Six Reasons Teenagers Want to Learn Doctrine
This is part three of a month-long series about the role of theology in youth ministry. Many youth workers suspect they should be teaching theologically, but they either don’t know how to begin or question whether it’s worth the extra effort. YPT hopes this series, “Teaching Theologically in Youth Group,” will persuade you to get started. Part One highlighted the necessity of teaching theologically at youth group and Part Two addressed some common objections to this approach.
I will always remember one particular meeting with my adult volunteers - even though it was 14 years ago. I confidently told them that we would teach biblical doctrine through a semester-long series on systematic theology during our midweek student worship services. I thought there would be enthusiastic nods of agreement and words of affirmation. However, I was faced with either blank faces or expressions of disbelief. They feared teaching biblical doctrine would ruin our student ministry attendance, or it would be too hard for them to teach students “deep biblical truth,” as one leader put it. However, after much discussion, we went ahead with the plan.
The series went so well that I have now taught a series covering all of the central doctrines of the Christian faith 5 times over the last 14 years, with the last time being in the spring of this year. In 2023, our student ministry has covered biblical doctrine through a 10-week systematic theology series, by focusing one particular doctrine in a sermon series, and through a one-off advent series about the incarnation. We also use a Sunday school curriculum called Milestones that covers the central doctrines of the Christian faith.
Why do we teach so much doctrine? Because our students want answers to their questions about life and what to believe.
6 Reasons Students Want To Learn Doctrine
1. They are looking for the truth
Kelly, a senior in my student ministry, asked, “Can salvation be revoked?” This question was in response to our Christian doctrine series last school year. She already believes in Jesus but seeks a deeper understanding of her beliefs. She doesn’t take my word as authoritative but wants to study her Bible and find and understand it herself.
Kelly is not alone. Teenagers want the answers to their honest questions and will do the work to find them. They want truth and are willing to look for it, but we need to be ready to be faithful in asking and providing answers. If youth workers avoid theological depth, they’re making it more difficult for youth to find biblical answers to their honest questions.
2. They are over fluff and puff
Maya began attending our student ministry during last spring’s doctrine series. After her first night at Student Worship, she told me, “I had fun tonight, but I’m more excited about what I learned from the Bible tonight!” She was looking for a place that taught the Bible and found that in our student ministry.
At a recent youth ministry coaching event, Shane Pruitt stated, “Gen Z is over fluff and puff; they want Spirit and truth.” Fluff and Puff are hallmarks of attractional ministry and prioritize excitement, production value, glitz, and glamour.
Teaching doctrine may not generate eye-popping attendance numbers that the youth pastor can proudly use to prove his success and worth. It’s common for pastors, parents, and other ministry supervisors to take more interest in youth group attendance than what’s being taught. But students like Maya are tired of fluff and puff and they crave answers to real-life questions that stare them in the face each day at school. The Bible has those answers. Students need (and want) someone to teach them what the Bible says about life and walk beside them as they live it out.
3. Truth must be applied to life
Jim was a relatively new believer in our student ministry who didn’t accept Christ until his senior year of high school. He asked, “How do faith and works go together in the Christian life?” Jim had been examining his own life against the lives of other believers around him and was trying to reconcile what was written in James 1:22-26. He saw believers living lives whose actions did not match their stated beliefs. As a new believer, he wanted to understand this core doctrine of the Christian faith because of what he saw in others.
Teens can lose trust when there is a misalignment between a stated value and actual behavior. We cannot simply say that the Bible is true. Still, godliness should be modeled for them as we help them navigate life's questions biblically. Teaching and rehearsing doctrine is essential as we accompany parents in raising teenagers as lifelong disciples. Practicing doctrine allows us to rehearse God’s Word and shine the light into the hearts of teenagers (Hebrews 4:12).
It is a sad reality that many students graduate and leave the church. However, the students I have seen continue following Christ after high school have learned God's Word and how it applies to their daily lives.
4. Truth helps answer students’ questions
I ask students to share their questions during the doctrine series each year. The questions turned in this year ranged from "Will my dog go to heaven?" to “Where are dinosaurs in the Bible?” to "Is it wrong to think I am a different gender than the one I was assigned at birth?" In unlikely ways, these questions all point to doctrinal questions teenagers ask and want to discuss.
Students want to know how to respond to issues like transgenderism, abortion, or immigration, and they need answers that are clearly anchored in biblical theology. Creating space for conversations about doubt and doctrine prepares students to grapple with their faith in ways that endure through adulthood. This is why doctrine matters in answering questions. Teens may know something is not honoring God, but teaching doctrine helps them understand why.
5. Truth brings stability during a time of change
The teenage years are a time of physical, emotional, and spiritual growth. Even Jesus experienced this same growth during his time on Earth (Luke 2:52). This growth elicits many questions from teens as they begin to try and make sense of the world around them as they seek to understand their place in it. While this is all happening, the world has an agenda to teach teenagers to depend on wisdom outside of the Bible.
I always enjoy connecting with former students during their first Christmas break from college. I asked one who had just finished their first semester at Auburn University how their first semester went, and they replied, "Grades were fine, but I am glad that I know God's Word, have a church, and friends who believed at school because who knows where I would have been without those to anchor me."
When students want to seek after Christ, Christian doctrine is an anchor that keeps them from drifting during young adulthood (Ephesians 4:14-19).
6. Biblical truth lasts
A different college freshman came back and visited this last Sunday morning. After he left, one of my adult leaders remarked, “Do you remember the hard questions they asked in small groups? I am glad we took time to answer those questions together!” This leader and I briefly discussed how teaching doctrine can be challenging, but it has a lasting impact on students who want to seek after Christ. In a world where people define their reality, biblical truth is paramount. Students are hungry for reality and truth that endures. Doctrine is a good gift from our unchanging God (James 1:16-18).
If youth ministries want to produce students who grow their faith into adulthood (1 Peter 2:2), we must teach the biblical truth that students seek – including how to live it out. For those of you reading this and saying, "Bryan, this is easy to say, but hard to do," then I agree. It is. But is there anything more important for this generation than new life in Jesus Christ?
Teaching doctrine may not be the most exciting prospect during a midweek Bible study or small group. It may not illicit instantaneous or exponential numerical growth. However, faithfully teaching God's truths will raise a generation hungry for Christ with a burden for the lost, who will proclaim that message to the nations. Our obedience to teaching fundamental truths of the faith will give them the tools that, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, will continue to build the Church's future.