During early adolescence young people learn to think in new ways, causing them to call into question much of what they have been taught. Many childhood myths crumble as they discover new ways of perceiving reality.They no longer consider everything their parents or teachers tell them to be true; they want to understand everything for themselves.
A 14 years old girl describes the conflict between her old and new perspective: " I had whole philosophy of how the world worked. I was very religious, and I believed that there was unity and harmony and that everything had its proper place. I used to imagine rocks in the right places on all the right beaches. It was all very neat, and God ordained it all, but now it seems absolutely ridiculous."
It is not at all uncommon for junior highers to suspend temporarily or even to reject entirely the values and beliefs acquired during childhood. This questioning continues until they are able to determine whether these values and beliefs have any validity or relevance to their new young adult lives. Just as Santa Claus and the stork were discarded years earlier, so the God of the Old Testament and the Christ of the New Testament seem not quite as believable as they once were. This is no cause for alarm; in most cases it is normal for youth to discard their childhood assumptions as they seek to arrive at their own conclusions, their own faith and values.
Our point for now is this: it would seem foolish for the church merely to occupy junior highers with activity rather than to offer them thoughtful and honest answers to the questions that flow out of their emerging faith. There is certainly a danger here of losing them entirely with little chance of reclaiming them later.
Crdts