True Discernment

from Beyond Belief:

John Blake’s article Author: More teens becoming ‘fake’ Christians at CNN seems to have grabbed a lot of interest in the online world. The article focusses on Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church.

Kenda warns parents that their children are probably following a mutant form of Christianity, and that they may be responsible. While the study and the book focusses on America, I imagine that the study would be just as valid in most other western nations.

Dean says more American teenagers are embracing what she calls “moralistic therapeutic deism.” Translation: It’s a watered-down faith that portrays God as a “divine therapist” whose chief goal is to boost people’s self-esteem.

Dean is a minister, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of “Almost Christian,” a new book that argues that many parents and pastors are unwittingly passing on this self-serving strain of Christianity.

She says this “imposter” faith is one reason teenagers abandon churches.

“If this is the God they’re seeing in church, they are right to leave us in the dust,” Dean says. “Churches don’t give them enough to be passionate about.”

She came to these conclusions after in-depth interviews with almost three and a half thousand Americans aged between 13 and 17. She found that most American teens who called themselves Christian were indifferent and inarticulate about their faith.

Many teenagers thought that God simply wanted them to feel good and do good — what the study’s researchers called “moralistic therapeutic deism.”

I’ve been concerned for some time about churches or youth groups who seek to entertain young people rather than challenge them to develop a more concrete faith that is backed by doctrine and displayed in acts of sacrifice to fix the things that are broken in this world. Surely just telling our young people that they are amazing and showing them a good time isn’t going to see them living a real faith in Jesus Christ.

While churches and youth groups can cop some of the blame, Kenda calls parents to get radical with their own faith if they want their teens to wholeheartedly follow Jesus.

She says parents who perform one act of radical faith in front of their children convey more than a multitude of sermons and mission trips.

A parent’s radical act of faith could involve something as simple as spending a summer in Bolivia working on an agricultural renewal project or turning down a more lucrative job offer to stay at a struggling church, Dean says.

But it’s not enough to be radical — parents must explain “this is how Christians live,” she says.

“If you don’t say you’re doing it because of your faith, kids are going to say my parents are really nice people,” Dean says. “It doesn’t register that faith is supposed to make you live differently unless parents help their kids connect the dots.”

What are our parenting goals? Do we simply want kids who don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t sleep around and are polite to adults? Do we simply seek to help our kids become safe, nice people or do we want them to become Jesus followers who are completely sold out to whatever that means for them? Do we want our children to grow up to live the westernised middle class dream or are we prepared to risk them becoming what God requires of them? Are we helping our children understand gain an eternal perspective on life?

I reccomend you read the full article Author: More teens becoming ‘fake’ Christians to get a better handle on the difference between radical and fake Christian teens.