The American consumerism narrative seeks to write the identity of adolescents for them. As youth workers we have the responsibility to better understand this narrative, and the opportunity to help rewrite a counternarrative that can shape kids’ identities toward the kingdom of God.
What’s the difference between understanding faith and internalizing it? Psychologist Krista Kubiak Crotty explores the implications of those differences for youth workers hoping to nurture students’ faith in ways that will last far beyond high school.
Continuing our series on faith identity formation, this article explores the importance of the process of “Moratorium” in faith exploration and offers practical ideas for youth workers to ride with students toward their long-term commitment to Christ.
Kara Powell interviews Chuck Bomar on the “Moratorium” stage of identity development. Please also read the accompanying article, “Riding With Students Through the Highs and Lows of Teenage Faith Development” by Meredith Miller.
The latest research on what’s happening with college freshmen and their faith identity might surprise you. Meredith Miller reviews the research and excerpts from an interview with Tony Jones on the “lockbox theory.”
While adolescence has always been a time of physical (and all kinds of other) changes, the way teenage girls experience those changes is now, in fact, changing.
Are we more comfortable with singing about God’s love or God’s justice; with raising our hands in church or reaching our hands out to the poor and oppressed? Whether we’re uncomfortable or not, the Old Testament prophets and the example of Christ point us to a radical both/and type of worship justice. This article challenges us to think carefully about how we teach and model worship to students.
You’ve been wondering whether to pick up the phone and check in with last year’s grads now that they’re a few months into college, but you aren’t sure you can make the time. Recent research through FYI’s College Transition Project might help you realize how important that call really is.
While it may seem to some that adolescence hasn’t changed much for girls in recent years, research and media trends indicate at least three areas we’ve identified as needing our renewed attention as youth workers. In this article we share ideas for responding to three “mores” that bring new twists to some perhaps-familiar issues: more sexy, more pressure, and more violence.
How do the kids in your church know when they have become adolescents? How do they know when they have become adults? As we re-think the value and necessity of rites of passage in our ministries, we may help bring clarity to these life stages and help students through the zones of identity confusion.
