A quote that I believe has been attributed to Og Mandino goes something like this: "We aren't human beings. We are humans becoming." WOW! It is easy to see development in the other of the "big five" categories of maturation, but how do we quantify spiritual growth? We can celebrate the first steps of a baby or the first shave of an adolescent (physical development), but can we measure spiritual "firsts"?

I would answer—definitely. But measuring spiritual growth is unlike measuring physical growth or cognitive (mental) growth. My children both have graduated marks on the door facing of their bedroom doors, signifying their change in height from one year (month, week!) to the next. What would the spiritual comparison be? A mark for a decision in Vacation Bible School? Another mark for baptism? Another for a testimony in church following a mission trip? What about a choir solo? Aren't those markers in spiritual development?

Again, definitely. Anything that is not growing is not natural. So in this section we will explore the spiritual development of teenagers. But first, a disclaimer. With physical development, and possibly mental development, the changes are predictable with regard to sequence. In other words, during the teenage growth spurt we know the body will lengthen beginning with the legs, then the arms, then the trunk. It may not happen at the same age with every adolescent, but the sequence is relatively stable.

On the other hand, spiritual growth does not necessarily follow conversion—at least not at any predictable speed. That is what makes describing spiritual development a little like trying to hold a raw oyster (sorry, my Louisiana roots are showing). A look at some of the adults in our churches may lead one to believe that growth toward spiritual maturity can be slow, and perhaps even optional. In addition, persons come to Christ as Savior at different points in their lives. Therefore, a person celebrating their first "spiritual birthday" may be 8 years old or 48 years old. What we will try to do here is describe some of the traits of adolescent spiritual growth and to tie them in with development in other areas.

Spirituality is not a minor story with today's adolescents. The May 8, 2000 edition of Newsweek included an article entitled, "Searching for a Holy Spirit." The poll cited in the article indicated that "78 percent of adolescents said their religion was important to them, but only half said they attended services regularly, a figure that has declined since the 1970's" (p. 62). The article went on to confirm what youth workers have already witnessed: youth are interested in spiritual things, but "rather than seek absolute truths in doctrine, they cross denominational boundaries. . . . In place of strict adherence to doctrine, many teens embrace a spirit of eclecticism and a suspicion of absolute truths" (p. 62).

Keep in mind the "big five" of adolescent development. The spiritual dimension influences all the others. In Luke 2:52, we have the description of the Jesus' development. In the Introduction, we looked at this chapter of Scripture as the one where Jesus and His parents had a bit of a misunderstanding. At the end of the day, however, Dr. Luke summarized the experience by describing "Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."

Typically, preachers and youth ministers have broken this verse down as follows:

Wisdom—mental development
Stature—physical development
Favor with God—spiritual development
Favor with men—social/emotional development

We can have some fun with a closer look. The Greek word for "favor" is the noun charis, which means "grace." It can mean "grace or graciousness as seen in a person" or "grace on the part of a giver" (from the electronic version of Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1985). Here the text suggests both kinds of grace. Jesus is seen as having received the grace of God, but He also reflects that grace to the world around Him. That's not a bad definition of spiritual maturity. Other biblical stories reflect the spiritual development of our heroes. Without sermonizing, allow me to show the relationship between spiritual development and other types of development through the lens of some great Bible stories.

Physical Development and Spiritual Development

In 1 Kings 19:4, Elijah was exhausted. He had just fired up the people and the prophets of Baal in the great prophet bowl of Mt. Carmel. Now his spiritual resources seemed depleted, and he is in despair. Only after God ministers to him does he press on.

In 1 Samuel 16, we are told that God saw something inside of a young shepherd named David that others could not see. I don't know of a more vivid account of "two steps forward and one step back" with regard to spiritual maturity than David's life. He was a giant killer (Goliath) and a lady killer (adultery with Bathsheba) in just a few short years. A comparison of 2 Samuel 11 and Psalm 51 show the struggle that resulted in spiritual growth.

Daniel's physical choices in Daniel 1:1-20 reflect that he had matured spiritually. Rather than allow themselve to be given new names, consume foreign food, and eventually bow to a foreign god, Daniel and his friends drew upon their spiritual training in Israel to take a stand against King Nebuchadnezzar.

Another classic story is that of Joseph, found in Genesis 37—50. Joseph was a young man whose spiritual maturity allowed him to avoid some serious physical mistakes (see Gen. 39) and endure some pretty tough times. I suppose you could call Joseph the "father of true love waits"!

Cognitive Development and Spiritual Development

Solomon is known in sacred and secular literature as a wise man. His proverbs are famous, and his wisdom is legendary. Yet in 1 Kings 4:29-34, we are told that his wisdom comes from the Lord. Peace and safety for the whole nation are attributed to the ability of Solomon to discern situations and make wise judgments.

Apparently, in Elisha's day, there was no such thing as a moratorium! OK, I threw this one in to lighten up a bit. In 2 Kings 2:23-25, some adolescents were making fun of Elisha's lack of follicle development (he was bald). Look up this Scripture to issue a warning to your youth about messing with old preachers.

Timothy was advised by Paul to take to heart the lessons he had learned from his family. In 2 Timothy 3:14-17, one of my favorite passages, Paul tells him to keep doing the things that he has learned and become convinced of, seemingly indicating a difference. Cognition does not always produce conviction!

In November 1999, I attended the Texas Baptist Youth Minister's Conclave in Arlington, Texas and heard George Barna make a startling statement. He said that the focus on adolescence as the prime age range for Christian conversion was misplaced. His study had shown that the majority of conversion experiences took place when children were between the ages of 4 and 13. In fact, only 4 percent of Christians made that decision when they were teenagers. (See the Barna Web site for his methodology at .) In the back of my mind, I thought that the abstract thinking phenomenon that I suggested (that Elkind and others suggested) a few paragraphs back might come into play. I was right.

Following the release of the full report, some youth educators, led by Rick Lawrence of Group Magazine wondered if the findings told the full story. With Rick's permission, I have reprinted part of the article that appeared in the July/August 2000 edition of Group.

In our March/April issue, I told readers that I think Barna's analysis and suppositions are ripe for rebuttal. Since then we've partnered with Professor Dave Rahn of Huntington College and the Youth Ministry Educators organization to come up with our own small-scale research project to learn more about the role of youth ministry in Christian conversion. We designed a seven-question survey that youth ministry professors gave to 369 Christian students on 10 campuses across North America.

Draw your own conclusions from the results, but just because I can, I'll throw in my two bits. . . ."

The percentage of Christians who say they first committed their life to Christ when they were children is slightly lower than Barna's survey number—but the breakdown generally matches his findings.

Three-quarters of our respondents said they came to faith in Christ over a long period of time, belying the moment-in-time conversion stereotype that dominates our thinking about evangelism. Nine out of 10 say they, indeed, had a crucial recommitment experience that was as significant as their conversion. And two-thirds of these folks said their experience happened when they were teenagers. Outreach trips, crises, big events, and camp experiences top their list of recommitment experiences.

Four out of five said they've "really questioned" whether they were truly committed to Christ. And for most (54%) that time of great doubt came during their teenage years. Who helped them through those doubts? Friends, family members, and youth pastors.

When we asked these Christian college students who or what has been the biggest influence on their present commitment to Christ, youth leaders topped the list. In short, Barna's stats infer that many people come to Christ because they were part of a churchgoing family when they were children. But the key recommitment time—when they fully embraced or owned their faith—came when they were teenagers.

A close cousin of spiritual development is moral development. The words morals and values are used to describe the criteria by which choices are made with regard to behavior in the context of the larger society. The discernment of rightness or wrongness of actions or reactions in various circumstances faced by adolescents is a reflection of their morality.

Moral development is about process. The decision that all adolescents make is, "How will I decide?" Three arenas of moral decision making are thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. Several writers have discussed moral development in teenagers (see Appendix A for this discussion).

For Christians, it is not enough simply to measure the values of the current culture and make judgments concerning our actions based on consequences or lack thereof. Without God in the picture, describing a process of moral reasoning digresses to "what if I don't get caught" or "nobody got hurt so what does it matter?" Value judgments become highly situational and may even depend on the strength and affinity of the relationship between the parties in question. What about a biblical concept of morality, where persons engage in an action or refrain from an action purely because of a relationship with a living God? Spiritual transformation is where a teenager (or an adult) places a "God filter" in his or her life. Like the filter in a coffeemaker, everything that gets into the brew has to pass through the filter. A popular phrase among adolescents in the latter part of the 1990s summarizes the notion that a spiritually transformed adolescent would determine his or her our actions by asking, "What would Jesus do?"

In Teaching Youth: Leaders, Lessons, Lifestyles, I wrote of a conversation that I had with the coauthor of the book, Richard Barnes. While I may seem to be playing semantic games between spiritual development and spiritual transformation, if you are a parent or a youth worker, you will understand my questions. The paragraph from the book was as follows:

Last summer at the LifeWay Conference Center at Ridgecrest, my coauthor Richard Barnes said something that I cannot get out of my mind. He pointed out that our kids—pardon me the young men and women that are in our classes—are for the most part, very capable of making real life connections between the biblical truths that are discussed and experienced during the "encounter" part of the lesson. His question haunted me . . . "then why don't they?" Like many adults, they are able to separate the cognitive application of the Scripture from it actually having any lasting impact on their lives.

Our conversation made me think about the teenagers that anyone reading this can picture.

I am thinking of those teenagers who seemed to know all of the right answers when they were in Sunday School. They went on the mission trips and attended youth camp. Yet as young adults, they are not walking with the Lord. Contrast a young man whose name is Billy. Billy had a pretty rough hand dealt to him. His father left the family when Billy was two years old. His mother married and remarried, leaving Billy to be raised largely by his grandparents. Today, Billy is a minister of youth having a tremendous ministry. He never wavered from his walk with the Lord. What happened with Billy that did not happen with the other teenagers. "Why?" was his life transformed while the lives of some other youth apparently were not? (Barnes and Jackson 2000, 82)

Let's take the spiritual/cognitive a step further (because this is the heart of what we do in youth ministry!). According to a paper based on Philippians 2:12-13 and developed by LifeWay Christian Resources, "Spiritual transformation is God's work of changing a believer into the likeness of Jesus by creating a new identity in Christ and by empowering a lifelong relationship of love, trust, and obedience to glorify God" (Willis 1998, 6). For the Christian, transformational learning is not just a change in behavior but also a change of the "heart" of the learner.

Scripture commands believers to love God with all of their hearts (Mark 12:30). The concept of "heart" in the Greek encompasses the whole of man as the emotions~ influence the individual parts (Snyder 1994, 26). William Yount further argued that spiritual or biblical transformational learning is the process by which students move beyond living libraries of biblical facts to students who think biblically, who consider real-life problems and decisions. He argued that knowledge is a process, not a product (Yount 1996, 201). The goal of Christian learning is Christlikeness. It is a balance of the thinking, feeling, and doing components of learning and a dependence on the Lord day by day (Yount 1996, 272).

The biblical view of learning champions the essentials of motivation to grow in Christlikeness through the power of the Holy Spirit, examination of God's Word to discover Bible truths, and personal application of the biblical truth to demonstrate obedience to God (Hanks 1991, 43). "If the effects of education in the church are to be permanent, they must transform how students relate to problems, themselves, God, and others" (Snyder 1994, 26). Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

Spiritual transformational learning, then, is different than secular transformational learning. Though there are some areas in which the concepts overlap, the key difference lies in the underlying power to change and the end result of that change. Most of what limited writing there is on spiritual transformational learning is in the area of adult education, especially as it relates to the church. But spiritual transformational learning can also take place in teenagers. By examining the key developmental aspects of the teenagers that lend themselves to the potential of spiritual transformational learning.

Youth teachers, when they give special attention to developmental stages of youth, can more effectively teach youth in a way that lends itself to spiritual transformation~ in their lives. Teachers, facilitators, mentors, parents, peers, and youth leaders can have a tremendous impact on the teenager's spiritual transformational learning process, especially as they establish a relationship with the teenager that is built on integrity, trust, and example.

YQ: Take several minutes to reflect on what you have just read. List the implications for your parenting and ministry actions. What changes do you need to make to become more intentional than you are now in guiding spiritual development with your teenagers?