The inner and outer lives of Gen Z are complex. The world today is complicated. The way young people form bonds and make meaning is changing. Our data show that checking "affiliated" or "unaffiliated" on a survey doesn't tell the whole story on young peoples' religious identities. It doesn't tell us all we need to know about the things young people long for and belong to. Behaviors tell us more than checked boxes. Relationships reveal more than affiliations. And the most effective relationships practice Relational Authority, a framework that responds to these complexities, that is rooted in five practices: listening, transparency, integrity, care, and expertise. The largest data set of its kind, The State of Religion & Young People 2020: Relational Authority collects data from over 10,000 surveys and over 150 interviews with young people ages 13-25. With special features on politics, careers, and virtual environments--as well as a comprehensive look at the changing social, religious, and cultural landscape--it not only provides data, but actionable insights and fresh frameworks to help you act on these findings.

Gen Z is facing uncertainty. And they're not turning to religion to cope. Why is there a disconnect, and how can you bridge the gap? Although nearly 3⁄4 of young people are religious or spiritual, they don't turn to their faith communities to help them through stressful moments in life. And only 10% of young people told us that a faith leader reached out to them in the past year. But this gap can be bridged. The State of Religion & Young People 2021: Navigating Uncertainty has the data, insights, and frameworks to show you how. * Find out why young people, even religious young people, aren't turning to religion in times of uncertainty or difficulty... * Learn about Faith Unbundled, a framework to help leaders better understand the way young people are constructing their inner lives by drawing on a variety of sources... * Hear from 5 experts from religious, spiritual, and secular traditions for insights about how to connect with Gen Z in light of--not despite--this emerging, unbundled approach to faith. Gen Z, is exploring the boundaries of their faith, constructing meaning, and encountering the divine in new and unique ways. The only question that remains is whether you'll be there to support them.

In innumerable discussions and activities dedicated to better understanding and helping teenagers, one aspect of teenage life is curiously overlooked. Very few such efforts pay serious attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents. But many teenagers are very involved in religion. Surveys reveal that 35% attend religious services weekly and another 15% attend at least monthly. 60% say that religious faith is important in their lives. 40% report that they pray daily. 25% say that they have been "born again." Teenagers feel good about the congregations they belong to. Some say that faith provides them with guidance and resources for knowing how to live well. What is going on in the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers? What do they actually believe? What religious practices do they engage in? Do they expect to remain loyal to the faith of their parents? Or are they abandoning traditional religious institutions in search of a new, more authentic "spirituality"? This book attempts to answer these and related questions as definitively as possible. It reports the findings of The National Study of Youth and Religion, the largest and most detailed such study ever undertaken. The NYSR conducted a nationwide telephone survey of teens and significant caregivers, as well as nearly 300 in-depth face-to-face interviews with a sample of the population that was surveyed. The results show that religion and spirituality are indeed very significant in the lives of many American teenagers. Among many other discoveries, they find that teenagers are far more influenced by the religious beliefs and practices of their parents and caregivers than commonly thought. They refute the conventional wisdom that teens are "spiritual but not religious." And they confirm that greater religiosity is significantly associated with more positive adolescent life outcomes. This eagerly-awaited volume not only provides an unprecedented understanding of adolescent religion and spirituality but, because teenagers serve as bellwethers for possible future trends, it affords an important and distinctive window through which to observe and assess the current state and future direction of American religion as a whole.

"Meaning Making: 8 Values That Drive America's Newest Generations is our investigation into the values that young people, ages 13 to 25, practice and uphold. What motivates them in their common quest to discover, create, and express significant meaning in their lives? What are the organizations and groups they choose to engage with and be a part of? How do those organizations exhibit and express those values? The values young people articulated comprise the chapters of this book. They emerged from surveys and interviews with young people, as well as other quantitative and qualitative research involving a range of resources, both scholarly and popular. As we collected our data early in 2020 through a nationally representative survey; looked at other data sources; and uncovered the practices, people, and organizations that were attracting intense commitment from young people; we made discoveries helpful to leaders trying to shape organizations, groups, institutions, and one-on-one relationships that better serve and care for young people today This is a rush request since publication is end of July...thank you in advance"--

Nearly 1/3 of young people say they have no trusted adults in their lives. 35% say they have no one to turn to when they feel stressed. How do we help young people find a place to belong--where they are noticed, named, and known? In Belonging: Reconnecting America's Loneliest Generation, Springtide(tm) Research Institute shares new research about the landscape of loneliness drawn from our national study. It revealed epidemic levels of isolation among young people and has shown why participation does not equate to belonging. Our research demonstrates how you can cultivate thriving, relationship-driven programs that truly connect with young people: Simply put, you are the solution. The presence of just one trusted adult in the life of a young person cuts severe isolation in half. Building this sense of true belonging in young people is a process you can easily weave into your work with them. Using our unique, research-based Belongingness Process, we'll show you how and what you can do to help young people feel noticed, named, and known so that you can turn the tide on the epidemic of loneliness for the newest generations. About Springtide(tm) Research Institute Springtide is listening to the inner and outer lives of young people ages 13 to 25. As an unbiased research institute, we seek to help those who care about young people care better, by amplifying and honoring young people's lived experiences through careful research and actionable insights.

"It's widely acknowledged that American parents from different class backgrounds take different approaches to raising their children. Upper and middle-class parents invest considerable time facilitating their children's activities, while working class and poor families take a more hands-off approach. These different strategies influence how children approach school. But missing from the discussion is the fact that millions of parents on both sides of the class divide are raising their children to listen to God. What impact does a religious upbringing have on their academic trajectories? Drawing on 10 years of survey data with over 3,000 teenagers and over 200 interviews, God, Grades, and Graduation (GGG) offers a revealing and at times surprising account of how teenagers' religious upbringing influences their educational pathways from high school to college. GGG introduces readers to a childrearing logic that cuts across social class groups and accounts for Americans' deep relationship with God: religious restraint. This book takes us inside the lives of these teenagers to discover why they achieve higher grades than their peers, why they are more likely to graduate from college, and why boys from lower middle-class families particularly benefit from religious restraint. But readers also learn how for middle-upper class kids--and for girls especially--religious restraint recalibrates their academic ambitions after graduation, leading them to question the value of attending a selective college despite their stellar grades in high school. By illuminating the far-reaching effects of the childrearing logic of religious restraint, GGG offers a compelling new narrative about the role of religion in academic outcomes and educational inequality"--

"It has become increasingly clear that an adequate understanding of contemporary processes of social, cultural, and religious change is contingent on an appreciation of the growing impact of digital media. Utilising results of an unprecedented global study, this volume explores the ways in which young adults in seven different countries engage with digital and social media in religiously significant ways. Presenting and analysing the findings of the international research project Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective (YARG), an international panel of contributors shed new light on the impact of digital media and its associated technologies on young people's religiosities, worldviews, and values. Case studies from China, Finland, Ghana, Israel, Peru, Poland, and Turkey are used to demonstrate how these developments are progressing, not just in the West, but across the world. This book is unique in that it presents a truly macroscopic perspective on trends in religion amongst young adults. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars working in religious studies, digital media, communication studies, sociology, cultural studies, theology and youth studies"--

To young Christians of the world, Pope Francis has a message for you: "Christ is alive, and he wants you to be alive!" In his fourth apostolic exhortation, Christus Vivit, Pope Francis encapsulates the work of the 2018 synod of bishops on "Young People, The Faith, and Vocational Discernment." Pope Francis has always had a special relationship with young people, and in his fatherly love for you he shows that: You can relate to young people in Scripture who made a difference You identify with the Christ who is always young You face difficult issues in the world today You yearn for the truth of the Gospel You are capable of amazing things when you respond to the Gospel You learn and grow with help from the faithful of all generations You need bold and creative youth ministry You can discover who God made you to be You are urged to pray for discernment Christus Vivit is written for and to young people, but Pope Francis also wrote it for the entire Church, because, as he says, reflecting on our young people inspires us all. "May the Holy Spirit urge you on as you run this race. The Church needs your momentum, your intuitions, your faith. We need them! And when you arrive where we have not yet reached, have the patience to wait for us."

This volume of exiles’ accounts “[uses] the stories as springboards to discussing Iraqi history, politicization, and diasporic experiences in depth” (International Journal of Middle East Studies). With the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iraqis abroad, hoping to return one day to a better Iraq, became uncertain exiles. Return to Ruin tells the human story of this exile in the context of decades of U.S. imperial interests in Iraq—from the U.S. backing of the 1963 Ba’th coup and support of Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1980s, to the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 invasion and occupation. Zainab Saleh shares the experiences of Iraqis she met over fourteen years of fieldwork in Iraqi London—offering stories from an aging communist nostalgic for the streets she marched since childhood, a devout Shi’i dreaming of holy cities and family graves, and newly uprooted immigrants with fresh memories of loss, as well as her own. Focusing on debates among Iraqi exiles about what it means to be an Iraqi after years of displacement, Saleh weaves a narrative that draws attention to a once-dominant, vibrant Iraqi cultural landscape and social and political shifts among the diaspora after decades of authoritarianism, war, and occupation in Iraq. Through it all, this book illuminates how Iraqis continue to fashion a sense of belonging and imagine a future, built on the shards of these shattered memories.

What is youth ministry actually for? And does it have a future? Andrew Root, a leading scholar in youth ministry and practical theology, went on a one-year journey to answer these questions. In this book, Root weaves together an innovative first-person fictional narrative to diagnose the challenges facing the church today and to offer a new vision for youth ministry in the 21st century. Informed by interviews that Root conducted with parents, this book explores how parents' perspectives of what constitutes a good life are affecting youth ministry. In today's culture, youth ministry can't compete with sports, test prep, and the myriad other activities in which young people participate. Through a unique parable-style story, Root offers a new way to think about the purpose of youth ministry: not happiness, but joy. Joy is a sense of experiencing the good. For youth ministry to be about joy, it must move beyond the youth group model and rework the assumptions of how identity and happiness are imagined by parents in American society.