Ephebiphobia is the fear of adolescents. For churches seeking to invite and involve youth in their communities, the church hast to be willing to understand the generation gap and some of the issues with contemporary youth ministry.

1. EPHEBIPHOBIA
The fear of adolescents

5. STICKY FAITH FINDINGS
• Nearly 50% of committed Christian teenagers
struggle deeply with faith when they hit
college
• Sticky faith that is internalized and
externalized
• Sticky faith that is personal and communal
• Sticky faith that is mature and maturing

6. THE CHURCH &
TEENAGERS

7. THREE CORE PROBLEMS
WITH YOUTH MINISTRY
• The bait and switch
• The one-eared Mickey Mouse
• Behavior Modification
• The dry-cleaner parent mentality

8. SYSTEMATIC
ABANDONMENT
• Society creates“generation gaps” where
people of different ages don’t talk or learn
from one another.
• The gap forces teenagers to create their own
worlds with their own rules (the world
beneath)

11. SYSTEMATIC
ABANDONMENT
• Cyber-bullying
• Sexting
• Cutting
• Clinical Depression

12. CHAP CLARK, HURT
“The way mid-adolescents have been forced
to design their own worlds and separate social
system has created perhaps the most serious
and yet understudied social crisis of our time.”

13. SYSTEMATIC
ABANDONMENT• Society creates“generation gaps” where
people of different ages don’t talk or learn
from one another.
• The gap forces teenagers to create their own
worlds with their own rules (the world
beneath)
• Institutions created to care for the young
become self-perpetuating and agenda driven

14. CHAP CLARK, HURT
“By the time adolescents enter high school,
nearly every one has been subjected to a
decade or more of adult-driven and adult-
controlled programs, systems, and institutions
that are primarily concerned with adults’
agendas, needs, and dreams.”

15. THE CHURCH’S
RESOURCES
• The church can celebrate rights of passage
• The church can provide social scaffolding
• The church can enter and value their world

16. YOUTH MINISTRY
MYTHS & AXIOMS
• Myth: We should try and re-create
experiences that were meaningful to us when
we were teenagers and/or younger.
• Truth: Teenagers must be led from where
they are.

17. YOUTH MINISTRY
MYTHS & AXIOMS
• Myth: Teenagers need adults who act like
teenagers and can keep up with teen culture
• Truth: Teenagers need adults who don’t
freak out when they act like teenagers.

18. YOUTH MINISTRY
MYTHS & AXIOMS
• Myth: We should answer a teenager’s
spiritual questions with accessible, irrefutable
truths.
• Truth: Their spiritual question is more
important than our spiritual answer.

19. SPIRITUAL QUESTIONS
• The courage to ask the hard questions
• http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2014/dec
ember-online-only/kara-powell-hard-
questions.html

20. STICKY FAITH SOLUTIONS
• Equipping parents to lead their teenagers
spiritually because they are the primary
spiritual influencers
• Valuing and validating teenagers in the life of
the inter-generational church
• Teaching and modeling grace as the church’s
primary message over and above “sin
management”

22. EPHEBIPHOBIA
The fear of adolescents