@Orchidaceae 9 December 2020

Faith Development of Junior highers and Junior high faith is Transitional

***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. @Orchidaceae