At some point or another, every Christian will have questions about God, the Bible, and how the gospel applies to life today. This is especially true for teens who are trying to find their way and develop their own faith. It is perfectly normal, and there is no reason to be embarrassed by such questions.
In his nearly twenty years as a youth pastor, Mike McGarry has heard just about every question students ask. Their questions are important—and they may prove to be the very thing that actually leads them into deeper faith. In Discover: Questioning Your Way to Faith, McGarry explores the twenty most common questions teenagers ask. In doing so, he wants students to see their questions as an opportunity to dig deeper so they can grow in faith.
Q: How did the students from the youth group that you led motivate you to write Discover? Did all the questions you answer in the book come from directly from them?
Over the last twenty years, I’ve had conversations with teenagers about each of the questions in this book. Some of them are questions teenagers ask directly, while others are indirect. For example, students will ask about whether or not Christians, Jews, and Muslims worship the same God. This is a direct question about the difference in religions, but it’s also an indirect question about the Trinity.
Writing this book, Discover, came out of my previous book for youth workers, Lead Them to Jesus. In that book, I addressed a number of theological questions teenagers commonly ask, and then offered counsel to help these leaders engage those theological conversations with confidence. I received my author copies of Lead Them to Jesus while leading a service project for my youth group, so a bunch of students flipped through the book, and one of them said, “Hey, if this was written for teenagers instead of adults, I’d totally read it.” Then a few others said, “Yeah, me too!”
After that conversation, the publisher and I agreed to revisit those chapters and develop them for a teenage audience. I also added new content to addresss questions that weren’t covered in the first book.
Q: The questions you cover in the book aren’t “fluff.” Are you ever surprised at the level of depth and maturity of the questions that teens ask?
I used to be surprised, but I’m not anymore. I do think a lot of parents would be surprised by their teenagers’ theological curiosity. They wouldn’t call themselves theologians, but they have lots of questions about God and faith and spirituality—and those are theological questions.
This curiosity is especially true of church kids. They’ve grown up their entire lives hearing the same stories and truths from VBS through high school graduation. Of course, they can get bored with the Bible when we always keep the cookies on the lowest shelf. But when you dig into the meat of the text and challenge them to think deeply about doctrinal truths that you might expect to be over their heads, you may be surprised when they step up to the challenge.
Q: Do you really think teenagers care about theology enough to read this book? What are some of the theological questions you delve into?
Our teenagers are growing up in a hyper-tolerant culture, and that actually makes them really open to conversations about the questions in the book. While religious conversations among other generations might still be considered taboo, GenZ is spiritually curious.
Again, because “church kids” are often given the same basic message over the same basic Bible stories throughout their lives, digging deeper into theology is appealing to them. This is why they’re curious about the Trinity and the nature of the Holy Spirit and different views on much-debated issues like creation and Jesus’s return. Apologetics-related questions are always really valuable conversations with teenagers, too, such as examining the evidence that Jesus rose from the grave and discussing the reliability of the Bible.
Q: With so many teens and young adults leaving the church (or just not having a foundation of faith), how can parents, youth leaders, mentors, etc. provide welcoming environments for conversations to talk more about their questions and anchor them in strong doctrine?
If we want our youth to talk about their big questions with us but we shrug off their “smaller” questions, then we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. I think we need to take those small questions seriously and engage in the conversation without turning it into a lecture where we simply give “the right answer.”
It’s easy for parents to hear their kids’ questions or doubts and to fear the worst: They’re starting to doubt! What if they lose their faith? In an effort to help them continue following Christ, they jump into action with all the answers. But when that happens, we’re removing all the lessons our kids learn by discovering faith for themselves. We shouldn’t leave them all alone, but we also shouldn’t try to rescue them from asking hard questions. Instead, let’s lean into the questioning and walk that path with them, while helping them discover answers rather than serving up all the answers on a silver platter.
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