To all interested parents and teens, please click here to access the version of the classic Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) which we will use in YG over the next three years. You will see what a catechism is, along with its role in the Church of all ages, including today. Our desire, as in all things, is to honor our Triune God by faithfully passing on the faith that has been entrusted to us by God Himself in His Word.
As we work through the catechism, please be reminded that God has raised up and ordained the family unit to be a powerful force in this world. Nothing has more of an impact–positively or negatively–on the life of a teen than the family. As Christians, we have the awesome responsibility of growing in our knowledge of and trust in Christ. We also have the Holy Spirit to enable us in our faith. Trusting in His presence and power, may we invite families to work through this catechism together.
Each week on the home page of this site, you’ll see what question we will address in both Jr. & Sr. High. The youth group talks are only just the beginning of the learning process, however. Parents are invited to read through the questions and accompanying Scriptures found on the catechism (link above) so that a healthy conversation can ensue between parents and their teens in the days that follow the youth talk.
Studies show the terrible reality that roughly 80% of teens who attend evangelical, Bible-believing churches like FBC leave the Church by the end of their sophomore year in college. We are convinced that a big reason for this mass exodus is because we as evangelicals have, by and large, stopped teaching the Scriptures. Other studies reveal that evangelical teens hold to beliefs that are not in the Bible at all, prompting one noted Christian sociologist to describe evangelical teens as holding to what he calls ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.’ That is, they believe God is a god who is detached from the world (deism), only intervening when they need help with issues and dysfunctions in their lives (therapeutic). Think of this god as a heavenly Dr. Phil. How does one please this god? How does one get to heaven? Only by being good and living moral lives (moralism). This is the dominant view of many evangelical teens (and homes?), but it is not the view of Scripture.
May God use the teachings in this catechism to show our teens that Christianity has teeth, that it is not a myth, and that there is hope–real hope–in this world because a real God left a real heaven to die for real sins so that we could really be saved by a real Savior. To God alone be the glory!
