Friday, August 11, 2006
This was in the Telegram on Wednesday, but I didn't find out about it until today. Visit www.thetelegram.com for more articles.God is Great
Make no wonder the word teen is defined as a feeling of misery or grief, as those years of discovery — between the ages of 13 and 19 — are considered the hardest in most people’s lives.
Perhaps that’s why so many young people are turning to God and religion of late, says Pastor Bruce Norman — better known as Pastor Bruce — of Bethesda Pentecostal Church in St. John’s.
“I was a teenager at one time and one of my major struggles was ‘What am I doing with my life and what’s to life? There must be more than what I’m doing,’” says the pastor, who leads Lytehouse, a youth group with 120 members.
“I think lot of kids are looking for that direction and … you know, they’re finding that direction ultimately in God’s word.”
Dozens of groups
In Newfoundland and Labrador there are dozens of weekly church youth groups, an annual Christian rock concert and conference with average attendance pegged at 4,000 and several camps and getaways designed to teach kids how to lead a religious life.
The increasing number of young people interested in religion may seem like a fad, admits Pastor Bruce, but it may also be an indicator the church is better at reaching out to disaffected youth.
“When you mentioned church one time the word ‘boring’ came up, but I think for the most part youth groups and churches are engaging the culture,” he says.
Each Friday night, young people come together at Bethesda Pentecostal Church to hear Pastor Bruce’s sermon before listening to a live Christian rock band and having a game of air hockey or playing basketball.
“So, it’s a cool place to be as well,” Pastor Bruce says, adding there’s a bus chartered to pick up and drop off the teens.
The 12- to 18-year-olds involved in the group are not necessarily religious and their parents aren’t necessarily members of the church, Pastor Bruce says.
The Avalon Peninsula has a multi-denominational youth ministries board, in which ministers work together on everything from planning major events to figuring out ways to reach more young people.
“In some ways we have different belief systems, but we’re all on the same page in terms of our passion for teenagers — you know, giving them the correct directions in life — so it’s more than Pentecostal,” he says.
“We try to be very neutral and respect different religions. Of course we have standards that we follow based on God’s word and I try to teach kids that — not that I think that Pentecostal is better than any other religion — but they know that when they come to a Pentecostal church we’re going to teach our beliefs and our standards.”
Pastor Bruce says he’s had chats with individuals about their drug and alcohol use and though he’d never ask them to leave the youth group, he does discourage such behaviour.
“I have all kinds of kids that come here, some that are professing Christians and others that are not, and they’re at different areas of their life,” he says. “Of course, we think it’s right because it’s based on God’s word, but we have to be careful too because kids go home to their parents and their beliefs are different so we have to be very sensitive to what people believe.”
While it may be difficult to be a teen today, it might be even harder to be a teen who has strong Christian beliefs, says Rudy Norman, a devout Pentecostal in Burlington.
Norman, 19, was saved when he was three years old, though he says his parents always gave him the choice to be religious or not.
“I cut my teeth on a Pentecostal pew,” he says with a laugh. “There for a while I went out and tried to see what it was like not to be a Christian, but then I realized this is not for me.”
Norman is now thinking about attending a bible college in Ontario to complete training to be a minister.
When asked about the many temptations he’d face in a big city, he says God will lead him where he needs to be.
“I rely on God from the moment I wake up in the morning to the moment I go to sleep. Every step that I take, every breath that I take, I rely on God to give it to me,” he says. “I’ll probably be in some situations that I’ve never been in and probably stretched beyond anything I can imagine, but He’s going to be with me the whole way.”
Norman recently co-created Rock Solid Generation, a website designed to connect religious youth around the province.
“Really we’re just one big body of Christ all joined together and that’s the goal of the website, everyone just come together and realize that you’re not alone in this thing,” Norman says, adding that the curious and non-Christians are welcome, but must abide by the rules of posting comments.
As for whether Christianity is a trend or tradition amongst teens, Norman says for some it will be a fad, but for most it’s an integral part of their lives.
“I think that a lot of young people have just found something … nothing can deny this feeling that they’ve got deep down inside has something to it.”
amorrisey@thetelegram.com
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