I recently finished reading the long-awaited final installment of the Harry Potter series, and discovered several things the church could learn from Harry about what teenagers are looking for.
As early as the first book in the series, we learn that Harry is destined for a fight that could prove deadly. A terrible villain is looking for him and trying to kill him. Certain adults recognize this battle cannot be fought exclusively by them and that this young man eventually must face this villain. However, these adults, especially Dumbledore, some teachers, parents of his friends, and his godfather all work to make certain that Harry is equipped with what he needs before he faces the final battle that could kill him.
Starting at the age of eleven, Harry lives in constant awareness of the danger facing him. But he knows that unless he faces his enemy eventually, people he loves are going to get hurt and killed because his enemy won’t stop pursuing him. So he involves himself wholeheartedly in this fight, both being prepared by these mentors and helping teach other teenagers what he has learned.
And here’s the thing, the adults don’t prevent the teens from taking part in the struggle against evil. Wherever they can, they protect them. Whenever they can, they equip them, but they don’t pat them on the head and tell them to wait until they’re older and can be “real” members of the fight against evil.
Here is where we the church need to take notes. Kenda Dean, in Practicing Passion, talks about how teenagers are looking for something that they would be willing to die for. Teenagers are passionate, less cynical than most, and are still crazy enough to think they can actually make a difference in the world, something a lot of the rest of us too often forget.
And teens are not blind to the cost of such passion. Fighting for something means battle wounds. Teens are okay with that because if it’s worthwhile, it will always be worth it, even when it’s not fun.
This means that teens should be flocking to Christianity left and right because after all, where else do we see such a rich heritage of people willing to lay down their lives for what they believe it, or people persecuted for the simple act of claiming Jesus as Lord?
And this Jesus we claim is none other than the one who laid down his life for all of us, the ultimate act of a loving God. The passion of Christ both led to the cross, and was embodied in the cross. Jesus did battle against evil by giving up his life and then coming back again from the dead, thereby defeating the power of death. Sound familiar? Harry goes willingly to his death in order to stop Voldemort from continuing to do battle against the people he loves. As it turns out, this was the only way to destroy Voldemort (read the book for an explanation). And of course, it doesn’t kill Harry, he comes back to defeat Voldemort and save the day. While he didn’t defeat death itself or rid the world of all evil, the end of The Deathly Hallows shows us a teenager willing to die for his friends.
So if the parallel between what teens want and Christianity is so strong, where are they? Dean suggests the church “has largely sanitized love of suffering, leaving Christianity with a mealy-mouthed niceness that fails to ring true to young people who know in their bones that love and heartache go together” (p. 4).
How do we reach teens and draw them into the community of faith? We must rediscover the passion of Christ and the passion of martyrs all over the world who know all too well that love and suffering go together. Not only will we reach teenagers who are longing for something to be passionate about, but I venture a guess that we’ll discover something that’s been missing in our lives for far too long.
Thanks for the object lesson, Harry.
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Anna, I think you’ve hit on the great attraction that walking Stations of the Cross has for youth (and others!). Our youth group back in Russellville, AR, created our own Stations one year–we had sculptures, tableaux, drawings, collages, all kinds of media were used. Then we invited the parish to walk the Stations with us–someone made the comment that it seemed morbid for kids to focus on the suffering and death of Jesus.
sigh
Right now, in response to your post, I’m trying to think of ways to weave the stories of the saints into the life of a youth group. I’ve been homilizing occasionally for our Wed. night Eucharist, using the stories of the saints from Lesser Feasts and Fasts and finding some thread to connect to my own life and make the story part of my own. Or my own a part of the greater Story.
Wouldn’t it be awesome to help the kids do that? Maybe spend some time up front helping them learn how to find those threads and then invite them to offer “This Week with the Saints”? Hmmmm…..
Suzanne, I had a similar experience as the end of a series I did with the kids at Trinity we did a modified version of the stations of the cross (it wasn’t during Lent), using Group’s Transformation Stations called “Experiencing Jesus’ Passion.” It was more of a interactive reflection on the crucifixion itself rather than the road to the cross, and the kids loved it and wanted to do more “stuff like that.”
I like your ideas of sharing the lives of the saints with them… What better way to help them understand just the lengths people have been willing to go to continue to claim Jesus as Lord?
DC Talk, or someone playing off their album, put together a sort of teen version of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs called Jesus Freaks (you’ve probably seen it), and I knew kids as young as 11 and 12 that were totally engrossed by that.
i have a copy of that Jesus Freaks book, and i think it’s amazing. i got it as a teenager. there was a second book that came out; a sequel i guess. it was good, too.
good original article. there’s lots to learn, even from the “evil” harry potter books…
http://youthministry.fatkidrecords.com
Great note. The chapter during Harry’s “death,” he’s with Dumbledore at King’s Cross. The chapter is even called this. I wonder if Rowling did this play on words/symbols on purpose.
Just a thought.
Lol, Brandon, “evil” Harry Potter books indeed… ironically, when they first came out, I was among the crowd who thought they were certainly evil, I mean, wizards and all, must be bad. That however, was at a time in my life when I was completely unfamiliar with standbys of the fantasy genre, even though I believe I had read Narnia by then… Clearly, I changed my mind!
Nick, on the King’s Cross thing, that’s interesting, I hadn’t thought there might be a purpose behind it, although she did sprinkle several Scripture verses into Deathly Hallows… King’s Cross is the station where the Hogwarts train leaves from, the site of Platform 9 3/4.
According to the “all-knowing” Wikipedia: “Rowling is a member of the Church of Scotland. She once said, “I believe in God, not magic.” Early on she felt that if readers knew of her Christian beliefs, they would be able to “guess what is coming in the books.” [75]”
And random note, the Church of Scotland, not Church of England… I’ve heard some say she’s Anglican, but the Church of Scotland is Presbyterian…
As I was reading your initial post I was reminded of a teen event I attended a few years ago with my youth group. The event was Aquire the Fire and one of the guest speakers was an older teenage boy from the Sudan who had, like so many others, witnessed horros and tragedy and walked his way to freedom. His faith as a Christian was so much different that the comfortable American faith that is so easy for so many. I think these modern-day examples from the church world-wide may also be useful for teens as they begin to recognize that there really are serious dangers in the world much greater than American-style peer-pressures. Getting kids mindful about global issues and serving Christ through outreach efforts may give them more to embrace. Kids who are motivated by a greater-cause can move mountains it seems and, as adults we want to guide them toward causes that help them grow in their faith and their witness. Anna is right that they are ready to fight for something, so it is our job to guide them to fight for the Hope and Charity found in gospel in the midst of the darkness that is outside of Christ.
You are so right. The tendency of religion lately has been to de-emphasize passion — even to vilify it. Maybe it’s the tendency of our whole society. Passionate people are less likely to go along like lemmings with what the media culture tells us to do and think.
Absolutely brilliant post, totally agree with it. this might also explain why young people find it easier to belong in gangs with knife violence than in the church, though there is obviously also a sense of coercion involved.
I think the other thing worth mentioning is just the extent to which Youth Work in some, but not all, churches is a way of fulfilling the desires of the parents and not the teenagers themselves, essentially a form of child minding, rather than a concerted effort to draw out and give space to the ministry gifts which each teenager posseses.
And to mposey, this is entirely true, we seem to create believers who accept second rate expressions of faith that share more in common with the goals of the Roman Empire than the Kingdom.
Anna,
JK Rowling was married by a minister of the Scottish Episcopal Church, so maybe she is an Anglican, after all!
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