers are likely to be inspired by missional experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis next generation, in that serving idea, in being missional, they\u2019re finding creative ways to do things in the way that they\u2019re wired,\u201d West says. \u201cWhat generations before them have seen as obstacles, they see as opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding teenagers\u2019 desire to have a job or career they enjoy, Straub says parents and adults should help students discover who God has created them to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cSolomon wrote that we\u2019re to raise children in the way they should go, and the thing there is to raise children in the way they should go, not the way we want<\/em> them to go,\u201d Straub says.<\/p>\n

By this, Straub says he means that parents should \u201cbecome students of their kids,\u201d helping their children discover their passions and their purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho has God created them to be, and what puzzle piece do they get to play in this grander puzzle that is God\u2019s story?\u201d Straub says. \u201cAs churches, we have the ability to really identify and press in on the strengths of our kids and help them learn what their strengths are, help them learn what their values are, and how they can be a part of glorifying God and making Him known in the world around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This points back to a core responsibility of the church, West says. Churches today, as they always have been, are tasked with teaching the historic truth of the gospel to the next generation in fresh ways.<\/p>\n

This, she says, will hopefully lead to lifelong commitments to Christ.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the church, the things that we can do are just to continue to hammer home the same things we\u2019ve always done but in new and creative ways that will help students stay engaged with God\u2019s Word, to walk in obedience to Him, and to pursue Him with their whole heart no matter what they end up doing,\u201d West says.<\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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Student Ministry that Matters: 3 Elements of a Healthy Student Ministry<\/h3>\n

Ben Trueblood<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Related posts:<\/h3>\n
3 Crises Churches Must Address to Reach the Next Generation 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community 2 Traits the Next Generation Needs Before Leaving Student Ministry <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eliott Reyna photo – Unsplash By Helen Gibson It\u2019s likely many of the students sitting in your church pews are already dreaming about their futures\u2014and for many of them, their biggest aspirations revolve around finding a career they enjoy and helping others in need. This is according to recent data from the Pew Research Center, … Continue reading “What Are Today\u2019s Teens Seeking and How Can They Find Answers at Your Church?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}