New Voices: By and about young adults

At a recent youth worker conference, I was both surprised and a bit insulted when I learned that I still fit the “adolescent” category. A study into the development of healthy adolescents now shows that the human brain is not completely developed until age 27—meaning anyone under that age is still considered an adolescent. This was mildly offensive to me because of my hyper independence, my pride and my role as a youth pastor. How could anyone call me an adolescent? My whole job is to minister to adolescents. I am definitely not one myself.

After further reflection, and learning more about the researcher’s conclusions, the idea of adolescence extending to the mid-20s does make sense to me, particularly the idea of risk- taking. It is clear (or at least it should be) that someone in their mid-20s is not going through the same changes as someone in their teens. The teenage years are highlighted by the hormonal activity of the brain and changes that it brings to the body and psyche. By later adolescence, the hormones have already done their work, the body is fully developed, but the brain is still making significant changes, particularly in the frontal lobe, which, among other things, is responsible for decision-making and risk management.

What I needed to do was understand that still being an adolescent is different from still acting like a teenager. What these researchers are doing is giving us a neurological framework to understand the behavioral differences between a 25-year-old and a 4-year-old. So what is the point of all this? There are two significant areas where I believe this directly affects young adults in the church. The first is personal risk management, and the second is congregational risk management.

The adolescent brain is designed to take risks, as it is a built-in feature. However, there are healthy risks and unhealthy risks. All risks have inherent danger or they would not be risks. Unhealthy risks involve drug and alcohol abuse, sexual experimentation or criminal activity. Healthy risks include road trips, launching out on one’s own, traveling to a different culture, living in a different culture, starting a new job and more. Brain researchers tell us what we have known for years: Stepping out on our own and taking a risk is vital for our development as individuals. If young adults are not taking any healthy risks in their lives, there is a much greater danger that they will be susceptible to the unhealthy risks.

Risk management also comes into play in the life of the church. Through the history of the church, it is the younger generation that has made up the movers and shakers of the church. We can look back to the 12 disciples and see that they were all in the waning years of their adolescence and not afraid to take a risk for the kingdom of God. We can go back to the 16th century and see that it was men in their late adolescence that started the Anabaptist movement by rebaptizing each other in a small Swiss apartment. We can look to our present-day church in North America and around the world and see that Christians in their 20s are clamoring to take risks for their Savior and their church. The question is how the church is responding to this.

Mennonite Church USA has done an excellent job of recognizing the passion, energy and willingness of young people to take risks. At the congregational level there is also positive re-enforcement for the vigor of young adults, which I appreciate. The problem arises when the passion, vigor and risk-taking idealism of a young adult runs into the status quo of the critical mass of an established Mennonite congregation. The young adult is armed with the radical words of Jesus. The post young adult is armed with wisdom that comes with age and experience of at one time having been a young adult. The young adult has a brain programmed to take risk. The adult has a brain that is looking to avoid risks.

As the body of Christ we need to learn how to manage our risks. We need space for young adult risk-takers, and we need to retain space for the wise and experienced adults. I believe that when either one of these predispositions becomes the status quo, the church, the body of Jesus Christ, is in danger.