Session with Tony Jones

Session with Tony Jones this morning. “An identity Crisis: How New Research Is Challenging What We Think We Know about Adolescence.”

The interesting thing is that I was not just challenged about adolescence, Tony shared some stuff that challenged me regarding how I raise my own children. Actually, there were a couple of times that I really got to thinking about how I am raising my own children. Which I must obviously admit I think about often.

I continue to be amazed at how little I really know about this kind of stuff, like how the brain develops and how that affects the person we become, the things that can affect the way our brains develop.

Tony mentioned from the study “Hard wired to connect” that the whole idea of nature vs. nurture is not really valid any more. Because the nurture we receive or don’t receive becomes nature. I did not say that exactly as he did, but I believe that is the basic premise of it.

This study also confirms the need for community, not just community as in our youth group, but also specifically community as in a holistic faith community. This study specifically talks about the need for youth to be in authoritative communities.

One person asked during the session if, because of the fracture in families, youth ministries should replace the parental authoritative community. I think we that we should become a complementary authoritative community.

More on this later….