Teenagers

I've got this opinion going where I think teenagers, while not yet adults, should nonetheless be treated like adults wherever possible. I guess this opinion comes from what I remember of adolescence - you just want to be understood by adults and given dignity. I figure lots of bonehead behaviour could be mitigated by this approach. But I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. Ask me in 15 years time when I'm hopefully (?) the parent of an adolescent.

Anyhow, our man Peterson suggests that in place of a youth group, teenagers should be invited round to cook a meal once a fortnight.

First, it's something you like to do and are good at. . . . your kitchen opens up a world of care for food and its painstaking preparation will strike them, to use one of their words, as awesome. Second, you will be taking them seriously as persons, without any condescending adaptation to their status as adolescents. You are inviting them into your adult world and making them participants in it . . . Third, you will be working out of a context of hospitality, probably the very best setting in which to develop personal relationships and develop conversations that include Jesus . . . . Every so often you could prepare a huge pot of soup and take it to downtown Moorhead or Fargo and help out with one of the street missions to the hungry and homeless. When a person or family shows up in worship on Sunday, any one of the youth is free to invite them over for supper.

E.H. Peterson, The Wisdom of Each Other