Social Control Unit
Mark D. Regnerus argues in his book, Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers, that churches are not much more than “social control units.” What he means by that is, the church is designed to bend adolescent (for that matter any age group) behavior away from the norm and “helps prevent them” from sinning. He states that this done by “enmeshing [adolescents] in a religious personal network and community.”
My thought is this, Is this really our goal? Are we just trying to curb teenage behavior by putting them in a setting that is socially religious? Or should our goal be more personal and deep?
I would argue that our goal should be that our teenagers’ behavior is a direct reflection on their view of God not of the church. Perhaps this is why so many students leave the church after high school because their view of church has changed. If they had a proper view of God I think the stats would be different.
As a youth pastor I am then challenged to create, not a social control unit, but a place where students meet, wrestle, and commune with a real, knowable God.
