Majority of teens want to learn more about Jesus

Most teenagers in the United States have a positive view of Jesus and want to learn more about Him, according to a new study.

At least 77 percent of U.S. teens, ages 13 to 17 in 2021, said they were “motivated” to learn more about Jesus Christ throughout the rest of their life, The Barna Group reports.

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The data comes from Barna’s “The Open Generation: United States” report on Gen Z and its relationship with Jesus, the Bible, and spirituality.

The group broke teens into three categories: committed Christian teens, nominal Christian teens, and all other teens.

Among committed Christian teens, their top source for learning about Jesus is the Bible, whereas nominal Christian teens consider the Bible and their family on the same level. All other teens scored family as the top trustworthy source.

Most Christian teens agreed with the statement, “My relationship with Jesus brings me deep joy and satisfaction.”

And a majority of Christian teens also agreed that “Jesus speaks to me in a way that is relevant to my life.”

“Most often, U.S. teens believe he offers hope to people, cares about people and is trustworthy,” Barna said in its report. “Even so, holding these perceptions doesn’t always correlate with identifying as a Christian. Further, even when teens do identify as Christian, it doesn’t mean they’ve made a personal commitment to follow Jesus.”

Almost a third of teens identify as “committed Christians,” and another third are “nominal Christians.”

The latest data on Gen Z reminds me of when Jesus told his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

The good news is that American teens desire to know Jesus.

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The bad news is that there are not a lot of good examples of men and women following Jesus, but all it takes is one person, one life, one group, etc. to change that.

I pray that you and I would be the examples teens need to follow Christ and bring all glory to God.

Caleb Parke is the SMG managing editor. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and connect with him at calebparke.com.