Christian Teens Tell Churches: Challenge Us, Don't Water Down Gospel

Pastor Rick Warren made a brief appearance during the Groundswell online conference on Thursday, but he wasn't the keynote speaker. In fact, many of the speakers who were featured aren't even out of high school yet.

Teenagers from across America poured out their hearts in front of an international Internet audience during the event, titled "Groundswell: The Church of Tomorrow Speaks Today." The three-hour long conference was made up primarily of video clips in which teenage Christians shared their thoughts on the future of the church and on how churches can better reach their generation for Christ.

Hope Rangle, a teenager from Alabama, said churches aren't capturing the attention of most teens, and she believes they should encourage more young people to serve others in the church.

"Teenagers are often pushed aside as if they're not there, but I think the teenagers should be taken advantage of," said Rangle. "[Serving] takes you from going to a church to actually being a part of a church."

As the pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., Warren said he realized several years ago that young people often stopped attending services once they outgrew the church's student ministries. Young people stopped coming because "they had no connection to the bigger body," but he is now taking steps to better integrate them into the life of the church as a whole.

"The bottom line is teenagers are not the church of tomorrow ... they are the church now," said Warren. Keep reading