Almost Christian: the gist of a provocative and challenging new book on youth ministry.

When we point a finger at our teenagers to decry their superficial faith and to lament their lack of spiritual fervor, we must remember that there are three fingers pointing back at us adults.

In essence, this is what Kendra Creasy Dean argues in her challenging and provocative Almost Christian: what the faith of our teenagers is telling the American church:

Let me save you some trouble. Here is the gist of what you are about to read: American young people are, theoretically, fine with religious faith—but it does not concern them very much, and it is not durable enough to survive long after they graduate from high school. One more thing: we’re responsible [adults that is]. If the American church responds, quickly and decisively…then tending the faith of young people may just be the ticket to reclaiming our own. As the following pages attest, the religiosity of American teenagers must be read primarily as a reflection of their parents’ religious devotion (or lack thereof) and, by extension, that of their congregations….Since the religious and spiritual choices of American teenagers echo, with astonishingly clarity, the religious and spiritual choices of the adults who love them, lackadaisical faith is not young people's issue but ours. So we must assume that the solution lies not beefing up congregational youth programs or making worship more “cool” and attractive, but in modeling the kind of mature, passionate faith we say we want young people to have.

What if the real problem with the underdeveloped, superficial faith of our teenagers is that we are spiritually underdeveloped and superficial? How does that change the way we think about “youth ministry” and the way we think about our role as parents, and the role of the church as a whole? What would we have to change in church life and in family life to see faith renewed and revitalized?