A poll by the Associated Press and MTV reveals that spending time with family is the number one source of happiness for youth ages 13-24. Spending time with friends came in second.
That got me thinking about how churches tend to do youth ministry. When I was a youth pastor, one of the operative principles in the church was that the youth didn’t want to be with their parents, that they didn’t want to hang out with adults at all, and that adolescence was a time for them to be separated.
While there’s certainly a need for young people to discover their own identity, this poll reveals that the primary formation of character, faith, and overall happiness has its foundation within the context of the family.
Rather than separating teenagers or warehousing them until they "grow up," churches and other youth-serving institutions would do better to spend time fostering those family connections. Sunday mornings can often run counter to that thinking, however, as families split off to their various groups as soon as they hit the front door.
We all need to be looking for ways to strengthen the family unit. The old adage may be trite, but it looks like it’s true–"The family that prays together, stays together."
