Why Teenagers Think As They Do                                                

by Glen Schultz                                                                                                                                         Vol. XIV, No. 9, October 2001

Recently, I presented a workshop on the topic, Why Teenagers Think As They Do, during LifeWay’s National Conference on Church Leadership in Ridgecrest, NC. As pastors, youth workers and parents started filing into the seminar room, it soon became apparent that this was a topic of deep concern to these church leaders. When we started the session, all the seats were taken and participants had to stand around the room or sit on the floor.

I began the workshop by asking the delegates to share what and how teenagers were thinking before we tried to address the question of why they were thinking the way they do. Their answers quickly showed why these church leaders flooded the seminar room. According to these individuals, teenagers in their churches had thought patterns that followed some alarming trends. These trends centered on the following concepts:

They think from a very self-centered perspective.

They have no strong respect for authority.

When caught doing something wrong, they place blame on other people or circumstances.

They are very materialistic.

Motivation in most areas of life is based on immediate gratification.

They do not want to accept responsibility for their own actions and believe if they ask forgiveness that all consequences should be removed.

Even though there were some other thoughts shared, everyone agreed that the average teenager in their church thought pretty much as described above. Each leader was extremely concerned about the worldliness that seems to pervade teenagers’ minds today.

Once we had identified how teens were thinking, we attempted to answer the question, “Why are they thinking these types of thoughts?” The first thing we attempted to do was to find out who or what was influencing their minds the most. I asked each participant to share how the average teenager in their church was impacted by various influences. They had to indicate how many hours a week was the average teen influenced by the church, the home, the media and the school. Their conclusions were as follows:

Influence: # Hrs. Per Week: Church 1-4 hours, Home 0-2, Media 30-45, School 30 hours (school year only).

The participants stated that the average teenager in their church received between one and four hours of biblical instruction each week. These same teenagers received no more than two hours of biblical instruction per week at home. However, their minds were being influenced by the media (internet, music, videos, movies, etc.) an average of 5-7 hours per day. During the school year, teenagers were receiving another 6 hours of instruction each day at school.

We then discussed what types of instruction were most teenagers receiving from the media and from their schooling. The two categories that we tried to place these influences in were biblical instruction versus secular instruction. It was the overwhelming consensus of the group that any influence that the media and schooling had on their teens was secular in nature. The conclusion became quite obvious. Teenagers think the way they do because they have been taught to think this way.

Next, I made a statement that caught everyone by surprise. I said, “We teach our children to think this way because that is how we think!” One person quickly responded, “Do you really think we think this way?”

Sometimes it is a hard pill to swallow but Christian parents must realize that our children grow up to mirror us and/or the influences we allow our children to have in their lives. I shared some statistics that I found in some research that helped answer this one person’s question.

Barna reported in 1991 that 57% of Bible believing conservative Christians no longer believe in absolute truth.

Barna stated in a 1997 seminar that he believes that only 7 or 8% of today’s Christians have a biblical understanding of life.

Search Institute found in survey of the main line denominations that only 32% of church members believe that their faith has anything to do with life outside the church.

I also shared one person’s description of the youth culture. This individual wrote:

We are sending forth graduates with diffused minds, scarcely fit to take command of their own lives or to cooperate in the development of a social state; drifters into conformity and essential human futility; easy victims of specious crowd psychologies; followers of what seem easy ways out . . . They esteem themselves only creatures of their environment and so they become just that. They have little or no perception of standards - of truth, beauty, or goodness; they have no goals of purposeful perfection with which to estimate values or by which to gauge achievement. All things are to them relative - relative not to absolutes but to expediency. Truth means to them little more than a body of observable facts; beauty, conformity to fashion; goodness, doing those things that will make one comfortable or popular. Out of our most able youth, capable of high adventure, we are manufacturing mental and ethical jellyfish.

Everyone was shaking his or her head in agreement with this person’s description of the youth culture. One can imagine their shock and chagrin when they learned that this person was not describing the youth culture of today or even of the past two generations. This was written in 1927. It seems that no one paid much attention and now we see the results of this type of thinking being passed on to each succeeding generation with greater and greater intensity.

With the seriousness of the situation now clearly manifested, the question became, “What needs to be done to change how today’s Christian adults are thinking and how we can help capture our children’s minds for Christ?” A verse of scripture that is extremely relevant to this crisis is Colossians 2:8 where Paul warned the church, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

If we are going to be able to win the battle for the minds and hearts of the next generation, we must make an all-out frontal assault on the secularization of the minds of Christian adults. This calls for a complete renewing of our minds so that we are able to address the influences in our children’s lives from a totally biblical perspective. When the secular media and secular educational programs are providing our children with the majority of their education or training, we are bound to reap the dire consequences we are now experiencing. It is time that we shun philosophies that guide our children’s training that merely follow man’s traditions and the world’s ways. We are to follow after Christ so that we properly educate our children from a biblical worldview perspective.

I suggested to these church leaders 8 principles that should guide the total education of our children and youth. If we are going to have any chance of changing the way our teenagers think, we must consistently apply these biblical principles to every aspect of our lives and, then, to their lives. These principles must be applied in regard to the influences that the home, church, media and schools have on our children.

Biblical Principles On Education

The education of children and youth is the primary responsibility of parents. Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:18-21; Psalms 78;1-7; Psalms 127:3; Proverbs 22:6; Malachi 2:13-16; Ephesians 6:4

The education of children and youth is a 24 hour-a-day, 7 days-per-week process that continues from birth till maturity. Deuteronomy 6:7; 11:19; Proverbs 22:6

The education of children and youth must have as its primary goals the salvation of and discipleship of the next generation. Psalms 78:6-7; Matthew 28:19-20

The education of children and youth must be based on God’s Word as absolute truth. Matthew 2 4:35; Psalms 119

The education of children and youth must hold Christ as preeminent in all of life. Colossians 2:3, 6-10

The education of children and youth must in no way hinder the spiritual and moral development of the next generation. Matthew 18:6; 19:13-14; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17

The education of children and youth, if and when delegated to others by parents, must be done with utmost care. Exodus 18:21; I Samuel 1:27-28; 3:1-10

The education of children and youth results in the formation of a lifestyle or worldview that is consistent with their teachers. Luke 6:40

Today’s teenagers are facing enormous pressures from society to live their lives from a secular mindset. It is critical that we take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that a biblical worldview is instilled in their minds. This will mean that parents will have to make some very difficult decisions when it comes to what influences will be allowed in our children’s lives. This will impact not just what takes place in the home and church but in every other area of their lives including schooling.

It is critical that we hear the real answer to the question, “Why do teenagers think as they do?” It is because we have taught them to think this way ... because we, ourselves, think this way! The issue is, “Are we willing to pay the price to change our thinking and biblically educate our children?”

[Glen Schultz is Manager of LifeWay Christian School Resources. He is the author of Kingdom Education published by LifeWay Press, 1998.]