+ What can we learn from emerging adults? How do we discover the contexts where we will thrive? What gifts can children contribute to the life of the church? These are the kinds of questions Andy Crouch, celebrated author and Fuller trustee, and Kara Powell, executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute, consider together. Additional faculty are interspersed throughout their interviews below and offer more insights on young people and the church. Above: Andy Crouch reflects on emerging adulthood and the process of releasing control over emerging adults.
“As a developmental psychologist I am always asking, ‘What is God’s purpose and telos for human development?’”
+ Pamela Ebstyne King, Peter L. Benson Associate Professor of Applied Developmental Science, lectures on the need for new leaders in the church who expand ministry contexts and the lifelong journey of thriving in the vocations to which God has called us.
+ Andy Crouch considers how churches can support parents as they cultivate families that contrast with the larger culture.
+ Andy Crouch reflects on the contrasting messages teenagers receive in church and the broader culture.
“Churches need emerging adults in their entirety. We need their minds and hearts to challenge our minds and hearts. We need their prophetic questions and perspectives we have too easily lost sight of.”
+ Steve Argue, assistant professor of youth, family, and culture, shares his research on the fraught relationship between emerging adulthood and the church and reframes the anxiety over “nones” as an opportunity for mutual transformation.
+ Andy Crouch reflects on the humbling experience of parenting and the pain gift of children offering feedback to their parents.
+ Andy Crouch reflects on the changing tempo of parenting young adults.
+ Andy Crouch considers how the church extends the circle of influence on children.
“There are things children can do right now that no adult can do, and if we only think of children as the future of the church, we’ll be blind to these things.”
+ Dave Scott, assistant professor of intercultural studies and children at risk, reflects on the kingdom of God through Christ’s teaching about children, arguing that children are not just the future of the church but have gifts to offer in the present.