A Quick Guide to Teenagers… for Churches

Here beginneth the rant…

Teenagers are not:

• Less than fully human, undeveloped proper people or an under race of ‘not-quite-adults’
• The Church of tomorrow or the future of your denomination
• Unable to handle more than bell pulling or collection taking
• Too irresponsible and immature to sit on councils and boards
• A convenient scapegoat for all that’s wrong with society
• The church janitors or cheep sources of labor
• Counted as leaders in Ofsted adult-child ratios in Sunday school
• Forgotten about by God until they’re older
• Easy to fob off
• All the same

Teenagers are:

• Fully human, proper people and an integral part of your community
• The Church of TODAY
• Able to be trained and released in almost any area of ministry
• An essential voice in every area of church strategy and planning
• Just as bummed with society as you are – and probably more-so
• To be trusted with genuine responsibility
• Still children and needing compassionate supervision when serving
• Used by God significantly in the Bible at every stage of Salvation History – not to mention Church history
• Incredibly insightful, creative, socially aware and intelligent
• As varied in personality as any other developmental stage of humanity

Here endeth the rant.