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A few weeks ago I did a teacher training for some youth workers in a local church. I was literally in the middle of my presentation when the youth pastor turned to me and said, “Andy, could you sum up for our teachers what today’s teenagers are like?” This struck me as such an odd question, considering A) what a ridiculously HUGE question it was, and B) these teachers work with teenagers weekly. They should have a pretty good idea, right?

I sort of stumbled through a few points, trying to distill all that I know about Gen Y in a 5-minute, impromptu answer. Looking back on it, I think I did an OK job. I went back and fleshed my points out better and thought I would share. I’d love to know whether or not you think I am on track.

Today’s teens interact on a level of openness and transparency their parents don’t understand.

The result of the social networking-saturated-society is that teenagers are extremely comfortable sharing their thoughts, emotions, needs, fears, and desires. But this propensity for openness goes beyond mere comfort. The language of teenager’s lives is relational. This has always been true. But with this generation of teens and young adults, openness is woven into the very fabric of their lives. They have become fully versed in transparency.

Now, I’m aware that in many cases this is surface level stuff at best. However, the atmosphere is ripe for relational communication on a much deeper level.

As a youth worker, you’re blowing it if you are not continuously and intentionally having open, transparent conversations designed at deepening the relationship. Just because you might be uncomfortable is no excuse. This is one of the many tendencies of teenagers from which we can learn.

Consume more information and juggle more tasks than any generation of teens before them

You don’t need to be told this, but today’s generation of teenagers are the busiest generation of teenagers to ever live. Gen Y could be called Gen Multitask. Today’s teenagers are involved in and committed to WAY more activities than their parents were when their parents were teens. They are probably more involved than even their older siblings were. Information is everywhere. Teenagers have become adept at consuming it. They are discerning in a way you weren’t when you were their age.

So why do we spoon feed them when it comes to spiritual development?

Teenagers are capable of handling so much more than we give them credit for. We dumb down the way we teach Scripture out of a fear that it’s “too much.” (Or is it that we do not understand it ourselves?)  We don’t let them wrestle with the uncertainties of faith, the really meaty questions that aren’t easily answered, because “they’re not ready for it.” In the meantime, they are savvy enough to navigate an information-soaked landscape . . . and come out (mostly) unharmed.

Isn’t it time we took our discipleship to the next level and truly challenged teenagers much like they are challenged in the world they live in outside our churches?

Willing to invest their passion and their time in causes

The world feels so much smaller than it did 30 years ago. A teenager today in small town America is completely at home with the concept that his or her life could be used to make a difference for someone halfway around the world.

This generation of teens gets it. They get that their lives count.

As youth workers, we must capitalize on this. And I’m not necessarily talking about more short term mission trips. I’m really speaking of the need to expand their spiritual world views. We must help our teenagers understand what it means to apply their faith. And to do it boldly, so that they not only make a difference in their communities, but in the world, as well.

Just a few thoughts for those of you who work with teenagers.