Study: "most American teens who called themselves Christian were indifferent and inarticulate about their faith."

Teens want to be challenged; they want their tough questions taken on, she says.

“We think that they want cake, but they actually want steak and potatoes, and we keep giving them cake,” Corrie says.

After 20+ years of being involved in youth groups, I have to say that this has been my experience. The focus on entertaining instead of on planting deeper doctrinal roots and learning how to sacrificially minister to others seems to be SOP in many churches.

This illustrates the limits of journalism. The article should have mentioned that, first, the phrase “moralistic therapeutic deism” comes from sociologist Christian Smith (in my opinion, one of the best and most worth-reading sociologists writing today), and second that Smith directed the study in which the author of Almost Christian participated. I’d recommend Smith’s works to anyone interested in this topic. His two books on the spiritual lives of young people are Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford, 2005) and Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (Oxford 2009).

I also agree with Susan. My years in youth group were an utter waste, in terms of the teaching, formation, etc. No one wants to think this about their own church, or teens, but that’s why external perspectives are valuable, and every church could probably benefit from occasional consulting from objective outsiders, since they often don’t want to listen to, and certainly don’t normally seek out, the criticisms of people internal to the community.

I’ve been trying to get those books (Soul Searching and Souls in Transition) from our library system- they only have one copy of each. And my book budget is shot for the next month or two. Argh.

Susan,

If your church has a library, you could suggest they purchase them. Every church should own them (leaders of all people should read these books), and then you could get the books sooner rather than later!

I wrote an article a year ago for my blog titled http://canjamerican.blogspot.com/2009/08/sign-sign-everywhere-sign.html Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign in which I referenced MTD. I linked to Smith’s http://bit.ly/fq5bL] Soul Searching book and an article he wrote titled http://bit.ly/4zfuxN] On “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” as U.S. Teenagers’ Actual, Tacit, De Facto Religious Faith .

MTD is an excellent name for America’s national religion!

[Joseph] Susan,

If your church has a library, you could suggest they purchase them. Every church should own them (leaders of all people should read these books), and then you could get the books sooner rather than later!

Our new church is small and doesn’t have a library, and besides- I’m a total Scrooge about books- I want them all for myself! :D Maybe I can help our church start a library in the near future though. I’ll have to come to SI for a list of books that every church library should have. ;)

JohnBrian- thanks for those links. I read your blog post and am going to be a busy girl reading all those links.

It isn’t surprising that http://www.generationme.org/aboutbook.html Generation Me has come up with a mindset like MTD. I think today’s Christian parents and youth leaders have come to the conclusion that if they give kids too much information, they might (gasp!) make a choice all on their own, and it’ll be one that mom and dad and the church don’t like. But that’s the way free will crumbles.