Author Optimistic About an 'Awakened' Faith Among Apathetic Youth
by Allie Martin
June 25, 2004
(AgapePress) - A former youth pastor says spiritual apathy among young people is a growing problem in churches nationwide.In his new book Bored With God: How Parents, Youth Leaders, and Teachers Can Overcome Student Apathy (InterVarsity Press, 2004), Sean Dunn says many Christian teenagers have a sincere desire to become passionate followers of Christ, but are suffering from spiritual apathy. One of the causes, he says, is that many young people take their faith for granted.
"They have been saturated with Sunday school and with teaching [so much] that it's not that they reject it, they just take it for granted," he explains. "And no matter what it is, if you take something for granted, eventually you'll just begin to lose passion and heart for that."
But Dunn says there are solutions to that spiritual apathy. He believes that one step in the right direction would be for Christian teens to see parents and others in leadership roles modeling real relationships with Christ. Another involves teens' level of understanding of God's unconditional love.
"If our students understand God's love, they will walk with Him all the days of their life [and] it will affect every area of their life," the author says.
"[But] if our students only have head-knowledge that God loves them -- because some preacher one time told them that God loves them -- they never really grasp that," he says. "It never hits their heart; it never affects the way they live." As a result, he says, those young people will be easy to manipulate.
On the other side of the equation, however, Dunn contends that once teens who are "slumbering" in their faith are awakened to a life with God, they can apply energy that is both "tireless" and "contagious" to the problems of a world bored with God.
Dunn is president and founder of Champion Ministries, which calls school-age children and teenagers into a real and vibrant lifestyle of intimacy with Christ. He is the author of several books for youth, including Velocity: Moving to a Solid Faith.
