wfn.org | Teens explore theology, deepen their faith through lively seminar

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3024~3025 Edition

>February 8~21, 2010

Teens explore theology, deepen their faith through lively seminar

>Reported by Simon Lin

>Written by Lydia Ma

Chang Jung Christian University’s School of Theology held its  first “Teens Exploring Theology

Day” on February 6. This lively and interactive seminar was  especially designed to attract

junior and senior high school students and pique their interest in  theology. Participants were

invited to discuss an array of topics involving the Christian  faith and challenge themselves

>through lively discussion.

“I thought theology would be really hard,“ said one  participant. “But I discovered that theology

is actually present in the stuff of everyday life.”

The school’s dean, Rev. Wong Chong-Gyiau, emphasized that  training church teens to reflect

on their faith and making reflection a habit will help expand  young people’s horizons and refine

the next generation of church members and leaders.

Wong spoke on “The world according to theologians”  during a keynote speech and pointed

out that theology isn’t complicated at all. In fact, whenever  a person reflects on what he

believes in, he is engaging in theology. Examples of such  instances include discussing

whether Christians can buy lottery or discussing whether the Bible  supports gender equality.

He concluded that theological analysis is profitable to church and  society because it

>encourages critical thinking.

When participants were divided into small groups for in-depth  discussions, seminarians were

appointed to each group so that students could ask any questions  they had about God or

theology and seminarians could attempt answering these questions.  The process helped

these young minds to think more clearly and acquire a deeper  understanding of God,

>themselves, and the world.

According to Wong, churches usually don’t emphasize theology.  Previous seminars

sponsored by PCT on theology were usually designed for college-  age students and there

were rarely events designed to attract teenagers. He hoped that  “Teens Exploring Theology

Day” would serve as the beginning of more seminars designed  for teenagers so that churches

can get younger generations interested in theology and train them  to reflect on their faith.

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