I used to be religious, but I lost a lot of faith. I think I go
to church just to waste time. I'm not really into it. But
do believe in God. -Jean, age 14
No one who is quite started sure how it all started, but everyone thinks they know started it. It happened during themorning worship
service, shortly after the pastor invited the congregation to
pause for a few moments of silent prayer and meditation. The organ
was playing softly. Heads were bowed and eyes were closed. Suddenly
there was heard a sort of mufiled, choking noise, like someone trying to
contain a cough. This was immediately followed by giggles, then snorts,
and within a few seconds, like a wave, the first three rows of the church,
occupied primarily by junior highers, were laughing hysterically.
According to one 14-year-old eyewitness, it started when
"somebody cut the cheese," although he declined to identify the guilty
party. Some believe that it was the same elder who tried to introduce a
resolution at the next church board meeting to ban junior highers from
all worship services where adults are present. "These children are not
capable of understanding the things of God," he said. "They are not
only irreverent, but they are spiritually incompetent."
There are quite a few today who hold the view that junior high spirituality is something of an oxymoron. They don't believe it is
possible to be both a junior higher and a spiritual person. They are
Wrong, of course. Junior highers are exploring their spiritual yearnings
and they are fully capable of making lasting faith commitments.
Significantly the only glimpse we have of the young man Jesus before
he began his public ministry is in Luke 2, in the temple. Jesus was 12
years old and like many junior highers, he was very interested in
spiritual matters. It's not surprising that the elders were amazed by
Jesus' questions and his grasp of spiritual things. If we would take more
time to listen to today's kids-allowing them to ask their questions and
to share their spiritual journeys with us__ we would also be amazed.
It's never easy to make generalizations about spiritual develop-
ment, but whenever we talk about the faith of a junior higher, the first
thing we need to remember is that it is junior high faith. It is not adult
faith. Nor is it childish faith. Junior high faith has distinct
characteristics of its own-appropriate for an early adolescent.
Roberta Hestenes, when she was serving as president of Eastern
College, was asked in an interview, "What exactly is spiritual maturity?
What does it look like?" Her response:
Maturity is engaging in behavior that is appropriate to the stage in
which you are. A four-year-old is mature when he or she does
everything that is reasonable for a four-year-old to do. We don't
consider a four-year-old immature because he cant do what a 12-
year-old does. But if he doesnt do the things four-year-olds are
capable of, then he's immature. So one definition of maturity is livingg
up to the capacities God has made possible for you.
This means that we need to ask: What can we reasonably expect
from a junior higher in terms of faith development? we will try to describe a few characteristics of early adolescent
faith.
Junior High Faith Is Transitional
When we talk about the spiritual dimension of life, we really can't set it
apart from the rest of life as i fit were an entity unto itself. It is not. One's
faith touches every area of life-the physical, intellectual, social, and
emotional. This is why we have devoted so much space to these other
areas so far. The "whole gospel" affects the whole person, not just the
soul.
As we have seen, junior highers are changing a great deal during
early adolescence in every area of life. They are, in many different and
important ways, making a once-in-a-lifetime transition from childhood
to adulthood.
And they are making the same transition in the spiritual area of
life as well.
When we talk about spirituality, we are talking about one's
relationship to God. And like most other relationships (a marriage, for
example) spirituality has both an intellectual and an emotional
component. Intellectually it is necessary to understand what the relationship is all about-who the relationship is with, why its
important-and there must be a commitment to that relationship. But
a relationship needs emotional validation, too. Such emotions can be
described with words like love, passion, affection, romance, infatuation,
adoration, devotion, and joy. Most marriages require that a couplè feel
romantic love at least once in a while to be successful, but they also
need a healthy dose of intel-lectual commitment to each other and to
the concept of marriage itself. Likewise, one's spiritual life is both an
emotional experience (feelings) and an act of the will (beliefs).
To assess spiritual development in junior highers, then, it is
helpful to pay particular attention to how junior highers think
(intellectual development) and how junior highers feel (emotional
development). If we understand that junior highers are in the process
of making a transition in life both intellectually and emotionally, then
we will have a better understanding of early adolescent spiritual
development. Junior highers are indeed making a spiritual transition
that parallels the changes that are taking place in these other areas.
