Teens need to belong.
We have worked hard at NRCC to create an environment in which they can. We challenge the mindset behind teenage cliques, making sure the environment for them is safe, and that each is comfortable and affirmed being their truest, even goofiest selves.
This has created quite a diverse group. Teens hang out with people they wouldn’t tend to associate with at school, and find great value in one another’s uniqueness.
Then we teach them the fundamentals of spirituality. We teach them what it means to live an authentic spiritual life. In the context of being loved and affirmed, we teach them to walk the spiritual journey with companions, finding God better together than they do alone. We talk about teen-relevant struggles, and consider together how a spiritual person handles those struggles, offering them life-long practices for the journey.
And we have fun.
We go to lunch together on Sunday afternoons. We do community service together. We do fun, relationship-building events each month, and two or three times a year we take a trip together.
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