1941! That was only 70 years ago. Believe it or not, the concept of being a 'teenager' and enjoying a prolonged period of adolescence is a relatively new idea. Before, and for nearly all of history, people were categorized as 'child' or 'adult' and as a result when you switched from being a child to being an adult, people's expectations of you changed accordingly.
A problem these days, you may or may not agree, is that people have very low expectations of what the teenage years should be used for. Type the word 'teen' into Google and it'll suggest a whole host of things for you to look up: 'teen sex,' 'teen drugs,' 'teen gangs' where's the 'teen leaders, 'teen success', 'teen champions,' 'teen entrepreneurs'?
We always meet the expectations that people set for us. Teenagers are expected to be amazing with technology and obsessed with sex. On both these fronts, they supersede all expectations, they win big! The best person to help with technical issues and to understand technology is a teenager and the most common age of someone looking up porn on the internet is 12-17 years.
We're out to change that. We want to set high expectations for great roaring successes in the teenage years. Let's make Kings a place that has high expectations for teenagers and let's watch them reach those heights. Teens who value purity and treat members of the opposite sex with the upmost respect and honour, teens who take responsibility, who manage their diaries, sort out their personal finances and fight for more than control of the TV remote. I know young people in Kings who have started their own businesses (www.invertapparel.co.uk), spoken up for Jesus in difficult and dangerous places, and who are highly skilled musicians, dependable and reliable servants and compelling leaders. This should be the norm, not the exception.
The following link for a thought provoking blog and insight into life as a teenager as God intends it:
We'd also recommend the following book for all and any teens tired of low expectations.
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