Teenagers in their struggle to define who they are and where they fit in, push boundaries, test their bodies, their minds, and their spiritual sides, including exploring, experimenting and/or active and engaged practicing in/of their religious beliefs and practices. A vast majority of teens contend that religion plays an important role in their daily lives, though very few can actually articulate just what it is they believe.

    The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), is a major study of the religious and spiritual lives of contemporary teens, which recently produced a book on its major findings entitled, Soul Searching: the Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (by Christian Smith with Melinda Lundquist Denton,
Oxford University Press, 2005). Here are some highlights taken from the study about teens and religion:

♣    Religious Participation: teenagers are relatively active in religious organizations and activities, both within and beyond their churches. About one-half of all teens surveyed attend church weekly, with their parents and peers, participate in Sunday school or in a religious youth group, pray and attend a religious summer camp or retreat, though less than one-third read the Bible each week. This also means, however, that substantial numbers of teens are not actively participating in their religious traditions.
♣    Theological Beliefs: Teens are likely to hold many traditional Christian religious beliefs. The majority of teens say they believe in God, the afterlife, angels, demons, miracles, judgment day and they view God as a personal being involved in the lives of people today. Sizable numbers of Protestant teens, on the other hand, do not hold these traditional values sacred.
♣    Christian religious beliefs. Teens from conservative denominations are more likely than mainline teens to hold these religious beliefs.
♣    Importance of Faith: The majority of teenagers report that their religious faith is very important in their lives. Most of them also say that their families talk about religion together, that they have shared their faith with someone not of their faith and that they have had a powerful worship experience. A large minority of all teenagers, and in the case of some denominations
a majority of teenagers, do not report that religious faith is very important
in their lives.
♣    Evaluations of Churches: The majority of teenagers express relatively positive views of their churches and fellow church members. They typically report that they would continue to attend church if it were totally up to them, that they would attend a similar church if given the choice and that their current church is generally warm and welcoming.