...Realizing there are only a few participating, I wonder if anyone could say any of these and other questions that can creep into a teen's mind have been adequately addressed by the pastor at church, in other "non-worship" settings, or both:
How do we know the Bible is reliable?
Has science disproved the Bible?
Is the World millions of years old?
How can the Bible stand up to carbon dating?
How does the Bible stand up to archeological fossils showing a succession of changes in man?
Mike, I haven't had computer access much lately, but saw this post and wanted to welcome you to the club. The lack of response you are seeing (with the obvious exeption of a blessed few) is the same situation I have run into in trying to talk face to face with Christian leaders about this same thing!
As far as addressing the questions you listed that can creep into a teens mind, it is even far worse than this. As an example, a youth was asked at a church youth group meeting recently "What does 'repentance' mean?" He couldn't answer. I don't mean he couldn't give a proper theological answer. He couldn't even give a basic dictionary deffinition. This was not a shy, immature, or mentally challenged kid by any means. He was a regular member of the group and normally exhibited a general disinterest in anything but the fun and games, usually being disruptive in Bible study sessions.
He truly had no idea of what the word "repentance" meant. Since repenting is one of the basics of being a Christian, how can any Christian not be able to give at least a basic deffinition of the word?
Now when I was a youth pastor this would have been an indication (allbeit one of many indications) that we had a non-christian in the group, and he may be a non-Christian only because he doesn't have a basic understanding of what Christianity is, and has never been challenged to accept Christ. Since he was a regular member, this would also indicate a strong possibility that others in the group may be in the same situation. Whatever the plan for that night's Bible study had been, I would have immedietly changed it to evangelism and worked it around to a clear teaching of what it takes to become a Christian, ending with a clear challenge to everyone that has not accepted Christ to do so. The rest would have been left up to God's Holy Spirit. (I really mean that. I would have been actively praying for the Spirit to guide my words as well as convict the hearts of the listeners. This works!)
So what did our modern day overworked volunteer "youth director" do with this oportunity? He simply told the kid that repentance "means to stop doing something" then went on with his original Bible study plan, which had no evangelism or explanation of any kind of how to become a Christian, and no challenge to do so. In fact the study was so watered down and poorly prepared that no one seemed to get anything out of it at all and the director just seemed to give up in frustration. I followed up on what happened after and determined that no effort was ever made to talk to this kid later on either. In fact, the youth director had no clue that the kid may not have understood the basics of Christianity!
So when it comes to answering questions from a Christian perspective regarding such things as you mention above, all I can say is good luck in getting anyone, at least from this particular youth group to answer any of them, and good luck in getting this typical modern day youth director to even recognize this as a problem, much less do anything about it.
Can the director even answer your questions? From what I have seen, I doubt it. Is this typical of other youth groups today? From what I have seen lately, it is. Is it tyopical of the group your teen is involved in? All I can say is that if I had a teen in a church youth group today, I would be doing serious investigation and making loud and serious demands upon my church leadership. But the reality is it just seems that almost no one cares about out teenagers anymore. We, as the body of Christ, will pay for this in the long run, and pay dearly.
How many of us that claim to be concerned with our youth have ever spent much time observing what goes on in their youth meetings? I mean really observe, over a period of time where you become a regular fixture, not just sit in on a meeting or two, causing everyone (mostly the leaders) to put there best foot forward because "Oh my God, a parent is watching me tonight!" How many have taken a really close look, and tried to see the effectiveness of our youth ministries from the shoes of a teenager? We need to do this if it is not too late. We need to do it now. And we need to change the situation now. We need to realize that, like Mike has leaned, too many Christian adults, leaders included, just don't care anymore. We need to remove them and put people in thier place that will care and do a better job!
