Extended adolescence is now a major trend in America. Read insights from a veteran youth leader about the faith impacts of drawing out this developmental stage.
Throughout decades and centuries, the experience of being a teenager has many similarities. But plenty of dissimilarities also exist. Many of these shifts are things we’re all aware of. Examples include increased pressure and stress, constant access to and bombardment by information, instant everything (including an expectation of instant, no-presence-required communication).
Each interwoven shift has an impact on the spiritual lives of teenagers. So youth workers must be thoughtful about where we pander or acquiesce. We also must consider where we take counter-cultural stands.
Our role is to help teens know and embrace a “truthier truth.” (I suppose “truer truth” would be more grammatically correct, but I like the former.)
Perhaps the biggest shift in American adolescence is the duration. Adolescence is now, on average, an almost 20-year trek, lasting all the way through the 20s. Of course, some 20-somethings live fully as adults long before age 30. (Previously, that milestone marked the beginning of middle age!) Then again, plenty of young 30-somethings still live in an extended adolescence.
Insights on Extended Adolescence
This topic has lots of implications. But I want to zero in on one key query: What impact does extended adolescence have on the faith formation of teenagers? (Okay, and a second question: How should the church respond?)
Wouldn’t it be nice to have one neat answer? Nope, sorry. This stuff is too new and changing too quickly. But I’ll tell you this…
So far, the church’s overwhelming response has been to create a homogeneous pocket of isolation. We have been beefing up young adult ministries.
Churches are realizing two things: Teens leave church after graduating from youth group, and no young adults are in our church. Sure, a lame young adult group might exist. But in many congregations, your average high school graduate would never attend that.
In response, churches are now creating young adult youth groups. Really, that’s what they are (of course, they wouldn’t call them that). And this, my friends, only perpetuates and extends some of the very problems we’re discovering about how we’ve approached youth group for decades.
