I have always thought that relationships are very important.
All education and transfer of values happens in a relationship.
Jesus often took advantage of situations as they came across.
At school kids learn critical thinking, but churches seem to think -
that people believe as they are taught, but it doesn't really work like that.
Welcome to the programme.
Wisdom is defined as an ability to use knowledge and experience -
to make good decisions. Wisdom is born out of life experiences -
and produces solutions that are of common good.
If we want to make wise decisions -
we need information and the ability to discern what is relevant.
We also need mirrors in order to evaluate -
which conclusion is a wise one, but where can young people find mirrors?
UPDATED AND ONBOARD
PART 3: WISDOM Do we equip children for complete life?
We want answers for our questions.
Previous generations found them from elderly people and in books.
Now the youth find answers from YouTube and Google.
How can they find the path of wisdom that leads to right choices?
The mainstream culture tells us -
that we can choose whatever feels good to us at any given time.
Churches and parents must help the youth find the true wisdom.
For example, an average teenager thinks that it's OK to watch porn.
We cannot prevent their access to such material -
but we must help them relate to it differently than the others do.
They should realize that the mainstream view -
of human relationships is often not the same as the Bible's.
We can find a wise way of life if we interpret the world right -
and apply Biblical principles to what we see.
Three out of four young adults with a persistent faith say -
that they have received teaching on applying Biblical wisdom to life, -
yet only half of them say they have received teaching on sexuality, -
relating to technology and money or meeting people who think differently.
An average teenager consumes over 8 hours of digital content every day, -
but the amount of spiritually constructive content is very small.
They need indicators for wise life in order to navigate in a world -
where God is usually not seen as something meaningful.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, -
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Tommi, you lead the youth ministry at the Evangelical Free Church.
In what situation you thought the last time -
that you would need wisdom that arises from the Bible?
Maybe it was when I checked the Twitter account on my way here.
Twitter's pace is so fast.
People comment there quickly and sometimes in a snappy way, -
and in my opinion wisdom includes consideration and gentleness.
It was then that I last thought about it.
Biblical views on wisdom and principles of good life -
seem to go further and further from what our culture sees -
as something good and desirable. Why is that?
I think that it is the result of a very long history of ideas, -
and we probably don't have time to go into that right now.
Someone, I can't remember who, said we live in "an era of cut flowers", -
i.e. we have cut the roots of our Christian heritage -
and put its fruit or the flowers into a vase. We still admire -
what the root has achieved but have cut out the tradition -
that used to give us the power to produce this beauty -
among which we're now living. We have truly come a long way.
I also think that this detachment from our roots -
is one crucial factor, but maybe it's also -
that today we value things differently than we used to.
We are not only detached from our roots -
but today we value different things than people used to value -
maybe 30 or 60 years ago. This is also one factor that leads to this.
I think that it is related to abandoning the idea of one truth.
The Bible talks about the truth, but nowadays we say -
that everyone has their own truth. The Bible has statements of the truth, -
i.e. it says how things are and they are like that, -
but the Truth is also a person, Jesus.
However, we have abandoned the idea that the truth exists.
When the truth becomes a relative thing, -
everyone thinks and acts as they feel the best.
I think that is one reason why the youth are so anxious.
Because they can define everything, they also have to define everything.
They have to make so many choices starting from their own sex -
and what profession they want.
Nothing is clear, and it causes pressure. Can I make the right choice?
Life feels such a complicated matter, and everything also happens very fast.
No wonder the youth are not doing very well nowadays.
Next we will hear Niina's thoughts on genuine wisdom -
and how she has applied it especially in the area of sexuality.
I feel that in my personal life it means choices that make me different.
It is probably mostly related to the fact that I'm single -
and make certain choices regarding purity.
Purity and doing things according to God's will is not fashionable.
I've grown up at church since I was little and learned the Word, -
but I have also drawn inspiration from people around me -
who have succeeded in this area of life and whom I want to imitate.
I want to live a pure life as single. It also sometimes means loneliness.
I'm not so much physically separated, but I'm alone with my choices.
Being honest I have to say I haven't always got enough teaching -
on this matter. I don't think it is intentional.
There are a lot of singles in churches, so there is a need for more teaching.
The world bombards us with its views on this area of life.
One source of inspiration of wisdom is the pastor of my church -
and also the elders. They are very wise people -
and I can ask them whatever and whenever I want to.
Important Bible verses on wisdom. I'd like to choose this one: -
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
If we have a healthy fear of God, we automatically make good choices.
Another important verse is: "But as for me, it is good to be near God."
My happiness is not found outside God.
If the Word of God is the continuous map or guide book in our lives, -
we cannot get badly lost.
I'd like to encourage especially the youth to eat the Bible day and night.
You might not understand everything at once but you'll get it in time, -
and the Holy Spirit teaches us to live in accordance with the Word.
In the Bible there are a lot of practical instructions for life.
Why don’t we teach enough on them?
The question was a bit loaded. Maybe some churches do teach, -
but I agree that many churches don’t teach enough.
And I also think we need other things than just teaching.
The young people don’t learn to think only by sitting at the pew -
and receiving information. They also need to learn to -
digest it, to argument, to think, to see things from different angles -
and through that process find their conviction.
When I was working as a youth worker at church, people used to say -
it was good the youth were at the youth service, not on the street.
But my goal wasn’t just to keep them out of the street -
but to equip them for a missionary lifestyle, -
to advance the Kingdom of God among their generation.
Just protecting them was a bit too small a goal for me.
Even though some of the things of the modern world might scare us, -
our goal isn't to protect our kids from this world -
but to help them go into it, find something in common with it -
and to challenge the culture in which they are living -
with the Christian world view.
This is what we should teach to the new generation.
But also to the older generation, -
lest we live in the past, in a world gone by, -
where Christian values were more included in the mainstream culture.
Some of the elderly and even younger people may think -
that we still live in this Christian mainstream culture, -
but it just doesn’t exist anymore.
This is a totally post-Christian era.
And thus we also cannot protect the young people, as you rightly said.
We cannot think that we could take our kids out of this world.
How would they then manage on their own? - One day they will anyway -
start studying or working and encounter those questions.
If they haven't been taught to think for themselves and to reason -
why they believe as they do, the wave of doubt can be enormous.
Doesn't everyone believe like this?
Why didn’t anyone show me that there are books that think differently?
Maybe this is also the reason why many people -
sort of drift away from faith when they grow up, -
because they haven't gone this process through deeply enough, -
and when they grow up the crisis can be so huge -
that they just drift away from faith.
I was thinking of what you said. When people are at their 20s, -
they often move to a new town and establish their views on things.
The churches should really pay more attention to 15 to 20 year-olds.
The youth activities are too much based on just feeling good.
Of course there is teaching that equips them for the future, but not enough.
That age group needs more than just hype.
I think of learning communities and a revolution of learning -
that should be achieved in churches.
At school children learn critical thinking and argumentation -
but churches seem to think that people should just believe. It doesn’t work.
Of course it depends on church how it appears, -
but it might be that they over-emphasize certain things.
In Finland, we empasize grace a lot, and it is an important matter, -
but are we also teaching these other things -
that are related to living the life and the quality of thinking?
Do we teach people to think is another question.
And another thing is, how much we do things in a classroom context -
where one person is talking and the others listen -
in stead of really thinking things through together, -
chewing and discussing them?
And it also comes to my mind that Jesus himself -
took advantage of the situations He encountered.
He decided to teach on something when a good situation appeared, -
because He had been given an example from people's everyday life.
Maybe we should also learn to do the same in Christian education, -
and also to learn to ask the youth what they think.
Otherwise they might also not learn to ask things from the older generation.
I was thinking of what you said. It is good and important to preach grace.
It is kind of the foundation of the Christian world view.
It is important to know our foundation, that Christ forgave our sins.
On top of that we will then build our lives, what do we do with them.
All ethical thinking arises from those questions, -
like what to think on sexuality, which was mentioned at the insert.
It is something we need to talk, discuss and have a dialogue on.
It's not that I proclaim from here: "Try to behave yourselves!"
These are also value choices on what do we want to teach, -
because not all things are "mediasexy".
They might not be generally accepted as topics, -
and when you try to talk about them some people think -
you want to shape the way the others think in a wrong way.
This is also one reason to why we don’t want to teach on everything.
It is true, but if you think what kind of world young people live in, -
everyone has a cell phone and unlimited access to e.g. porn -
and other material that is contrary to Christian image of man and God's will.
If the church remains silent about these things, we are in trouble.
We must be able to respond to the challenges of this age.
But statistics show that it happens. Churches don’t talk much about this.
Even though you said that there are good examples, -
far too often these matters are not addressed at all, -
and this is something that should change.
Also the parents probably expect this from churches -
because they too are often quite helpless with these issues.
Many parents don’t have a clue of where their kids are surfing online.
The church should, and it should also equip the parents -
to have these conversations so it wouldn't be just up to the youth pastor.
As you said, Tommi, we grow into wisdom though dialogue.
You have three adult children.
What is the latest wise thing you learned from them?
I prepared for this conversation asking our teenagers yesterday -
why life is so difficult or is their life difficult.
They said that they do feel anxious about the constant choices, -
choosing a profession and entering into the working life.
I'm not sure if I learned anything, -
maybe that it's very important to use even mealtime conversations -
to encounter our own children, no matter how old they are, -
and to discuss with them about how they see the world.
In my opinion it is important to have a dialogue across generations.
In the old days the elderly passed their wisdom to the youth -
as they had experience and a slow enough pace.
I'm not talking about chimneyless huts -
where kids gathered around the rocking chair, -
but we have lost something of this.
Adults no longer pass their wisdom to the youth, -
and the youth cannot pass on the energy and knowledge they have.
It is true that we don’t have enough interaction between generations.
People might visit their grandparents and meet some other people as well, -
but for example at church different age groups are very separated.
They divide already at the foyer.
Yes. But how could we encourage genuine interaction?
If I think of my own growing up, -
there have been elderly people who saw the need to invest time on me.
They didn’t necessarily have a three-point agenda -
of things they wanted to pass on to me, -
but they wanted to spend time with me and felt that it was valuable.
And when the relationship had been built they could tell something, -
and I was also able to ask questions and tell my ideas on things -
that an elderly person might not be able to take into consideration.
But all this doesn’t work if we don’t have natural contacts.
Does this process Arno described work in your life, Tommi?
Of course I'm of another generation than my kids -
and I've always cherished my relationship with them.
All education and transfer of values happens in a relationship.
For us it has always been important to visit the grandparents and relatives.
We spend evenings and weekends with them and heat the sauna, -
and grandpa teaches about traditions. I value and want to cherish that.
But not everyone has such family ties. - That's true.
The problem is, where else could one get something like this.
And I don't think that family relationships a such are enough -
because then the transfer of faith and values is limited to the family circle -
even though it should widen so that the child or young person undestands -
that this isn't just something their family thinks.
That’s true. Nonetheless I think we have such a wide gap here -
in the educational mindset of families that are already at church.
We should first fix that or at least invest on that as well -
that the parents would be able to and willing to -
transfer the knowledge of God to their own kids though relationship.
After that we of course need to include those who don’t know Jesus -
who have a huge need for family and spiritual parents -
if they come to church from a family that has no Christian background.
They have to be somehow intergrated -
into the church family and learning together.
So we're talking about discipling -
or more about the lack of discipling in our culture.
Yes, getting the Biblical world view rooted into the new generation.
It's not done by having the greatest light show and we can never afford -
to have such great lights and sounds as the commercial operators.
But we as churches have a community where you can grow to know God.
That is our selling point.
Thank you Tommi and Arno for this good discussion together.
Wisdom doesn’t develop in us overnight.
In addition to information we need a common journey with others -
and addressing the difficult topics. Let's try to be updated in this -
so that we could raise the children and the youth for a wise life.
In the next episode we ask -
are we constructing connections between generations.
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English translation: Anni Lähteenmäki / TV7