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> CRC Publication Reports Study

February 25, 2009 -- Teenagers who have some kind of role in leading worship in their church, such as presenting a prayer or even playing in a band, tend to be the ones for whom religiosity has more meaning, according to a study published in the most recent edition of Reformed Worship.

Common youth ministry theory says that a sense of belonging is what provides youth meaning and attachment to church. ?Youth in this sample seemed to neither benefit from, nor desire, close relationships with members of their congregation,? says Marjorie Lindner Gunnoe, professor of psychology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. Gunnoe and Claudia DeVries Beversluis, provost of Calvin College, conducted the study.

What matters to teens is being an integral part of the church, in part because of the legitimately important roles they play (i.e., roles that adults also play and value).

?And we shouldn?t be afraid to make the tasks youth are involved in a bit challenging,?says Gunnoe. ?When you set the bar high, young people will rise to the occasion and enjoy doing it. Both youth and adults tend to get more out of church when we are involved in it. The key is to find ways to help youth invest in the adult life of the congregation so they make it their own.?

In conjunction with a national study of adults being conducted by sociologists at Rice University and Notre Dame, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and the Center for Christian Studies funded a study of youth. The Panel Study for American Religiosity and Ethnicity Youth focuses on 183 youth ages 12-18 from communities and different denominations and ethnic groups around the country.

Of the 183 teens that participated, 118 reported having attended church in the last year. Those teens are the ones who were asked questions about their religious affiliation, religious commitment, and worship experiences.

When asked about their affiliation, 85 percent of the youth identified with a formal religion, but only 30 percent could provide specific information about their denomination, ?suggesting fairly weak denominational ties,? says Gunnoe.

Unfortunately, nearly 40 percent of the youth who were interviewed for the study said they had never participated in leading worship. These statistics cause researchers to believe that it would be a good idea if churches offered young people more opportunity to , for example, lead singing, participate in a drama or pageant, or give their personal  testimonies.

Serving as an acolyte or altar boy/girl; teaching a lesson or giving a meditation on the sermon; serving as ushers, greeters or collecting the offering are other roles that they can fill.

In this study, youths? religiosity was measured by frequency of church attendance and prayer, how big a role faith played in decision making, commitment to their faith tradition, and the desire for others to know of their religious commitment, according to the article in Reformed Worship, a publication of Faith Alive Christian Resources. Faith Alive Christian Resources is the publication agency of the Christian Reformed Church.

One finding that surprised her, says Gunnoe, was that the young people didn?t seem to believe that having a sense of belonging in a church was that crucial. ?Youths? sense of belonging contributed comparatively little to our prediction of youth religiosity.?

Gunnoe says that it may be that youth today have a different sense of what it means to belong. Contemporary youth may see interaction on Facebook and other Internet sites as fulfilling their need to belong.

At the same time, though, some youth in the study seemed to be hungering for the authority and direction that religion can  offer.

?To foster mature faith in our youth, we need to hold youth and adults accountable to the same high standards, and provide opportunities for youth to contribute to the faith formation of adults in intergenerational worship settings that utilize youth as worship leaders,? says the study.

> ?Chris Meehan, CRC Communications

> -- Chris Meehan
> News & Media Director
> Christian Reformed Church in North America
> 1-616-224-0849