Jeremy L. Berg

From Barna:

Today’s teens are navigating a mental health crisis: 39 percent frequently feel uncertain or anxious, 29 percent are regularly lonely and 26 percent often feel isolated. But parents are feeling the strain too. 

Four in 10 say they’re too stressed to function most days, and many lack the emotional support they need to care for their kids well.

This layered reality is a call to action: If churches want to support the next generation, they must also equip the people raising them. 

Likewise, in my inbox today, Ryan Burge shoots straight:

So, here’s something I’ve felt compelled to say when I’m giving a public presentation in the last couple of months — “Just say the one true thing.” It’s my tendency to couch things, to provide all kinds of caveats, or downplay a finding so that I’ve got a bit of wiggle room. And in a lot of areas of social science, that’s still pretty sound advice. If you look at the relationship between one variable and another, there are often 100 articles that test out the link between the two. A majority may say it’s a positive relationship, but about 30% find no relationship or a negative one. So, a bit of hedging is necessary there.

Today, however, I’m just going to say the one true thing that shows up over and over again in the literature: religious people self-identify as happier than non-religious people. There’s just no mistaking that conclusion. There are ways to try and explain it away, certainly. For instance, maybe the causal arrow goes the opposite way — happier people tend to be more religious. But the upshot is still the same: religious nones are less happy than folks who identify with a faith tradition.

If you are hurting, lonely, lacking purpose, hungering for God or some peace of mind, come visit our small MainStreet church gathering Sunday evenings at 5pm at St. Martin’s By the Lake. It’s a circle of love and support, music and teaching and discussion.

Take care of one another these days.