Bible study on prayer teenagers8/2/2023 ![]() ![]() If I’d used a term like “regularly,” perhaps more kids would have agreed with this statement. Meanwhile, nearly the same number of Christian students (26%) rejected the assertion that Christians are obligated to study God’s Word daily. But just under one out of three teenagers (31%) was willing to “strongly agree” that followers of Christ should study the Bible daily. Nearly three out of four (73%) of survey respondents indicated that daily Bible study is at least somewhat important in a Christian’s life. Teenagers’ responses to question 23 were mixed. However, when kids are taught first to inwardly value faith practice then Bible study and prayer become much more natural expressions of that value and yield life-giving spiritual growth-and that’s why it then becomes associated with stronger faith. In contrast, I’ve found that when teens are taught first to outwardly practice faith, then that faith expressed-in Bible reading, prayer, or whatever-tends toward a dry, debilitating experience that often falls dangerously close to legalism. Smith and Denton’s conclusion, however, appears to be that this happens because kids are first taught to read the Bible and pray, and then voila-strong faith results. Basic faith practices like Bible study and prayer are associated with what we would term a deeper, more grounded faith. I believe these researchers are somewhat right and somewhat wrong in their assessment of this issue. According to these researchers, Christian parents and church leaders should strive to help young people practice faith skills like Bible reading and prayer “in the direction of excellence in faith, analogous to musicians and athletes practicing their skills.” Why is that so important? Well, as Smith and Denton report, “Even basic practices like regular Bible reading and personal prayer seem clearly associated with stronger and deeper faith commitment among youth.” ![]() ![]() Question 23: Followers of Christ Should Study the Bible DailyĪfter their landmark research in the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), Christian Smith and Melinda Denton articulated the key relationship of teen faith with traditional practices of Christian faithfulness. Yet, a teenager who is exposed to Scripture at church once or twice a week could easily, and truthfully, say that he or she studies the Bible “regularly” or “at least once a week” without ever engaging the Bible personally. After all, the general term regularly would be similarly insightful, or even the phrase “at least once a week” would be revealing. I evaluated whether to include the word daily as a clarifier. For question 24, I asked them to respond to this statement regarding their personal actions related to the value of daily Bible study: I study the Bible daily. Then I asked teenagers to indicate whether or not they agreed with this “values” statement. After all, if Bible study is not important to Christian teens, that’s significant.Īs with all the survey questions, I listed a one-sentence statement for question 23: followers of Christ should study the Bible daily. My first inclination was to ask a question that would help determine whether or not our youth group kids inwardly value something as basic as daily interaction with the Bible. Next, I wanted to find out about their daily personal experience with the Bible outside of their church experiences. Through The Jesus Survey, I wanted to know if Christian teenagers believed that daily Bible study was important for Christians.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |